Zalman Shoval, who served as Israel's ambassador in the United States, thinks that Barack Obama's second term as U.S. President will not see a deterioration in Israel-U.S. relations, and that in fact, these relations will improve.
"After Obama's reelection, the Administration and the policy are still in a formative state," Shoval said, "but it is already clear that the doomsayers in Israel and the American press who said that Obama would seek revenge against Israel did not know what they were talking about.
"We see the U.S. Administration's support for Israel in the Security Council, for example, with regard to construction," he noted, "and with regard to our latest operation in Gaza, Pillar of Defense…"
"There are many common interests between the U.S. and Israel, and there are also disagreements. I think Israel is operating correctly when by not putting on hold the important and strategic goals of the state of Israel. This creates the basis for understandings in the future."
Shoval thinks the next four years will be a better period for U.S.-Israel relations mostly because of the pressure created by the Muslim uprisings in the Middle East and the Iranian threat. "I see Israel and the U.S. getting closer now, in that Obama has adopted several of Netanyahu's red lines."
Shoval said construction in the E1 area of Jerusalem is a good thing, even though it "angers the world, and mostly Europe, which wants to see a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital, and every action like this endangers that possibility."
"Israel has no objection to a Palestinian state and what guides policy is the security matter," he explained.