"'In a moment of crisis, when people are fearful, they are looking to authorities to reassure them, and they are willing to give leaders additional tools to manage chaos and limit risk,' said Daniel Shapiro, a fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. 'The danger is that these tools that exceed the limits of the normal democratic system may not be returned after the crisis is over. That’s the balance [...]

"Israel’s March 2 election will likely leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm at least for the coming weeks, even if he is simply leading a caretaker government. But although he once again heads Israel’s largest political party, the prime minister, whose corruption trial begins on March 17, is now more exposed than ever before to challenges to his continued tenure. "In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, released in the final weeks of the [...]

"'People ask me if there is a collapse of bipartisan support for Israel. I don’t think so. But I do think there is a rise in partisan tension about what it means to support Israel. Those are not the same thing. I’ll be at AIPAC engaging in conversations with people from a range of backgrounds and with a variety of views, including some that differ from my own. I expect to find a lot of consensus around support for a close [...]

"'[Kushner] understands that an immediate move by Israel to annex these territories will pretty much strangle those efforts to recruit Arab support in the crib,' says former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro. 'That left Netanyahu a little bit hung out to dry, but he had to make an adjustment to this now more definitive U.S. position...' "'Trump would not have rolled this plan out when he did if he didn't think it would provide some benefit to Netanyahu. But it [...]

"'The plan is largely a dead letter but the facilitation of the unilateral steps that it will bring about is really what could change the situation quite dramatically,' said Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President Obama and visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv..." Read the full article here: Full Article

"'There is an enormous amount of sharing of intelligence,' said the former ambassador. 'Israeli intelligence has high-quality technology; Israeli technology is high quality; joint training – our forces training with Israel and learning from them as they learned from us. Benefits and this relationship flow both ways. And so, in that regard, the US assistance program to Israel is not an act of altruism. While it is certainly generous on the part of the American taxpayers, and we should feel good [...]

“‘It doesn’t significantly affect the breakout timeline, but Fordo has always been one of the most sensitive aspects of the nuclear program because of its hardened, underground nature and the difficulty of destroying it,' said Dan Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel and current fellow at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies think tank. “‘The danger is that this is one important, symbolic step that will be followed by more,' Shapiro told The Times of Israel on Tuesday [...]

"Daniel Shapiro, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said American military support largely deals with longer range threats from Lebanon, Syria, Iran and, in part, the Gaza Strip, with little impact or influence on Israeli policies and actions in the West Bank. “‘If, tomorrow, we said none of our funds could be used to support annexation, we could still provide the same amount,' he wrote in an email to [...]