Reply #49: 'Not being from the USA' - where are you from?

[LeftishBrit]

I'm not American or Israeli, but from another close ally of the USA, and I know what close relationships between America and another state (mine) are like, and how they can lead to harm to both countries if they have the wrong leaders supporting each other in the wrong way. But that doesn't mean that either country is running the other or responsible for its general foreign policy. As America is bigger than Britain or Israel, it has relatively *more* power.

Israel is even more of a 'client state' of the USA than Britain is, due to its dependence on American military aid. Under Bush and Olmert, they had pretty similar interests. Under a more liberal American president and more RW Israeli government, their interests are diverging. Netanyahu may have to choose between throwing in his lot with the xenophobic-isolationism of much of the Israeli Right (including far-RW parties on which Netanyahu depends for survival), at the risk of 'biting the hand that feeds him' abroad, or co-operating with America at the risk of his long-term survival. As the leader of a sovereign state he has the right to make either choice, but not to assume that he can have it both ways. For the sake of peace, and of both Israel's and Palestine's long-term interests, I hope that he makes the second choice.