Political support for the Jewish state has long been a broadly bi-partisan issue in America—and a multi-denominational issue in the American Jewish community. Yet the nature of the Israel question in America seems to be changing, as witnessed in recent debates over the Iran nuclear deal and over various anti-Israel efforts at the United Nations. Why is the left becoming more hostile toward Israel, and why is the right becoming even more committed to standing with the Jewish state? And what do these ideological shifts mean for the future of pro-Israel advocacy?

Hon. Elliott Abrams

The Honorable Elliott Abrams is the chairman of Tikvah, as well as chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition and senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He served as special assistant to the president and NSC senior director for the Near East and North Africa in the first term of George W. Bush, and as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the second term. In the Trump administration, he served in the State Department as special representative for Iran and for Venezuela. He is the author of Undue Process (1993), Security and Sacrifice (1995), Faith or Fear (1997), and Tested by Zion (2013), and writes widely on U.S. foreign policy, with special focus on the Middle East and the issues of democracy and human rights. His most recent book is Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy After the Arab Spring (2017).