The US-Israel relationship needs a reset. Here’s how to do it. – Atlantic Council

The US-Israel relationship needs a reset. Here’s how to do it.  Atlantic Council

A new Israeli government could offer a chance to reset strained relations with Washington. TEL AVIV—As Israel prepares to hold parliamentary elections on October 27 and the United States its midterm elections a week later, there is an increasingly evident paradox in the relationship between the two countries. On one side of the ledger, the alliance has proven its full strength in recent years. That has included the security and diplomatic support of two US administrations of different parties. Both the Biden and Trump administrations backed Israel after Hamas’s October 7 attacks, and President Donald Trump led the effort to free the hostages taken that day. In the campaign against Iran, the two countries’ militaries operated almost as a single force and fought wing to wing.

All of this was made possible by the historic achievement of the Abraham Accords. On the other side of the ledger, tensions between the two countries are growing. Gaps are emerging between the two leaderships. In Israel, the strategic tier of the national security establishment has been hollowed out, and support for Israel is eroding across American society. The paradox is all the more acute because it comes precisely when the two countries need each other more than ever, amid great-power competition, where strong and deep alliances will be essential, and at the dawn