Shalom, Haver

On the limits of friendship

I’ve been asked my views on the Biden Administration’s decision to hold up arms shipments to Israel.

This is not a politics substack, and in general, I shrink from offering assessments of policy matters beyond my ken. (When I’m not busy holding forth, I aspire to honor the adage of the Gemara: Teach your tongue to say, “I don’t know.” At least, I quote it often.)

But I do have very one strong take on this, which is that America owes Israel absolutely nothing. The relationship between our nations may be “special” but it is still a relationship between two sovereign states. America and Israel are allies — at best, friends — but we are not the same.

It is emphatically the province and duty of the elected government of a sovereign state both to determine what is in that state’s interests and to act on those interests and those interests alone. One can interpret interests quite broadly, as I tend to do, to include things like promoting a better, more peaceful and just world. Fine. But in a representative democracy, it is the government’s job to make such a judgment on behalf of its own people — not the people of another nation.

When Israeli politicians muse about who they’d vote for in the upcoming American presidential election, it turns my stomach. We’ve all had false friends like this, who seem to be offering us advice when in fact they’re looking out for number one. It’s one of the telltale signs that the friendship is bad news.

Now, I don’t think the alliance between Israel and the U.S. is bad news. I think, broadly speaking, the relationship has been beneficial to both nations (and has had its costs, as well). Sometimes you must bear costs for a friend. And it is inarguable that Biden has both in deed and word given support to Israel beyond any we could reasonably have expected. He has risked America’s global standing and his own electoral chances to support us. He has not only given us diplomatic cover in the U.N. along with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and arms, he has given the Jewish and Israeli people sorely needed emotional support, both in his speech in the immediate aftermath of October 7 and last week on Yom HaShoah.

When Biden concludes that his support is at an end, we should say loudly, clearly and sincerely: We thank you for your friendship in our hour of need, for all you’ve said and done for us. We now may need to go our separate ways. And that is because we are not the same and our interests cannot always be the same. But we remain your friend nonetheless.

It is beyond unseemly for pro-Israel commentators here and in the U.S. to stamp their feet in outrage, as though Israel has some natural entitlement to American support.

It is also bad for the Jews: The best way to head off accusations that American Jews place Israel’s interests before those of the U.S. is to acknowledge when those interests diverge.

We might consider, as well, that Biden is right about Israel’s interests. This clown car of a government has achieved unscaled heights of incompetence. It is not inconceivable that the Biden administration, having reviewed its plans for Rafah, took away our car keys with good reason.

Or it might be that Biden is simply succumbing to electoral pressures. Who knows? In any case, America’s reasons are its own to keep.

Like any friend, Israel must know that it is able to go it alone.