Despite Disagreements, US and Israel Remain Important Allies
Recent tensions notwithstanding, the mutually beneficial nature of the relationship remains unchanged
This past Friday, the United Nations Security Council, by a vote of 14–0, passed Resolution 2334, condemning, “the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes, and displacement of Palestinian civilians,” by the Israeli government in, “the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967,” land that includes East Jerusalem, as the document specifically stated. This resolution was able to pass as a result of the Obama Administration’s decision to abstain from the vote, renouncing its right to veto the resolution, a right available to all five permanent members of the Security Council and the use of which has been the policy of the United States regarding most United Nations legislation regarding Israel for decades. This development indicates escalating tensions between the current administration and the Israeli government. Yet despite this current disagreement — which has been sensationalized thoroughly through media coverage and general punditry — the US-Israel relationship remains strong, and of vital importance to both nations.
This relationship remains strong because it is an alliance that transcends any disagreement over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It transcends such disagreements because, geopolitical controversies aside, the partnership between the two remains a strategically beneficial one for both, enshrined in unbreakable military, economic and ideological ties.
Militarily, the US and Israel are engaged in what would be rightly categorized as pure symbiosis. This is because while the United States helps provide the qualitative military edge over Israel’s enemies that keep Israeli citizens safe, the product of that investment in Israeli defense is Israeli technology that comes back to the United States and immediately finds a place in US defense systems. For example, the Iron Dome missile interception system was extremely important in keeping Israelis safe during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, saving countless lives during that short conflict. The highly complex defense system was developed in Israel with more than $1.3 billion in foreign military financing (FMF) from the United States since 2011. While Iron Dome was developed in Israel, using American dollars, in the end, the technology developed there is now actually returning to America for use by the US military. This frequent kind of transaction between the US and Israel — development in Israel using US FMF, resulting in technology that then returns to the US — is mutually beneficial for both parties.
Economically, the relationship remains strong as well. In a March 2015 op-ed in “The Hill”, Myron Brilliant, executive vice president and head of International Affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, laid out three ways in which the relationship is economically beneficial to the US. The first is trade. The US-Israel Free Trade Agreement, signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1985, has led to an incredible amount of trade between the US and Israel — over $40 billion a year today. In fact, through October, the US had a trade imbalance of more than $7 billion with Israel in 2016. But, as Brilliant explains, much of that trade imbalance comes back to American shores through investment. “Nearly half of all investment into the U.S. from the Middle East comes from Israeli companies,” Brilliant explains. This is even more remarkable when considering that Israel comprises only 2% of the population of the region. The other way that economic cooperation with Israel comes back to the US is similar to the way that military assistance comes back around to benefit the US military. As Brilliant says, “Over 250 multinational companies have R&D centers,” in Israel, two-thirds of which are US companies. This innovation is shared with US developers, bringing the incredible advances in technology accomplished by Israeli developers to US soil as well, in the form of advances in medicine, computing, agriculture, energy, and more.
But, even beyond the clear benefits of military and economic cooperation, the US-Israel relationship is important for the United States for another, less tangible (but equally vital) reason: strong ideological ties that transcend pure self-interest. Israel is a liberal democracy (one that is admittedly flawed, but what democracy isn’t?), where a diverse population enjoys the benefits of freedom of the press, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression.
Israel is not perfect — nor will it ever be — but maintaining a strong relationship with the Jewish state is both strategically necessary and ethically consistent. Despite recent developments, US leaders have not forgotten these truths, and Americans and Israelis alike can rest easy knowing that this dynamic will remain static — robust and rewarding for all.
