The Turkish political cartoonist Mikail Çiftçi is careful to draw both Israel government and American flags flying from the back of the tank. His cartoon reflects globally widespread belief about Israel being so closely backed by the United States that an American flag flying from its tank is considered an immediately graspable joke.

The global public is not wrong, not really. It’s obvious that in addition to financial and military support that gives the Israel government a “qualitative military edge” over regional powers, there is a profound level of diplomatic support and implicit, direct military backing. American political scientist John Mearsheimer described the situation thusly:

“[T]he key starting point is to understand that the United States and Israel are joined at the hip. That’s not going to change anytime soon. It’s in large part due to the Israel lobby. Here in the United States, the Israel lobby is a remarkably powerful interest group and it goes to great lengths to make sure that the United States and Israel are on the same page on almost every issue. It goes to great lengths to make sure that the United States provides Israel with unconditional support.”

John Mearsheimer, Talk at Global İlişkiler Forumu, Dec. 18, 2023 (YouTube Recording)

The big-picture issues (How to unravel years of bloodshed on both sides, and move beyond vengeance toward a positive future? Who has the best claim to various parcels of land? How to mediate the conflicting Israeli and Palestinian visions of the future?) are infamously difficult, and I’ve no shame in admitting that they are beyond me.

But the closeness of the U.S.-Israel partnership has a simpler, firmer lesson for the American citizen, for the voter in Congressional elections: one of responsibility. It means that at the very least, we must understand that when the Israel government commits severe war crimes, the world public will judge us responsible – and not always unfairly. This is simply not true when Hamas commits war crimes: the world does not see us as complicit in that case. The world will see us as at least partly responsible for what the Israel government does. Our national reputation and the reception of our passports will be affected. Our country may eventually stand with Israel in the dock in the International Court of Justice. In a Jan. 12, 2024 guest essay in The New York Times entitled “Don’t Turn Away From the Charges of Genocide Against Israel,” Megan K. Stack, a former Los Angeles Times Middle East correspondent, wrote,

“If the violence in Gaza is found to be genocide, the United States could be charged with complicity in genocide, a crime in its own right. Given the sheer power of the United States and its track record of international impunity, the odds of any significant consequences may be small — but, nevertheless, Americans should understand that the case is substantial and serious and that their own government is implicated.”

As Congressional election voters, we have agency; we are more than mere bystanders when we see events like famine, preventable epidemics, and thousands of civilians trapped under rubble. The ethos of responsibility can be mobilized to deliver humanitarian aid and limit indiscriminate attacks, without requiring any particular position on the large questions about the ultimate disposition of land, security, and sovereignty. American citizens, liberal and conservative, pro-Israel and pro-Palestine, ought to be able to unite to pursue these basic humanitarian goals. Indeed, with a commonsense emphasis on humanitarian values, the U.S.-Israel relationship can be healthier and Israel will be more secure, not less.