Washington – The Israeli government is enjoying a relationship with Washington it has not experienced in years, Ron Dermer, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, said on Sunday.
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“For the first time in many years, perhaps even many decades, there is no daylight between our two governments,” Dermer told a massive gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, opening its annual policy conference.
In brief remarks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s confidante in Washington thanked US President Donald Trump’s new ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, for “finally bringing some moral clarity” to the international body. He praised the burgeoning administration for supporting a regional peace initiative that would codify Israel’s tacit alliance with Sunni Arab states.
“We have a common desire for a safer, more prosperous and more peaceful future,” Dermer said. Trump’s top aides are eyeing a regional approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would draw on an alignment of interests between Israel and the Gulf states.
To that end, Dermer also suggested cooperation on Syria, where the Trump administration is still formulating its policy approach to a six-year civil war.
Israel and the US both agree that the “worst outcome” possible in Syria, Dermer said, would be if Iran established permanent enclaves there. “