COMMENTARY MAG
The Media’s Attempt to Drive a Wedge Between the U.S. and Israel
Seth Mandel
March 20, 2026

…It’s certainly true that Israel’s “brand” has taken a hit among U.S. voters. The Trump administration’s apparent contribution to that is based on three major examples in the CNN story. The first is Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s inartful answer to a question that was then chopped up by his critics and presented as proof that Israel dragged America into the war. The administration quickly cleaned it up, but there wasn’t much of a mess to begin with because the Trump team was clearly calling the shots from the beginning and anyone following the war knew immediately to dismiss any ginned-up rumor to the contrary. The second is Joe Kent’s resignation letter. As I wrote this week, the former counterterrorism official’s letter was so conspiracy-ridden that it accused Israel of being responsible for ISIS in Syria. So I chuckled when I read this part of the CNN story…READ MORE

FUTURE OF JEWISH Most Americans don’t realize how much they need Israel. When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced recently that Israel would achieve full independence from American military aid, the response in Washington should have been something closer to panic — not because Israel desperately needs America’s $3.8 billion annual check, but because America needs what that investment buys far more than Israel needs the money. Strip away the rhetoric about shared values and historical bonds, which matter but aren’t the point here, and you’re left with a cold strategic reality: American power throughout the Middle East depends almost entirely on having one absolutely reliable partner in a region where literally everyone else is either actively hostile to the United States or so unstable they might collapse and flip sides at any moment.