Time to rebuild Israel’s global relevance after Trump’s Middle East trip
How Israel can win back influence by solving real problems for a changing world
(First published on the Times of Israel, and available here in Hebrew)
Trump's recent trip to the Middle East should be recognized as an extremely dangerous strategic surprise revealing the precariousness of Israel's international posture. As Dana Weiss pointed out, until recently, the world thought the road to Washington, DC, ran through Jerusalem. Trump's visit broke that illusion, revealing Israel's lack of influence. An impression sealed by the cancellation of Vice President JD Vance's planned visit to Israel. Now, the world understands that to influence America they best go through Doha.
We can’t blame Trump for this one. Our current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made international relations his sole domain over his nearly 18-year reign. His strategy turned Israel into a partisan issue in America, alienating the Democrats, and turned Israel against Europe by aligning it with the European Far-Right. He worked against former President Biden and doubled down Israel’s identification with Trump, only to be ignored by Trump on Yemen, on Iran, on Syria, on dealing directly with Hamas. Yet another strategic conception by Netanyahu dashed against the rocks of history, leaving Israel injured and exposed.
Trump’s trip revealed that while we banked on our ‘special relationship,’ the Gulf rulers remembered the iron law of business: always provide value to your partner. While we focused on trying to Hasbara our justice and our pain, they focused on what’s in it for America: money, infrastructure for artificial intelligence, new markets to justify re-shoring of American manufacturing, secure regional forward bases, and a long-term commitment against China and its influence by reifying the American dollar and technology standards.
Israel now has two choices. We can whine and complain and try to explain away that America isn’t that important to our security and economic wellbeing (which would be lying), or we could make the case that Israel is the future. Because unlike the Gulf States, which are limited by their autocratic governments and lack of historical capacity to innovate, Israel can provide the US and the world the technologies humanity needs to overcome the great challenges of our age.
To make a credible case that Israel is the future and that the world needs Israel, we need to do a lot of internal work first. Before anything else, we need to replace this terrible government which has been strategically surprised again, and again, and again.
Second, we need a brave leader to stand before the world and, while justifying the justice of war against Hamas-ruled Gaza, to take responsibility for the mistakes made by our failed leadership. To lament the harm caused to innocent civilians held captive by their government and harmed when that same government did not surrender. To clear the air and declare a new path towards security, one that works through regional alliances to root out our enemies and starve them for resources, while reserving the right to preemptive strikes on our enemy’s offensive infrastructure.
Third, we will need to recognize that our relationship with the world cannot be based on what’s in it for us. It must be based on what’s in it for them. We need to understand the value proposition Israel serves for the great powers and our neighbors alike. In startup terms, we need to find our product-market fit.
We've known since the time of Golda Meir that Israel's value lies in its ability to provide breakthrough technologies to help societies solve intractable problems. Then, it was drip irrigation to feed the masses across the African continent. Now, it's cybersecurity and defense and healthcare breakthroughs that enable humans to live longer, safer lives. We need to identify the fields where we can double down on our unfair competitive advantage and invest in that advantage like our lives depend on it.
Then we need to build the capacity to deliver. This means rethinking how Israel itself is structured. Just as Qatar is organized to optimize natural resource extraction, Switzerland for trusted banking, and Singapore for high-quality professional services, we should think of ourselves as Silicon Valley on steroids. Instead of seeing ourselves as a generic, miniature nation-state, we should think of ourselves as a cluster of universities, research institutes, pioneering firms, and dynamic lived environments where humanity’s leaders can find inspiration and practical tools to solve the problems facing their people.
To build this world's campus, this living laboratory, we need our institutions to serve a political economy dedicated to advancing human capacity. A State investing in itself by investing in applied research and development, a nation exporting the knowledge for humanity to live the Good Life in a time of extreme change. Or, as our great book might put it, a kingdom of priests, a dedicated nation.
Israel will never compete with the Gulf on financial capital, no matter how many natural gas fields we find. We won’t compete with Ukraine or central African states on mineral rights for future chips and electronics. We won’t compete with Mexico’s manufacturing capacity. The only sustainable value Israel can provide the world, that which has set us apart for decades, that which leaders around the world yearn for, is our practical innovative capacity. It’s time that we start thinking about how to package that for the world to easily buy, ensuring we are never isolated again. Because, it would be a shame for them to miss out on all we can offer. Because Israel is the future.
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