In the Media

Ruth Pines-Feldman: The Trump and Biden administrations both viewed China as the main threat. U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East was meant to push back against China’s growing ties with American allies in the region, and as such, we may see the Trump administration pressure Israel to stop cooperation with China.

They clearly don’t like cooperation between Israel and China, but Israel, as a small and threatened country, did the right thing to keep up relations not only with the U.S. but with the other rising power in the world. The U.S. was right not to pressure Israel to cancel its contract with CRRC.

Israel needs to continue with its system of extra oversight for foreign companies working in major infrastructure projects in order to ensure that Israeli interests, including relations with the U.S., aren’t harmed. She also pointed to concerns about China’s close relations with Russia and Iran as a reason to be cautious.

We need to be careful about this and continue our special supervision mechanism, but it would not be good to cut off ties. We need to find a balance. Israel has to know how to handle both powers and use the competition between them for our own good. That’s the political game.

Published in Jewish Insider, June  6, 2025.