In recent years, Israel has evolved from a supplicant – benefitting from US generosity – to a strategic partner, benefitting vital US national security interests. From a national security consumer, Israel has been transformed into a national security producer.

In 2014, General Chuck Krulak, former Commandant of the US Marine Corps, remarked that “the formulation of US battle tactics is based on the Israeli book.”

In March, 2007, General John Craddock, the Supreme Commander of NATO, told the House Armed Services: “In the Middle East, Israel is the closest ally of the US, consistently supporting our interests through security cooperation.”
In July, 2003, Brig. General Michael Vane, Deputy Chief of Staff at the US Army Training and Doctrine Command stated that Israel’s counter-terrorism experience shaped the US war on terrorism.
The raging, anti-US Arab Street, the soaring threat of Islamic rogue regimes and terrorism, the collapse of Europe’s power projection, Turkey’s anti-US policy and the growing tension between the US and Russia – while the US defense budget undergoes drastic cuts – have enhanced the critical role of Israel (The “little Satan”) as the strategic outpost of the US (the “Big Satan”) in the Middle East.

In 2015, the pro-US Arab states tighten security cooperation with Israel in face of the clear and present danger of a nuclear Iran. In March, 2015, the editor-in-chief of the House of Saud-owned newspaper, Al Arabiya, stated: “President Obama, listen to Netanyahu on Iran.”

In 2015, US soldiers on their way to Afghanistan and Iraq are trained by Israeli counter-terrorism and urban warfare experts. US bomb squads travel to Israel, improving their explosives neutralizing capabilities. The US and Israeli air forces hold annual joint exercises, leveraging Israel’s intense battle experience.

In July, 2014, even CNN agreed that Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists advanced homeland security in the pro-US Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

In September, 2007, Saudi Arabia cheered Israel’s destruction of a Syrian-North Korean-Iranian nuclear plant, which dealt a blow to global terrorism and spared humanity the trauma of a nuclear Assad in 2015.
In 1982, Israel destroyed twenty advanced Soviet surface-to-air missile batteries, operated by Syria. Israel promptly shared its unique battle tactics with the US Air Force, providing the US military a significant edge over Moscow.
The 1981 Israeli devastation of Iraq’s nuclear reactor snatched the pro-US Saudi Arabia from the jaws of pro-Soviet Iraq, and spared the US a nuclear confrontation with Iraq in 1991.

On July 4, 1976, Israel’s Entebbe hostage-rescue operation was a turning point in the battle against Islamic terrorism, dealing a blow to America’s enemies and adversaries.

After the 1973 War against pro-Soviet Egypt and Syria, Israel shared with the US its battle experience, and transferred to the US captured Soviet military systems, which tilted the global balance of power in favor of the US and upgraded the research & development, exports and employment of the US defense industries.

In 1970, Israel’s power projection forced a rollback of the Soviet-backed Syrian invasion of pro-US Jordan. The Syrian invasion aimed at toppling the Hashemite regime, and then surging into Saudi Arabia, which would have given the USSR a dramatic triumph, while devastating US economic and military interests.

In the 1967 War, Israel obliterated the Egyptian military, aborting an attempt by the pro-Soviet Egypt to topple the pro-US Arab oil-producing regimes.

In 2015, Israel is the only stable, reliable, predictable, capable, democratic and unconditional ally of the US.

An Israel-like ally in the Persian Gulf would’ve reduced the US military involvement in the Gulf.

By: Yoram Ettinger