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Yoram Ettinger

Yoram Ettinger

Yoram Ettinger is a former ambassador and head of Second Thought: A U.S.-Israel Initiative.

Riyadh is convinced based on the Palestinian track record that a Palestinian state would constitute another rogue anti-Saudi regime.
Islamic terrorism has been a systematic feature of intra-Arab and intra-Muslim politics since the 7th century. Western democracies cannot expect it to be kinder to the infidel than it has been to believers.
An Israeli retreat from the strategic Golan Heights would erode its posture of deterrence, turning Israel from a U.S. national security asset to a national security liability.
Israel’s control of the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria—the cradle of Jewish history—has transformed the Jewish state into a strategic ally of the United States.
America’s annual investment in Israel yields American taxpayers an annual rate of return of a few hundred percent, as well as enhancing U.S. national security.
By doing so, Israel would display not only open-mindedness, but also respect for Congress, which has systematically enhanced America’s ties with the Jewish state since long before 1948.
For most Americans, the Jewish state is not a generic foreign entity, but an integral part of the Judeo-Christian values that have shaped U.S. history, morality and culture.
Recent events have demonstrated how Israel’s existence bolsters the security of U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf and throughout the Middle East, countering Iran and enhancing the war on Islamic terrorism.
While the State Department establishment rejects U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman’s assessments, its abysmal track record in the Middle East indicates that it’s not the best judge of such matters.
For Israel, the most critical feature of defensible borders is their capability to fend off realistic (i.e., worst-case) scenarios.
In 2018, Intel Capital invested $120 million in 14 Israeli startups, out of a total of $400 million invested in 95 startups globally.
Israel’s retreat from the Golan Heights would have severely eroded Israel’s posture of deterrence, transforming the Jewish state from a national-security producer/asset (for the United States) to a national-security consumer/liability.