Ambassador Dennis Ross, the Co-Chair of the Jewish People Policy Institute and author of the recently released book on U.S. Israel relations, Doomed to Succeed, said in a public briefing convened by the Institute today that he foresees an erosion of support for Israel among American Jews, citing in particular the significant value the community places on an independent judiciary.<\/p>\n
He stated that a \u201cmajoritarian kind of rule\u201d in Israel, where 61 Members of Knesset can override the decisions of the Supreme Court will not be seen in an acceptable light.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging that most American Jews vote for the Democratic Party, Ross noted that \u201chistorically Israel was an American interest, not a Democratic or Republican interest. And from my standpoint, it’s in Israel’s interest that that remain the case. It’s also in America’s interests.\u201d The Jewish community in the United States has been a strategic asset of Israel not to be trifled with, not to be dismissed,\u201d he said.
\nRegarding the current state of U.S.-Israel relations, Ross would not describe the current situation as one of crisis, because President Biden \u201chas a deep emotional commitment to Israel, this is the only way to describe it, it’s instinctive \u2013 it’s in his guts. He also has a relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding some members of the new Israeli Government, Ross acknowledged that some ministers \u201cwho obviously have established positions over the years that raised some concerns.\u201d That is why, he said, Jake Sullivan, the American National Security Adviser, and then Secretary of State Antony Blinken will soon come to Israel to prepare for Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s upcoming visit to Washington. \u201cPresident Biden has raised some questions about what the direction of this government is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Ross maintains that the U.S. administration \u201cis not going to walk away from what it believes is necessary \u2013 a two-state outcome. This is an administration that is committed to that as kind of a broad, long-term objective; it’s also an administration that has not made this issue a very high priority.\u201d
\nRoss maintains that there is an understanding in Washington regarding Israel\u2019s position vis-\u00e0-vis Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine. \u201cThe reality is that the Russians established themselves as your neighbor on your northern border and put the S-400 in there. If suddenly they turn on the radars, your freedom of action against the Iranians in Syria looks very different.<\/p>\n
I think there is an appreciation of that within the administration.\u201d He suggested that Israel needs to continue to a better job explaining both what it’s doing with the Ukrainians and how it defines the limits within which it’s operating. \u201cI have found even in my own conversations on the Hill, there isn’t as much understanding there as I thought there might be for the Israeli position,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ross believes the Biden administration and Israel have a common Iran strategy because of what Iran is doing to its domestic public, but also because of what it is providing the Russians \u2013 that has a big effect on the administration and Biden in particular.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The relationship between President Biden and the new government is not likely to result in a major crisis in the U.S.-Israel relationship because Biden has a warm
\nspot in his heart for Israel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[164,163],"class_list":["post-8372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-american-jewry","tag-dennis-ross","post_format-post-format-video","topics-jews-in-north-america","library-press-releases"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8372"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13634,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8372\/revisions\/13634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}