Reader el left the following link:
Intelligence officials to Congress: Israel ‘crossed red lines’ in spying on U.S.
Newsweek quotes confidential briefings to Congress and says Israel’s massive spying is behind the failure to provide visa waiver to Israelis entering U.S.
[…]
The Newsweek article included very strong statements against Israel, verging on anti-Semitism. The writer, Jeff Stein, stated that “since Israel is as likely to stop spying here as it is to give up matzo for Passover, the visa barriers are likely to stay up.”
The link is from Haaretz, and that’s a publication with well-known and obvious biases but it does, in my opinion, raise an interesting issue of the changes we are witnessing in the US foreign policy. Of course, I’m not basing what follows in this post on this article alone. The Ukrainian debacle is more evidence that the developments I’m discussing are real.
The entire foreign policy of the US at the moment is that of a massive retraction, withdrawal into itself and away from high-level activities in the world arena. Old alliances are being quietly abandoned and the idea of “Why should we get involved if this doesn’t directly concern us anyway?” is fostered on every level.
Of course, as we say in Russian-speaking countries, a holy space never remains empty. Somebody will step in to fill the void and will become the #1 World Super Power. To me, with all the immense flaws in its foreign policy of the XXth century, the US is better in that role than any of the possible contenders, so I’m not very happy at this turn of events.
This development will entail a profound transformation of the US national identity and lead to a much greater degree of internal political, class and cultural polarization (because that’s how identity works). The level of economic well-being will suffer, too.
I’m not saying that this transformation in the US foreign policy is good or bad per se because nothing is either good or bad. It’s just something that is going on, and we need to analyze it to be prepared for the changes that lie ahead.
These are my predictions. What are yours?
Clarissa's Blog 
The US is not actually changing any policies towards Israel here. It is instead keeping the visa requirement for Israelis that already exist. Rather than being any move towards isolationism this looks like standard immigration and travel policies being maintained rather than liberalized due to long standing (dating back to the Pollard case) security concerns by the US.
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Let’s not look at this case in isolation but as part of a larger trend.
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“This development will entail a profound transformation of the US national identity and lead to a much greater degree of internal political, class and cultural polarization (because that’s how identity works).”
Could you expand on that?
Perhaps it’s in US’s interests not to isolate Russia with sanctions. I know you don’t like him, but Ian Welsh had an interesting thought about that.
http://www.ianwelsh.net/the-prelude-to-the-end-of-the-american-era/
“If the sanctions are imposed, for whatever reason (Russian invasion or not), they will force the creation of a second economic, non-dollar bloc. Russia is not Iran, and China is not going to cut off Russia to please the West, rather the contrary. The creation of a real non dollar bloc which can make almost anything people want, and which has access to essentially all key resources from oil to rare minerals, metals and food is an existential threat to the hegemony of the West and its allies like Japan and Korea.”
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“Russia is already planning how to survive economic sanctions: how to sell its goods in rubles. People will buy, Russia is too big a producer to ignore. If Europe doesn’t want the growth which comes from using Russian gas and oil, well, China and others will be happy to take it.”
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Ian Welsh is too funny in his complete ignorance of what he chooses to babble about. Putin has been very open about his efforts to create a non-dollar bloc for at least 5 years. Obviously, these efforts are in no way linked to much more recent US “sanctions.” People are so poisoned by Americanocentrism that they will disregard any evidence showing that somebody somewhere in the world might do something not in reaction to the US.
China can, indeed, manufacture most of consumer goods. Russia can manufacture absolutely nothing. And Russia considers China a real and immediate existential threat in a way it doesn’t see US. If Russia’s actions have been at all reactive, the reaction has been for years to China and not to the US. Russian demographers predict the loss of the greatest part of Russia’s territories to China within 50 years. Whether these predictions will come true or not is less important than the credence they are given in the top echelons of Russia’s power.
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I heard on radio that Israel is negotiating with Japan about working holiday visas (?) for Israelis. I am sure about “travel and work in Japan” component, but wanted to check “visa” component and couldn’t find it on Internet. In short, Israel tries to have a relationship with other countries too.
As for spying, don’t know whether you have heard:
“Recently leaked U.S. documents indicating that the National Security Agency was spying on Israel’s leaders during Ehud Olmert’s term as prime minister appear to confirm Israeli suspicions – that the U.S. government had been keeping tabs on then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak from a nearby apartment, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday.
The paper reported that in June 2007, shortly after Barak was appointed defense minister, Israeli security services noticed that American officials had rented an apartment on Pinkas Street in Tel Aviv. The apartment, which overlooks Barak’s apartment in the luxury Akirov Towers, was equipped it with an extensive amount of electronic equipment that might have been used for surveillance.”
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.564780
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On page 44 in the above link I found the differences between post-WW2 Jews returning to Germany vs “victimised” Austria, about which post-War success to distance itself from any blame you’ve recently written. Fascinating staff.
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