Seeking to reverse decades of diplomatic isolation, and in response to increasing hostility from Western Europe, Jerusalem in recent years has cultivated better relations with a variety of states, including some with unsavory rulers—ranging from the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. While such a policy has provoked sharp criticism in some quarters, Seth Cropsey and Harry Halem explain that a small country like Israel does not have the luxury of disdaining potential allies, and, moreover, continues to do much to support American interests and with them the “liberal international order,” such as it is. Take the fraught case of its relations with Russia:

According to recent reports, American nuclear negotiators in Vienna have expressed willingness to roll back significantly sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, a major power outage at the Iranian nuclear facility in Natanz—thought to have been caused by Israeli sabotage—has set back Tehran’s progress in producing the fuel necessary for an atomic bomb. Eran Lerman examines the relationship between these developments: