Why Israel won’t listen to the United States

I’ll be blogging more on the particulars of what I’m  learning just as soon as I sort out the on-the-record/off-the-record rules here.  However, as I see the U.S. trying to jawbone the Israelis and Palestinians into direct negotiations, I will point out one thing I’ve learned so far:  Israelis are not really in the mood to listen ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

I'll be blogging more on the particulars of what I'm  learning just as soon as I sort out the on-the-record/off-the-record rules here.  However, as I see the U.S. trying to jawbone the Israelis and Palestinians into direct negotiations, I will point out one thing I've learned so far:  Israelis are not really in the mood to listen to American advice on how to deal with their security threats.   

I’ll be blogging more on the particulars of what I’m  learning just as soon as I sort out the on-the-record/off-the-record rules here.  However, as I see the U.S. trying to jawbone the Israelis and Palestinians into direct negotiations, I will point out one thing I’ve learned so far:  Israelis are not really in the mood to listen to American advice on how to deal with their security threats.   

Readers might find this puzzling, given the political fallout from the 2002 West Bank incursions of Operation Defensive Shield, the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, and the recent flotilla flare-up.  The Israeli response to this is multifaceted, but a big part of it can be distilled to the following: 

Let me see if I’ve got this straight.  Your country has been fighting two wars for the past seven years at a horrible cost to the local populations and with over 4,000 Americans dead.  At present, one of them is going very badly and one of them is going slightly less badly.  No matter how harshly you judge the past decade of our military operations, our longest military operation lasted little more than a month.  Do you really think you’re in a position to offer us strategic and/or tactical advice? 

Readers are warmly encouraged to think up a snappy comeback to that talking point — because I had nothing.   

The United States might be able to pressure Israel into changing its policies.  The power of United States persuasion, however, is pretty much nil.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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