Friends With Benefits
Why the U.S.-Israeli Alliance Is Good for America
Article Summary and Author Biography
Critics of the U.S.-Israeli relationship overlook the substantial benefits it affords the United States, from advanced military technology to lucrative business ventures. They also overstate its costs, which have been limited.
MICHAEL EISENSTADT is senior fellow and director of the Military and Security Studies program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. DAVID POLLOCK is Kaufman fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. This article was adapted from their report “Asset Test: How the United States Benefits from Its Alliance with Israel.”
Snapshot
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed outrage at the refusal of the Obama administration to set “red lines” for Iran’s progress on its nuclear program. But it is Americans who ought to be incensed with Netanyahu. He is demanding that Washington do far more to protect Israel’s security than it does for any of its other allies.
U.S. soldiers stand next to a Patriot anti-missile battery west of Jerusalem. (Ronen Zvulun / Courtesy Reuters)
At the final presidential debate of the 2012 campaign season, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney mentioned Israel some 30 times, more than any other country except Iran. Both candidates called the Jewish state “a true friend,” pledging to stand with it through thick and thin. Some political commentators criticized these effusive declarations of support as pandering, suggesting that the candidates were simply going after Jewish and pro-Israel votes.
But if support for Israel is indeed such a political winner, then it’s at least in part because the voters know best. The U.S.-Israeli alliance now contributes more than ever to American security, as bilateral cooperation to deal with both military and nonmilitary challenges has grown in recent years. The relationship may not be symmetrical; the United States has provided Israel with indispensable diplomatic, economic, and military support totaling more than $115 billion since 1949. But it is a two-way partnership whose benefits to the United States have been substantial. The other, less tangible costs of the U.S.-Israeli alliance -- mainly, damage to Washington’s reputation in Arab and Muslim countries, a problem also caused by American interventions and decades of U.S. support for autocratic leaders in the Middle East -- pale in comparison with the economic, military, and political gains it affords Washington.
U.S.-Israeli security cooperation dates back to heights of the Cold War, when the Jewish state came to be seen in Washington as a bulwark against Soviet influence in the Middle East and a counter to Arab nationalism. Although the world has changed since then, the strategic logic for the U.S.-Israeli alliance has not. Israel remains a counterweight against radical forces in the Middle East, including political Islam and violent extremism. It has also prevented the further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the region by thwarting Iraq and Syria’s nuclear programs.
