Lapid: Democratic Victory in Alabama Shows Why Israel Must Seek Bipartisan Support in US
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by Barney Breen-Portnoy
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. Photo: Yaniv Morozovsky via Wikimedia Commons.
Democrat Doug Jones’ win over Republican Roy Moore in Tuesday’s special Senate election in Alabama showed why Israel must seek bipartisan support in the US, a top Israeli politician said on Wednesday.
Yair Lapid — an ex-finance minister whose centrist Yesh Atid Party currently sits in the opposition in the Knesset — tweeted, “The Democratic victory in Alabama, which followed the victories in Virginia and New Jersey, signals Democratic momentum. Israel must regain for itself a supra-party status in the US. The total identification with the Republicans displays shortsightedness.”
הנצחון הדמוקרטי באלבמה, שבא אחרי הניצחונות בוירג׳יניה וניו ג׳רזי, מסמן תנופה דמוקרטית. ישראל מוכרחה להחזיר לעצמה את מעמדה העל-מפלגתי בארה״ב. הזיהוי המוחלט עם הרפובליקנים מראה קוצר ראות.
— יאיר לפיד (@yairlapid) December 13, 2017
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu often hails the backing Israel receives from America’s two main parties, he has in recent years been accused by critics — both at home and abroad — of too closely aligning his country with the right-wing in the US.
In an interview with The Algemeiner earlier this month, Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay — a rival of Lapid’s on the center-left of the Israeli political spectrum — said, “At the end, we should always be bipartisan. This is one of the goals of our relations with America. We are not a part of your politics, and you are not a part of our politics. So we should be bipartisan and put effort into that. We should not rely on one administration, because administrations change all the time. It’s a risk that Israel cannot take.”
