Pre-US Election Day Thoughts  

As the US barrels forward to election day on Tuesday, permit me to share some thoughts from the perspective of a dual Israeli-US citizen who has lived here for almost 41 years.

In my humble opinion, no matter who is elected on Tuesday, nothing significant will change vis-à-vis America’s approach to Israel.

Regardless of who sits in the White House after next January, it is clear to me that there remains strong support for Israel across America, the anti-Israel demonstrations of the past year notwithstanding.

Tonight, for example, at the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, the 5,400-seat sanctuary will be “standing room only” for their 44^th annual Night to Honor Israel. The headquarters facility of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) located there, will host an outpouring of support and love for our country, a love that is shared by CUFI’s more than10 million members nationwide, making it the largest Zionist organization in America.

On the defense front, the ten-year, $38b defense package signed into law as the Obama administration came to an end still has a couple of years to run. The $3.8b annual “subsidy” is not a cash gift to Israel, but money that has to be spent by Israel purchasing material from US suppliers, effectively supporting thousands of jobs in America. There has been no move to curtail that, and there won’t be as it is a huge benefit to America’s defense sector.

In addition, for the US Department of Defense, Israel is a critical ally that functions as a live field-testing facility for US defense products, given that we seem to be constantly fighting, either a full-scale war as at present, or regular skirmishes between wars. The US has no other ally that can provide the operational intelligence that comes from testing weaponry in actual combat. No administration really wants to lose that benefit.

For sure, from time to time a president, any president, will send a warning to Israel about something, either for what the president believes are legitimate reasons or to respond to “noise” from a constituent sector. History has shown, however, that those threats are rarely carried out. Today’s news talks about President Biden issuing a 30-day ultimatum to Israel to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza or suffer a reduction in American arms supplies.

While whatever humanitarian crisis actually exists in Gaza does need to be addressed (as do all the other such crises around the world that people seem to care less about) the Biden administration has gone out of its way to make it possible for us to fight this war, to protect us when indiscriminately attacked by Iran (which looks like it might happen again in the next days), and to convince American allies to support us as well. So, while the threat will give temporary succor to the Arab-American community in the runup to the election, I have no doubt that the arms supply will continue as long as needed for us to wind down this war, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Finally, what Israel has done over the last eight weeks to eliminate the leadership of both Hamas and Hezbollah as well as to take out Iran’s air defense systems, is work that the West should have done on its own but was very happy to let our people fight those battles and have our troops pay the ultimate price. While we do not have any expectations of thanks for this effort, no incoming president will do anything to make us vulnerable. Both parties understand that for the moment, we are the first line of defense protecting the west from the threat to world order that is…..Iran.

Therefore, the obligation of the American voter on Tuesday is to elect the person deemed best for America independent of their stand on Israel which, like many campaign promises, will fade from view after the elections. Hope that all of you reading this there will make the right decision.