The End of the Special Relationship?

For those inclined to see the workings of Divine Providence in human history, the special affinity of the American people for Israel provides a happy example. If Israel could have only one consistent ally in the world, it would surely have picked the world's (still) most powerful nation. Without the United States, Israel would be hard pressed to obtain the weapons needed to defend itself.

In Western terms, America is a Center-Right country. A major aspect of the American exceptionalism discussed by historians is its refusal to develop a class-based political movement. Belief in American exceptionalism has always played a major role in American civic religion. The two dominant conceptions of American foreign policy — isolationism and internationalism — are both predicated upon it.

Senator Barack Obama represents a third foreign policy approach — what Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington calls the "cosmopolitan." Far from taking American virtue as its starting point, the cosmopolitan seeks to remake America in Europe's image. Thus Senator Obama presented himself to Europeans last summer as a citizen of the world, one of them. "Mr. Obama," in the words of Fouad Ajami, "proceeds from the notion of American guilt"...

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