Analysis: Recent U.S.-Israeli Tensions Based on Cultural Misunderstandings

The recent tensions between the Obama administration and Israel are based upon cultural misunderstandings. If U.S. decision makers understood Israeli culture and mentality, Ya’alon’s statements would not be so offensive to them. A basic understanding of Israeli culture by U.S. decision makers could enhance Israeli-American relations.

Last week, Samantha Quint wrote an article for the Foreign Policy Association titled “Once again, Israel’s Ya’alon Offends U.S. and Offers Apology.” In this article, Quint noted that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry personally called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to express that he was upset that Israeli Defense Minister Ya’alon delivered a speech at Tel Aviv University stating that the U.S. showed “weakness” related to Iran and the Ukraine.

U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki furthermore called his comments “not constructive” and stressed that the Obama administration is concerned about a “pattern of comments” from Ya’alon. In the past, Ya’alon referred to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as “messianic” and claimed that he had an “incomprehensible obsession” with trying to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In the wake of all of this, Ya’alon told U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel: “In my words, there was no opposition or criticism or intent to harm the United States or the relationship with the US.” Nevertheless, even after Ya’alon clarified his comments and reaffirmed his commitment to the U.S.-Israeli relationship, JerusalemOnline News reported within the last week that a senior level U.S. official expressed that the Obama administration has difficulty trusting Ya’alon and didn’t find Ya’alon’s clarifications sufficient.

“We’re certainly disappointed that he didn’t apologize,” U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Marie Harf told the Blaze. “His comments just don’t reflect the true nature of our relationship with Israel.”

However, all of these criticisms from the U.S. administration related to Ya’alon’s comments reflect a lack of understanding of Israeli culture and mentality. If the U.S. administration understood Israeli culture and mentality, perhaps Ya’alon’s comments would not be so offensive to them.

In Israel, it is considered a virtue to tell people what you think, regardless whether your comments were solicited or not. Israelis believe that voicing their concerns to those that they care about shows that they value the other person. To be silent when something disturbs them demonstrates apathy, which from the Israeli perspective, is a horrible attribute. From the Israeli point of view, if you see someone you care about making numerous mistakes in the international arena, it is your duty to voice your concerns so that the other side will be aware of the problem and have the opportunity to fix their mistakes.

Many Israelis view the Obama administrations’ foreign policy to be very weak and this has numerous negative repercussions in the international community, since the United States is the leader of the free world. Due to Obama signing off on the Russian-American agreement related to Syria, not only has Assad managed to continue to slaughter his own people in a horrendous democide and still hide many chemical weapons, but moderate forces in the Free Syrian Army have been significantly weakened. Al Qaeda and other Islamist groups have gotten stronger at their expense, mainly due to the Obama administrations’ appeasement attitude related to Syria. If the United States had decided to assist the Free Syrian Army in overthrowing Assad, the situation would likely be the reverse.

In regards to Iran, the Islamist regime in Tehran has economically benefited from keeping most of their nuclear program intact. They have even been able to advance their nuclear capabilities as the sanctions are eased. Meanwhile, human rights abuses continue within Iran unabated as numerous political dissidents under Rouhani’s leadership have been executed. The plight of religious and ethnic minorities, homosexuals, Iranian women’s rights activists, the State of Israel, and many others have been sacrificed just so that the U.S. won’t have to directly confront the Ayatollah’s regime, which could have been overthrown by the Iranian people themselves by now had Obama given inspiration to the Green Movement back in 2009 instead of remaining silent.

Equally outrageous, the United States administration supported the Muslim Brotherhood staying in power in Egypt, merely because they were initially democratically elected. The fact that they ruled in a brutal undemocratic fashion, crushing opposition newspapers, encouraging female genital mutilation, and promoting hatred of Christians and Jews in their media didn’t change the Obama administration’s perception of them. To the contrary, many Egyptian pro-democracy activists were very supportive of overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood and wanted Sisi to be in power, viewing him as an improvement over Morsi. This didn’t affect US administration policy. In fact, the Jerusalem Post reported this week that Egypt’s execution of 529 Muslim Brotherhood terrorists would affect future U.S. aid to the North African country.

Meanwhile, Iran builds nukes as sanctions are eased. Syria is on the brink of self-destruction. Egypt fights an internal struggle between Islamists and secularists. The entire Middle East region burns up in the flames of the Arab Spring, as the Obama administration is preoccupied with forcing Israel to release Palestinian terrorists with Jewish blood on their hands, just so the Palestinian Authority will agree to extend the peace negotiations.

While resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is important, compared to other Middle Eastern problems, in this period of history, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a rather marginal issue. Yet, the Obama administration remains adamantly focused on this subject, even if it means pressuring Israel to release terrorists in exchange for a couple more months of talks without the Palestinian side giving any significant concession in return. The Palestinian Authority has still not recognized Israel as a Jewish state under any borders and routinely praises violence against Jews in their media.

Given these world events, many Israelis active in social media have passed around a meme showing Obama condemning Russia for their actions in the Crimea (see photo to the right). Underneath the picture of Obama, a picture of Putin and Assad hugging each other and laughing is displayed. It conveys the message that if the U.S. administration is feeble on Syria, weak on Iran, on the wrong side of the fence in Egypt, too preoccupied with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the neglect of numerous other pressing issues, and thus, the U.S. will also not be effective related to the Crimean crisis.

Considering all of these facts, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was merely telling the United States, a strong Israeli ally, that he believes that their government is making numerous mistakes that have negative international repercussions. He is telling the U.S. this so that they can change course and fix their mistakes if they want to. Most importantly, he is telling the U.S. these things because he cares about the U.S. and the free world. If he didn’t care, he would be silent.