Israel Is Playing on the Global Stage Now, and Its Strategists Need to Act Like It

I was gratified to read the three thoughtful responses to my essay, “Israel and China Take a Leap Forward—but to Where?’’ Two of them, by the distinguished American policy experts Elliott Abrams and Dan Blumenthal, generally agree with my main thesis—namely, that Israel’s growing relations with China could potentially compromise its major alliance with the U.S. The third, by the Israeli national-security expert Eran Lerman, offers a carefully argued rebuttal of that same thesis, a defense of Israel’s current policy toward China, and, in an unexpected twist, a counter-thesis—namely, that rather than contradicting or undermining American interests, Israeli policy actually advances those interests.

I should also mention in passing that my essay has met elsewhere with both praise and occasional harshness, with one author going so far as to liken my position to that of the anti-“Israel lobby” demagogue John Mearsheimer. No comment necessary.

In what follows, I deal mostly with Lerman’s well-reasoned response, summoning reinforcement along the way from Abrams and Blumenthal.