The issues

I agree with you that there are other issues that American Jews should care about besides Israel. In addition, I’d point out that anyone who thinks they can predict a) what a candidate’s Israel-related policies will be, b) what actions the candidate will actually [be able to] take to further those policies, and c) what effects those actions will have on Israel; is fooling themselves. Nobody knows what the future of geopolitics will bring, and that future is going to nearly dictate every foreign policy position and implementation that the next president will adopt. The Israel piece of it is likely to be affected by everything else (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China) rather than the other way around.

That said, I’d like to suggest the one US policy theme that I think is most likely to have a predictably positive impact on Israel’s security: alternative energy technology. Israel’s enemies are mostly petro-dictatorships or are funded by them. The higher the price of oil goes, the more money they have to buy weapons and recruit and train soldiers and terrorists, and the more diplomatic clout they have on the world stage.

The US’s ability to impact the price of oil and therefore the wealth of Israel’s enemies lies chiefly in reducing oil consumption. The US consumes 25% of the worlds oil but produces only 9% of it, and regardless of whether we hand power tools to infants, the reserves just aren’t there to increase the US’s share of global production all that much. However, improvements in transportation and energy technology could make a huge dent in US consumption. In addition, technological innovations, unlike extracted oil, can be copied or licensed by other oil-consuming countries, such as China, thus multiplying the effect on the price of oil.

Of course, no one is going to base their energy innovation policy on what’s good for Israel. They’re much more likely to be swayed by the US’s energy independence concerns, environmental arguments, and their relationships with energy companies. But I think that by looking at the candidates’ emphases during the campaign and their parties’ respective predilections toward government spending for science and innovation, we can make an educated guess about which candidate is likely to do more to spur innovation and strike a real blow at our enemies’ swollen bank accounts.