Impact of US elections in Mideast

by Daniel Pipes
Thu, 9 Nov 2006
updated Sat, 11 Nov 2006

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Question asked of Jerusalem Post columnists: "What impact, if any, will the results of the US midterm elections have on US policy towards Israel and the Middle East?" For all replies, see "Burning Issues #11: Impact of US elections in Mideast"

In every full democracy, the legislative branch mostly enjoys power in domestic affairs, while the executive branch predominates in foreign policy. The United States is no exception; especially with the virtual disappearance over the right to declare wars, Congress has a distinctly secondary role in formulating America's role in the world. Its main domain is that of taxation, pensions, welfare, and the judiciary. One vivid example of this: Congress has long tried to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but has never come close to succeeding.

Therefore, I expect the changes from this week's mid-term elections to have only minor impact on U.S. policy in the Middle East, including Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. This is especially the case given:

The stagnant quality of Arab-Israeli relations;
The war on terror having only a minor Congressional dimension;
The debate over Iraq having more sting and anger concerning events of 2003 than events of 2007; and
The almost complete presidential prerogative when it comes to responding to the Iranian drive to build nuclear weapons.

By extension, I expect that the internal conservative debate over George W. Bush's profligate spending will have more of a long-term impact than the parallel debate over his decision to go and uproot the Saddam Hussein regime. (November 9, 2006)

Related Topics: US policy, US politics

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Reader comments on this weblog entry

Title	By	Date
impact of us elections [36 words]	jon purizhansky	Nov 26, 2006 12:04
Middle East& Election [23 words]	Clifford Ishii	Nov 20, 2006 22:30
impact of us elections [163 words]	Jon Purizhansky	Nov 19, 2006 11:13
mid-term course-adjustment [678 words]	paulmurphy	Nov 15, 2006 17:04
How will the recent elections impact Israel and the incendiary Middle East? [93 words]	marion d s dreyfus	Nov 13, 2006 03:02
Impact of US Elections on Mideast [162 words]	dsRon	Nov 12, 2006 11:12
↔ Israel Will Take Care Of Business [114 words]	skmiller	Nov 13, 2006 14:08
Bush Terminates the "Bush Era? [260 words]	Prof. Paul Eidelberg	Nov 12, 2006 00:31
The end of US foreign policy [230 words]	Kenneth S. Besig	Nov 11, 2006 17:12

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