"Despite record levels of US military assistance to Israel under the Obama administration, the state of US-Israel relations has worsened, not strengthened, in recent years," Chen Kane, Seth Carus and Nima Gerami wrote for the National Interest.
This process cannot be reduced to personal enmity between outgoing US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"At the core of this tension are fundamental differences in threat perceptions, strategic prioritization, and policy options for confronting unprecedented change in the Middle East," the analysts said.
For its part, Israel was in for a rude awakening when Netanyahu found out that the Obama administration launched talks with Iran and was apparently determined to reach a deal on Tehran's nuclear program despite Tel Aviv's concerns on the issue. Israel views Iran as the key security threat.
"The signing of the Iran nuclear agreement last year widened US-Israeli strategic differences and contributed to a growing perception, shared by Tel Aviv and Gulf Arab capitals, that the United States is tolerating Iran's antagonistic role in the region at the expense of its traditional allies," the experts noted.
The nuclear deal also came at a time when Washington appeared to be intent on disengaging from the Middle East and focusing on Asia.
"As a result, Israel has discovered that its strategic interests are more aligned with those of the Sunni Arab world and Turkey than with the United States," Chen Kane, Seth Carus and Nima Gerami said. "Israel's recent outreach to Gulf Arab states and Turkey is emblematic of their shared sense of abandonment by the United States and a common interest in developing new security relationships to compensate for what they all see as a US desire for rapprochement with Iran and a reduction of America's footprint in the region."
This is not to say that Washington's strategic alliance with Israel will become weaker. Analysts agree that it will most likely remain strong in the coming years, but it does not mean that relations between American and Israeli leaders will drastically improve.
According to a recent survey released by Mitvim, the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies and the Global Political Trends, Israelis wanted the government to breathe life into the peace process with the Palestinians and improve relations with other countries, particularly the US and moderate Arab nations.
