The Day after America: Leaving a Door Open for China Is Not the End of the World

The uproar over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s traveling to China and the talk about the visit's harming relations with the U.S. is misplaced. Drawing closer to the Chinese can neutralize threats by Iran against Israel at a time when no one can guarantee that the Americans will continue to stand behind us.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention to go to China and, immediately, there was an outcry from every side: “To replace the U.S., our greatest and only friend, for China?” Settle down. This is not currently happening. The emphasis is on “currently.” Today, the U.S. has no real interest in the Middle East and, of course, not in Israel. Soviet Communism fell apart in the 1990s; the U.S. is producing its own oil and gas; it is productively competing in the Middle East and after six failed and exhausting wars (Korea, Vietnam, Iran 1 and 2, Afghanistan and the Islamic State group), the Americans are shortening the list of red-line issues.

But still, at the moment, they are required to fulfill their agreements with us, agreements that will run out before the end of the decade. Except for the economic interest of exporting huge American security armaments to the Middle East, through which they have benefited from our conflicts and fears, the U.S. no longer has any palpable interest in being the big, unconditional, supporting sister to Israel. Netanyahu administrations in past decades have contributed to this in a defiant and accelerated manner, but the U.S. has a much greater and important question to answer regarding the battle for global hegemony.

The judicial overhaul in which we find ourselves is deeply entrenched in the abyss that was created and continues to be created; perhaps the Americans will release the brake one day and say to us: “Enough. If we have no shared interests and values and if the American Jewish community overall is not with you (you are to blame!), then goodbye. You are on your own. We’re leaving.” If and when this day arrives, then what?

Israel is like a warplane that took off from an aircraft carrier and can harm whatever its pilot wants, but he must return and land, refuel, resupply and take off again, this according to what the command of the aircraft carrier allows and wants. However, what will the wretched pilot do if his ship changes direction and willingly moves away from him whereby he will no longer have a place to land? Then, and only then, another aircraft carrier, with power, command and determination will likely offer us a different price for its services. This is China, nothing else. Despite the reticence by all of us fearing Chinese domination, China should be recognized.

In my book, “Tomorrow the Desert Heat Will Be Broken” (Kinneret Zamora Bitan 2017, and in English, Amazon 2019, “The Critical Offer”), I proposed thinking of a future advancing this possibility. The idea is to exploit the nexus of interests between China, the U.S., Israel, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. This nexus will allow a freezing of the conflict between us and the Palestinians and between us and the Iranians for a long period of time, at least 100 years in exchange for leasing state governmental lands here to China, and rapid development of these territories by China — for example, like leasing Chinese Hong Kong to the British in the last century. This leasing agreement did great good for all those involved and a similar, but different, lease will likely do great good for many in our region and for us. There are advantages for Israel with this kind of initiative in which Israel will become an ally of China. We will receive in the package deal the neutralizing of the Iranian nuclear threat along with the threat of Iranian missiles and proxy forces around us.

In the book, I identify mutual interests along with dangers, risks and apprehensions and the many advantages for those involved in the initiative. In the book, I describe processes and decisions that all participants in the initiative must accept in order to gain all the advantages. However, the basic idea of the book carries good news: We have raised the issue of planning and leaving the door open to the Chinese. Power does not last forever. No one has guaranteed that the Americans will stand behind us even in the 22nd century. This type of preparation is not done with populist exclamation. Therefore, we need a completely different leadership to transform Israel into a state for all its citizens with an Arab majority and bring an end to the Zionist vision of Theodor Herzl. The future toward which we are galloping is either a multi-front war with an Iranian atomic bomb dropped on Israel or war that is delayed at least 100 years. Afterward, other governments and other free citizens can determine our future.