Herzliya, Israel

The first full day of meetings at the Herzliya Conference in Herzliya, Israel began on Monday, aptly enough, with a panel discussion entitled “Still Special? U.S.-Israel Relations.” The fact that the organizers even had to pose the question intimated that something was amiss, but surprisingly, the majority of the panelists ignored reality and argued that the relationship was not threatened. This was perhaps due to the fact that two of them were representatives of the governments in question. The others sounded a note of caution about jumping to conclusions too early in Obama’s presidency despite concerns in Israel about the Obama administration’s Middle East policy ranging from its engagement with Iran to its pressure on Israel to compromise aimed at furthering the peace process.