Field Dossier: Two Middles

The extremes converge on Israel. The moderate cores diverge — and the architecture built for a shared middle cannot reach either one.

Israel didn't lose the Democratic Party over Gaza, Netanyahu, or the settlements — no matter what Rahm Emanuel tells Bill Maher. It was sorted out, by the same partisan mechanism that already processed climate and immigration, and the sorting apparatus does not negotiate. The most American-fluent prime minister in Israeli history still got trapped, AIPAC is defending ground that already moved, and Ukraine ran the whole arc from hero's welcome to partisan stalemate in twenty-eight months. Israel runs eight to twelve years ahead of Ukraine on that clock, and the architecture that could replace the broken bipartisan method hasn't been built.

Israel was not abandoned. Israel was sorted.

The Israel Brief is the Mitzpe Institute's read on Israel and the region — most mornings, Sunday through Thursday. More at mitzpe.org.