Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday evening saluted the “shared values that bind Americans and Israelis together …”
Celebrating Israel’s 71st independence day, Pompeo continued, “Since Israel’s declaration was issued in 1948, the Jewish State — in the face of so many challenges that we all know — has developed into an inspiring example of a free, democratic, and prosperous nation. Its population has exploded to more than 9 million citizens today.”
Pompeo is right about that. Israel is a phenomenal democracy born from the ashes of a terrible cruelty.
But friendships require candor. And here, Pompeo missed out one important thing: a light (it was an independence day event) rebuke of Israel’s increasing support for China.
Introducing Pompeo, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, observed Israel’s world-leading expertise in cutting edge technologies. Pompeo, Dermer said, “knows how important technology is to ensuring that America remains the preeminent power in the world, and how important Israeli technology has become in a world driven by innovation.”
Dermer’s words required Pompeo’s riposte. Because while Israel is most certainly a world leader in high-technology product development, it is also an increasingly close partner to Chinese foreign policy. In accepting vast Chinese economic investments in return for access to proprietary technologies, Israel is directly assisting the greatest challenge to U.S. international order in the 21st century. China has an interest in Israeli technology for a reason: because that technology enables Beijing’s improved repression at home and its strengthened threat abroad. But while Pompeo has rightly and openly challenged America’s closest allies for supporting Chinese technology interests, as with last night, he has been silent on Israeli action. That needs to change.
Israel is one of our closest allies, bonded by shared sacrifice and values. But China is America’s foremost adversary. America needs better friendship here. And it’s in Israel’s interest to recognize that truth. Absent that friendship, China might one day destroy the U.S.-order so instrumental to the creation and continuation of Israel’s democracy.
