Is Israel Abandoning the Liberal Order? Robert Kagan Says Yes. He’s Wrong about Israel, and Wrong about the Liberal Order

Late last week, with a view to the then-upcoming Israeli elections, a very long, 7,000-word essay appeared in the Washington Post under the portentous and ominous-sounding title “Israel and the Decline of the Liberal Order.” Its author, Robert Kagan, is a distinguished historian and analyst of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and a regular writer for the Post. Given the essay’s unusual length, and the high reputation of its author, one had reason to harbor hopes of an objective, in-depth look at Israel’s geopolitical situation, its choices, and its strategic outlook at this critical moment in time.

Unfortunately, for all its length, Kagan’s essay offers a defective, superficial, and misleading account of the “liberal order” and its decline, yoked to a confusing, unjust, and somewhat nasty attack on the state of Israel and its current leaders, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Let’s take this from the top, beginning with Kagan’s fast-and-loose way with his own terms.