We noticed that within the last week the theme du jour relating to U.S./Israel diplomacy in much of the mainstream media was how world leaders used flattery in their dealings with President Trump. Typical was the New York Times story headlined, “Playing the Man: Global Diplomacy in the Trump Era Is All About Flattery.”
The Times went on to describe Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent nomination of the President for the Nobel Peace Prize: “The flattery was as obvious as it was effective. Seated at a dinner table in the Blue Room of the White House on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel handed President Trump a piece of paper. ‘I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize committee. It’s nominating you for the Peace Prize. It’s well deserved and you should get it.’”
That said, The Times went on to comment. “The effort to curry favor was the latest evidence that many of the world’s leaders have figured Mr. Trump out. Heaping praise on the American president is the best way to manage him – even if it’s not entirely clear that the shmoozing leads to concrete benefits for their countries.”
The Times goes on to quote a professor of modern political history who said Trump has reshaped global diplomacy: “We’ve often thought of diplomacy as this big broad endeavor. It’s about institutions connecting with one another. In this instance, they’re playing the man. This is how it works. You come with gifts, you offer homage of sorts, in order to gain the respect, the support, the favor of the head of that court.”
But this sort of analysis is not as harmless as The Times and the others present it. In fact, it suggests that President Trump is not always motivated by what is in the best interests of the United States in his dealings with other world leaders. Indeed, in the case of his interaction with the Israeli Prime Minister – toward which President Trump has been uncommonly supportive – it comes perilously close to intimating an unholy alliance.
In truth, though, as recent events in the Middle East demonstrate, the relationship between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu was a function not of them complimenting each other but rather of their respective militaries complementing each other in meeting a shared challenge.
No matter how much the media may try to spin U.S. collaboration with Israel as artificial, it really is grounded in hard assessments of national interests. In these days of rampant antisemitism and anti-Israel incitements, it’s important to keep the record straight.
