Should there turn out to be no Palestinian partner for the American peace initiative, consideration should be given to leveraging US President Donald Trump’s friendship for Israel into a unilateral political initiative, to mitigate the danger of a slide into binational statehood that would threaten Israel’s Jewish-democratic identity.
At the same time, Israel should strategically plan for the continual erosion of US willingness to invest in the Middle East, to be present and to lead regional stabilization and calm-promoting efforts. As part of these preparations, and given President Trump’s demonstrated friendship, consideration should again be given to advancing a long-term, contractual strategic alliance with the US. Such an alliance would of course have disadvantages, but given the emerging reality, and the opportunity to leverage the President’s friendship for an agreement that would serve Israeli interests, it is worth reconsidering the cost-benefit balance of such a measure.
