President Donald Trump’s first visit to Israel is an opportunity to underscore that “the U.S.-Israel relationship is strong,” a former U.S. Treasury Department official said Friday.

Jonathan Schanzer, now the senior vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Israelis were “happy” that Trump chose to reciprocate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington in February so early in his presidency.

The visit will help Israel show that the U.S. is a “close ally,” Schanzer said in a call hosted by The Israel Project, which publishes The Tower.

Schanzer dismissed concerns that differences between the two governments would generate much friction during the visit. “The professional relationships — military to military, intel to intel — were always the bedrock of the relationship and helped the Israelis and the United States weather the storm from the last eight years,” he observed.

Schanzer also acknowledged Israeli skepticism over the Trump administration’s apparent enthusiasm for renewed Israeli-Palestinian talks. Based on past experience, the weakness of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the lack of accountable institutions, and divided governance, the Israelis see “a low likelihood of success” from such talks, he noted.

Nonetheless, Schanzer observed, “the Israelis are already talking about releasing a plan for economic inducements for the Palestinians, looking for ways to loosen restrictions on travel, trying to make life in the West Bank a bit easier to provide some concessions up front, and some plans up front that would allow the Palestinians to feel that they’re making some progress.”

While the Israelis may have misgivings generally about negotiations, they will pursue these measures because “have trust in this process or at least trust in the Trump administration,” Schanzer added.

I mean the fact that the Trump administration is actively engaged in trying to deal with the Iranian threat and to roll back what the Israelis see is the damage that was done from the JCPOA, from the Iran deal, is a huge difference maker for them and it has bought just a ton of goodwill from the Israelis. Same with the U.N., with the cover of the U.N. Obviously that’s a huge difference from what we saw at the end of the Obama administration when they lowered the shield and allow for a deeply anti-Israel resolution to go through. You know the problem of Syria, the fact that the administration is now actively targeting the Assad regime and its allies is a significant development for the Israelis. So from a strategic perspective they feel much safer.

A complete recording of the conference call with Schanzer is embedded below.

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