TEL AVIV — On May 20, 2011, inside the Oval Office and before the cameras, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu lectured President Barack Obama. During a period of almost daily crises in U.S.-Israel relations, the incident was the closest the two countries came to a total breakdown.

I was then Israel’s ambassador to the United States and had a ringside seat to the clash. It left a deep impression on me, underscoring the importance of interpersonal relationships in the shaping of foreign policy. It taught me the degree to which the leader of a small and dependent state can publicly challenge the head of a patron superpower. And it showed me the crucial need to correctly read the geopolitical map—to know what “cards” a country like Israel does and does not hold.

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