“Because of Obama’s hesitation American deterrence capability has been damaged, and as a result, Israel’s deterrence capability has also been damaged.” This is the appraisal of former Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who served from 2002 to 2006 as Israel’s ambassador to the United States. Today Ayalon is a private businessman, after he was removed from the Yisrael Beiteinu list by party chairman and former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on the eve of the last election [January 2013], and was forced to leave politics.

Ayalon has long been closely familiar with American politics and foreign policy. During his term as ambassador in Washington, the United States went to war in Iraq, and Ayalon coordinated its cooperation with Israel. In an interview with Al-Monitor he analyzes the influence President Barack Obama’s conduct in the Syrian crisis has had on Israel and on deterrence against Iran.

He also attacks his rival, Liberman, who served as foreign minister from 2009 to 2012, for his attempt to build a strategic partnership with Russia, which acted in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the last crisis and has opposed Obama’s proposed military strike. According to Ayalon, Liberman’s foreign policy focus on Russia was a personal caprice of his, lacking in logic and contrary to Israeli interests.

Danny Ayalon, after Obama’s capitulation, is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right when he says, “If I am not for myself who will be for me”?