Anthony Cordesman, the military analyst for network television, says that Israel has become a "strategic liability," in a Center for Strategic and International Studies site, i.e. establishment organ. I heard about this last night at an event in NY; Michael Hirsh of Newsweek brought the Cordesman article up with Dan Senor at a neocon hoedown. Hirsh said that Walt and Mearsheimer had said the same thing and even though they wrote a "really bad book," the idea has begun to "seep into" the conversation. Senor pooh poohed the idea, he said, oh you hear this every five years or so. "People scratch their heads and do a version of Walt and Mearsheimer."
No, everyone is saying it. It’s a pileup–from the Mossad chief to David Petraeus to Helen Thomas. More below: Cordesman tells the tail to start being nice to the dog:
It is time Israel realized that it has obligations to the United States, as well as the United States to Israel, and that it become far more careful about the extent to which it test the limits of U.S. patience and exploits the support of American Jews. This does not mean taking a single action that undercuts Israeli security, but it does mean realizing that Israel should show enough discretion to reflect the fact that it is a tertiary U.S. strategic interest in a complex and demanding world.
Israel’s government should act on the understanding that the long-term nature of the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship will depend on Israel clearly and actively seeking peace with the Palestinians—the kind of peace that is in Israel’s own strategic interests. Israelis should understand that the United States opposes expansion and retention of its settlements and its efforts to push Palestinians out of greater Jerusalem. Israeli governments should plan Israeli military actions that make it clear that Israel will use force only to the level actually required, that carefully consider humanitarian issues from the start, and that have a clear post-combat plan of action to limit the political and strategic impact of its use of force. And Israel should not conduct a high-risk attack on Iran in the face of the clear U.S. “red light” from both the Bush and Obama administrations. Israel should be sensitive to the fact that its actions directly affect U.S. strategic interests in the Arab and Muslim worlds,
