The State Department has recently embarked on a ruthless campaign of pressure on Israel in seeking Israeli concessions and the only reason obviously is the perception that Prime Minister Yair Lapid as a centrist is “weak” and therefore amenable to diplomatic extortion. Interestingly, the State Department largely refrained from pressuring former prime minister Naftali Bennett due to the correct perception that pressing him for concessions was extremely unlikely to be successful. This illustrates that the international community only respects Israeli strength as any sign of perceived “weakness” on the part of Israeli leaders leads to instant foreign pressure. Hence, making concessions is dangerous because it only leads to demands for even more reckless concessions that harm vital Israeli interests.