US election outcome will be win-win for Israel
Whether this week’s US election is won by Trump or Clinton, Israel will have a better relationship with America, according to Maj-Gen (res) Yaakov Amidror.
WHETHER this week’s US presidential election is won by Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Israel will have a better relationship with America than it did under the current administration, according to Maj-Gen (res) Yaakov Amidror.
A former national security adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and currently the Rosshandler Senior Fellow at the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies (BESA), Amidror was in Australia headlining a group of senior analysts for the Be’er Sheva Dialogue, an annual -military-to-military exchange facilitated by BESA, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
“If the behaviour of Americans is kind of a pendulum, no question that Obama took it to the one extreme,” Amidror told a media briefing hosted by AIJAC on Friday.
“[Clinton] will move it. How much she will move it to the centre, I think that even she doesn’t know.”
He said the time between the election of the new president and their taking office will be an important juncture for analysts to understand the fabric of the new administration, in particular the people that will come with it.
“It is very important for sure if it is Trump, because of his inexperience. But it’s also true about Hillary, which people she will bring with her,” he said.
If Clinton is elected, Amidror said the outcomes for Israel will depend less on her personal persuasions and more on the events that she may be faced with – for example, how Russian President Vladimir Putin moves forward, what the Chinese are preparing in the South China Sea, and what transpires in Saudi Arabia.
“As for personal relations, there are many Israelis who have good relations with her. We know her very well, [but] I think at the end of the day it’s not the personal relations, it’s the issues of interest which are more important,” he said.
But he noted that, pleasingly, an agreement has recently been signed stipulating America’s support of Israel for the next 10 years.
He said that in this light, there is nothing that can prevent Israel and the United States from cooperating.
“If someone is sitting in Washington, when you look at the Middle East, you see only one anchor of stability. And this is the State of Israel. And it’s not just stability – it’s stability with which you can cooperate as an American and you can trust.”
He added that what is also crucial in the continued constructive relations between the two countries is the decision taken by the founders of Israel that the nation would defend itself on its own.
“At the end of the day the cornerstone of our relations is the ability to say to the Americans, we don’t ask for American soldiers to do the job for us. We will do the job, whatever the price,” Amidror said.
PHOEBE ROTH
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