After the elections: The next government must take one step
An opinion column by Avi Gil in Maariv, calling on the next government to prioritize repairing relations with the United States and American Jewry. Gil describes a "strategic triangle" that has cracked, criticizes Netanyahu's policy that favored the Republican camp and alienated liberal Jews, and warns against three illusions: hasbara, symmetry, and "Bibi understands America." He calls for a national unity government that will set a political horizon for the Palestinians and adopt the values of the Declaration of Independence.
An opinion column by Avi Gil in Maariv, published the day after the elections, calls on the next government to prioritize repairing relations with the United States and American Jewry. Gil describes a "strategic triangle" comprising Israel-US relations, American Jewry-US administration relations, and Israel-American Jewry relations, and argues that alarming cracks are evident in it. He sharply criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu, who he says chose to side with the Republican camp, fuel the transformation of Israel into a controversial partisan issue, and alienate the majority of American Jews who hold liberal views. Gil warns against three illusions: the illusion of hasbara (campaigns that do not address the core friction points such as harm to democratic norms and the lack of a political horizon), the illusion of symmetry (Israel is existentially dependent on the US and cannot act with chutzpah), and the illusion that "Bibi understands America" (after Jared Kushner was sent to Cairo to negotiate with Hamas). He calls for the formation of a national unity government that is not held hostage by the extreme right and the ultra-Orthodox, a willingness to chart a path to resolving the Palestinian issue, and the adoption of the values of the Declaration of Independence: the rule of law, separation of powers, judicial independence, and individual and minority rights.