The issues that pose the greatest challenge to strong American Jewish-Israeli ties are not the oft-cited left/right matters such as settlements or access to the Kotel.
With no grand solutions either violent or peaceful at hand, the IDF's preferred option remains conflict management. At its core lies the old, ugly but useful concept that has always been central to Israel's security doctrine: deterrence, writ large.
The same terrorist methods developed and used by the Palestinians against Israeli civilians for years are now being employed by ISIS against Europeans: car-rammings, stabbings, and suicide bombings in public spaces.