All Policy Analysis by Chuck Freilich

Two former policymakers discuss whether the longtime allies can move beyond tactical responses to their strategic challenges in the region.

On December 4, 2007, Chuck Freilich and Geoffrey Kemp addressed a Washington Institute Policy Forum marking the release of Mr. Freilich's new Institute paper Speaking about the Unspeakable: U.S.-Israeli Dialogue on Iran's Nuclear Program. The author, the Institute's 2007 Ira Weiner fellow, teaches at Tel Aviv and Harvard Universities; previously

The United States and Israel have long shared a "special relationship," but significant obstacles may exist to a substantive and comprehensive bilateral dialogue on issues related to the Iranian nuclear threat. On particularly sensitive issues, sovereign nations are loath to discuss openly their intentions and capabilities, even with their closest

Despite the longstanding and ever-evolving "special relationship" between the United States and Israel, the two allies do not appear to have engaged in substantive discussions on key facets of their most pressing mutual concern, the Iranian nuclear threat. Specifically, there has been little if any dialogue on the possibility of