Q & A: FIVE SHORT ANSWERS TO VERY BIG QUESTIONS:
1. WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES SUPPORT LITTLE ISRAEL WHEN THE ARAB AND MUSLIM WORLDS ARE ABOUT 180 MILLION TIMES LARGER?
America bases its foreign policy, Barack Obama said, on “our interests and our conscience.” Israel and America belong to the small global club of functioning democracies. Both are among the few democracies rooted in biblical values with catalytic, idealistic visions – “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” “to be a free people in our homeland.” Beyond their congruent values, they share common enemies, especially in the Middle East: Iran’s Islamic Republic has long defined Israel as “Little Satan,” and America as “Great Satan.” History has further consecrated this U.S.-Israel alliance, anchored in overlapping values, interests, and challenges. Decades of two-way friendship culminated in the many ways America helped Israel defend itself after October 7, and the many American enemies Israel then defeated. The seamless cooperation in June 2025, continued in 2026, against Iran’s nuclear threat epitomized this reciprocity. True, occasional disagreements arise, and warning clouds are forming. But America’s good policy move has usually proven popular too. Since the 1990s, Gallup Polls consistently showed two of three Americans supporting Israel – until recently.
2. HOW DID AMERICA AND ISRAEL BECOME SUCH CLOSE ALLIES?
The alliance developed over time. In 1947, the Soviet Union and the U.S. competed for the future Jewish State’s friendship as the Cold War emerged. Initially, America wouldn’t sell Israel armaments. Then, America only supplied defensive weapons. By 1967, France was Israel’s biggest arms supplier. Even then, both democracies were intertwined emotionally, ideologically, and politically. Since France betrayed Israel in 1967 by imposing an arms embargo, and Americans realized Israel’s military and diplomatic contributions, the relationship has flourished. Every president experienced some tensions with Israel. But the cooperation, and the identification of the two democracies as sisters – not twins – keeps growing, diplomatically, militarily, and overall, politically. That’s why, during presidential campaigns, Republicans and Democrats alike have traditionally insisted that their candidate is “best” for Israel.
3. WHEN ISRAEL AND AMERICA HAVE CLASHED, HOW DID THEY RESOLVE IT?
Two countries’ agendas will inevitably diverge sometimes. Little Israel faces huge dilemmas triggering internal clashes, let alone disagreements with allies. The greatest tensions have been tactical not existential. As Israel’s President Isaac Herzog told a Joint Session of Congress: “I respect criticism especially from friends, although one does not always have to accept it,” and such criticism “must not cross the line into negation of the State of Israel’s right to exist.” Most flashpoints erupted when America tried wooing the Arab world, and when presidents trusted various Palestinian peace processes more than wary Israelis did. Yet no rupture resulted. Presidents from Gerald Ford to Joe Biden occasionally slowed arms shipments to pressure the Jewish state. Still, the countries keep resolving the tensions. Most dramatically, Ronald Reagan sold the AWACS radar system to Saudi Arabia in 1981, then blasted Israel for bombing Iraq’s nuclear reactor and launching the 1982 Lebanon War. Yet, Reagan helped rewire the Republican Party as enthusiastically pro-Israel. Sometimes, however, most recently under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, relations remained solid but increasingly brittle – leaving lingering resentments.
4. WOULDN’T ISRAEL AND AMERICA BE CLOSER IF ISRAEL JUST SOLVED THE PALESTINIAN PROBLEM?
Israeli and American policymakers have clashed occasionally regarding the Palestinian issue – while anti-Zionists have exploited the issue to bash Israel. The Gaza War intensified tensions, even alienating some American Jews still trusting a two-state solution. Yet, the bonds uniting both governments and peoples remain strong. Palestinian terrorists’ sabotaging of the Oslo Peace Process, Hamas’s hijacking of the Gaza Disengagement, its October 7 invasion, Hezbollah’s rocket attacks, and Iran’s missile barrages, proved Israel cannot make peace unilaterally. It’s also apparent that anti-Zionists hate Israel for what it is, not what it does. Critics abandoning Israel because of the “Palestinian problem” often overlook many Palestinians’ problem with Israel’s existence.
5. WHAT BENEFITS HAVE AMERICANS RECEIVED FROM INVESTING SO MUCH IN THIS SMALL, EMBATTLED COUNTRY?
Israel wants American arms, not bodies. America’s calculus flipped during the 1973 War. The U.S. resupplied an Israel reeling from the Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack. Then, Israel’s swift comeback provided the Pentagon with warehouses of Soviet weaponry and insights from Israeli tactics defeating Arab fighters using Soviet weapons. That exchange converted America’s military community. Former skeptics suddenly appreciated Israel’s flow of intelligence, technology, expertise, and experience. America’s F-16 jet fighter incorporated over 600 Israeli-initiated modifications, saving the manufacturer Lockheed Martin billions in research-and-development dollars. The former chief of Air Force Intelligence General George Keegan called Israel’s contribution to U.S. intelligence “equal to five CIAs.” The late Senator Daniel Inouye, who chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee, said “The intelligence received from Israel exceeds the intelligence received from all [28] NATO countries combined.” Diplomatically, Israel has been a reliable, self-reliant, American ally from the Cold War, through the Age of Terrorism, until today. Waves of Israeli medical, pharma, and high-tech breakthroughs, including many war-time innovations, keep benefitting America, while saving American lives at crash sites, in emergency rooms, and on battlefields.
Imagine living in Lebanon, Kansas, the midpoint of America’s land mass. You log off your computer, whose microprocessor the Intel Haifa team developed, snack on cherry tomatoes, adapted by Hebrew University scientists, and hop into your car. Waze – an Israeli technology – guides you around the construction near your office, while a Forward Collision Avoidance system and EyeQ from Mobileye, founded in Jerusalem, help you dodge that crazy driver barreling toward you. Alas, the driver hits a tree. His car explodes. You, a medic, bandage him with the “Izzy,” a product developed by an Israeli combat medic – while knowing that in Gaza, Israeli medics treated many soldiers using the gel the doctors will use, NexoBrid. This pineapple-based burn treatment hastens healing by eliminating dead skin quickly. Finally, back driving, listening to a podcast analyzing the jihadists’ war against America, you marvel: how lucky America is to have Israel, that DIY – Defend It Yourself – Ally.
Similarly, imagine living in Jerusalem, between Washington and Lincoln streets, which you pronounce Link-o-len, but whose ideals you live in this democracy daily. You have an errand at the American Embassy. You pass Liberty Bell Garden, established on America’s 1976 bicentennial, honoring the U.S.-Israel partnership, featuring a replica of Philadelphia’s big, bold symbol of freedom. Two blocks further is Martin Luther King, Jr. Street. Adjacent to the U.S. embassy is President Donald Trump Square, honoring his 2017 recognition of Israel’s right to pick its own capital, and Jews’ 3,000-year-old ties to this city, also called Zion. You’re listening to a podcast detailing how Americans, left and right, supported Israel after October 7, marveling at how lucky Israel is to have the world’s great superpower as its best friend.
When Harry Truman recognized the Jewish State in 1948, few could have imagined how much support the United States would give Israel – the Americans initially refused to sell the new embattled country any weapons. But as hard as that was to imagine, it was downright inconceivable that this small country of 600,000, surrounded by tens of millions of hostiles, would flourish into a regional military power, and a high-tech super-power, that has done so much to improve the lives of everyday Americans.
No doubt, tensions will continue to come and go. But the many dividends both Israelis and Americans obtain from this partnership, will continue paying off far into the future.