The wrong Goliath: Israel vs the USA

Thomas O'Dwyer, 26 March 2010

THE Hebrew legend of the confrontation between a young Israelite (David) and a Philistine warrior (Goliath) is deeply woven into the national psyche of modern Israel. Indeed, it is often cited as a metaphor for the country's survival since 1948. In recent weeks the analogy would appear to have been turned on its head.

For if the target of the Biblical David was a dangerous enemy, little Israel - even before the astonishing row with the United States that erupted during the visit to Israel of US vice-president Joe Biden - has begun to aim slingshots at the foreheads of its powerful friends. There was a bizarre public humiliation of the ambassador from Turkey, Israel's only close friend in the Muslim world; the affair of the cloned passports used by a (presumably Mossad) assassination team in Dubai, which has so far led to Britain’s expulsion of an Israeli diplomat; and as if those were not enough, a petulant snub of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on his first visit to Israel, by foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman.

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