It's Not About Israel

Reading Steve Clemons and Ben Katcher in the Washington Note tee off on Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu, it's quite easy to see why Israeli attitudes are hardening against the Obama administration (and, by extension, any short-term prospect for peace).

Clemons compares Benjamin Netanyahu to former Soviet Premiere Khrushchev and insists that Obama must "politely crush" Netanyahu. Katcher describes the Israelis as "immature" and unable to act in their own best interest.

What's interesting to me is how much this view is the mirror image of neoconservatism in that it endorses the view of Israel as an American client state in the Middle East. Notice that nowhere do Clemons and Katcher argue that the Obama administration should veto any congressional appropriations for Israel. Instead, they expect to browbeat and threaten the Jewish state until it gets in line.

But why do that? If you believe, as Clemons apparently does, that America's security interest are being harmed by Israel's behavior, then wouldn't the simpler route be to change America's involvement in that behavior? After all, we don't have a mandate to tell the Israelis where to build houses, but we do have a mandate about how we dispense taxpayer dollars.

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