Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative
September 23, 2026

*Israel’s distinction as the most high-value, low-cost, low (US) footprint, battle-tested, technologically-advanced and unconditional American ally – substantially more significant than the NATO countries, South Korea, Japan and Australia – is underscored by the F-35 combat aircraft program.

*Thus, Israel played a consequential role in the F-35’s evolution from a troubled, over-budget development program – doomed to fail according to top US avionic experts in 2018 – into the flagship fighter of the US Air Force.  In fact, since Israel received the F-35, it has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing defense exports.

*Israel was the first country to operate the F-35 in combat (in 2018), and the only foreign user granted substantial authority to integrate indigenous software, electronic-warfare systems, weapons, and sustainment solutions.  The US manufacturer, Lockheed-Martin, and the US Air Force are aware of the expected benefits derived from the invaluable operational, rapid-testing and validation, maintenance and repair feedback from Israel under a uniquely-intense battle-proven reality.  Moreover, the Israeli real-world experience (in close cooperation with Lockheed Martin) – particularly in mission systems, data processing, electronic warfare, weapons integration, maintenance, and fleet availability – identified and resolved most of the technical and mechanical glitches, that might have otherwise required costly testing and redevelopment, and potentially aborting the entire F-35 program.

*Although the precise financial benefits have not been publicly quantified, the Israeli intense combat-proven experience and capabilities saved many years of research and development (equal to billions of dollars, as attested by the F-35 research and development cost – over $60bn). The Israeli knowhow reduced technical risks, accelerated the maturation of the aircraft, strengthened confidence among prospective buyers, and contributed to the F-35’s transformation from a widely criticized program into the centerpiece of US airpower and a multinational mega-billions of dollars export success. 

*Hence, the F-35A ($92mn), the F-35C ($110.8mn) and the F-35B ($121.4mn) have been exported to more than 20 countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Poland, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Singapore, Romania, Greece and the Czech Republic. Furthermore, export of the F-35 has experienced a massive surge, culminating in 191 aircraft delivered by Lockheed Martin in 2025, compared to 134 in 2019, making it one of the most widely exported 5th-generation stealth fighters in history. According to Lockheed-Martin, the F-35 backlog (mostly to the US Air Force) was $170bn in 2025.

*Israel has served as the F-35’s unique battle-tested laboratory, research and development center, as it has for the F-16, F-15, the Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, the THAAD and Patriot missile defenses and dozens of additional advanced US military systems).  Israel has been a combat-proven showroom and battle tactics innovation center, bolstering the US economy – including expanded employment and increased corporate and individual income tax revenues – as well as enhancing the capabilities of the US Air Force, while extending the life-cycle and export-potency of advanced US military systems (e.g., the 55-year-old F-15 and F-16).

*Israel has contributed to the US defense and aerospace industries – which employ 2.5 million Americans – and to the US Armed Forces the same benefits it has contributed to over 250 commercial high tech giants (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, John Deere, Nvidia, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, etc.), but much more!  Israel has played a key role in boosting the global superiority of the US’ commercial and defense technologies. 

*Israel provides an unusually densely-challenging innovation ecosystem, facing unique climatic, irrigation, agricultural, economic, health, medical and national security challenges. These challenges have yielded game-changing, ground-breaking developments and applications, which have been leveraged by many of the leading US commercial and defense industries.

*Therefore, in January 2026, the US and Israel announced a strategic framework covering AI, energy, advanced computing, space, semiconductors, and other critical technologies, explicitly linking the relationship to economic growth, job creation, and national security.

*Israel is the US’ most valuable operational partner for evaluating selected air-defense, missile-defense, counterterrorism, urban-warfare, intelligence, and force-protection capabilities under real-world conditions.

*Israel has been a significant node in the US’ determination to bolster its global superiority in the dual-use areas of small and medium-size space satellites, autonomous systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, medical technologies and combat medicine, cybersecurity and AI.  Israel has advanced the US’ computing, semiconductors, aerospace and avionics, air and missile defenses, sensors and electro-optics, water and environmental technologies.

*Israel’s demography (facilitating the successful blending of Israeli agents in Muslim countries), geo-strategic location and rare existential challenges and experience, have transformed Israel into the most substantial intelligence partner of the US in the areas of counterterrorism, terror financing and money laundering, counterproliferation and regional/global threats. This partnership has also produced critical data on advanced military systems, manufactured by enemies and rivals of the US, which has uniquely benefitted the US economy and defense, saving American lives abroad and on US soil.

*According to the late Senator Daniel Inouye, who was the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Full Appropriations Committee, the flow of Israeli intelligence to the US exceeded the scope and quality of intelligence provided to the US by all NATO countries combined.  Inouye assessed the value of the Israeli-delivered intelligence in billions of dollars.

*Israel provides the US with an unusually high level of annual R-o-I (return on investment) on the $3.8bn, which is exponentially higher than US “foreign aid.”

*Israel provides the US with a second-to-none combat-experienced, reliable forward operating base (irrespective of Left or Right governments, unlike other allies) in a most critical region.  In addition to intelligence and defense-technology, Israel has generated tailwind to the US defense and commercial industrial bases. Thus, sustaining US manufacturing, engineering, subcontracting and export capacity – a mega billions of dollars contribution to the US economy.

*Israel constitutes a high-intensity force-multiplier and dollar-multiplier for the US. This Israeli feature has bolstered the US’ posture of deterrence with no US combat boots on the ground, unlike the NATO allies, Japan and South Korea. The latter rely on substantial US combat military bases and mega-billions of US dollars, which is required to maintain these bases, while refraining from flexing their muscles in the face of mutual existential threats.

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettiinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
August 27, 2026

According to Prof. Walter Russell Mead, a leading historian of US foreign policy, “Israel did not grow strong because it had an American alliance. It acquired an American alliance because it had grown strong.”

*The $3.8bn annual US investment in Israel – misperceived as “foreign aid” – has provided Israel with advanced US-made military systems, bolstering Israel’s performance as the leading force-multiplier for the US (as detailed by the milestones below).

*Israel is the hub of research and development centers of some 250 US high tech giants, which has solidified their global superiority, bolstered US export and expanded US employment.  In addition, Israel has evolved into the biggest, self-manned, largely self-funded and cost-effective, battle-tested “US military base” with no combat US soldiers on the ground. The Israeli factor has amplified the US’ global posture of deterrence and constrained Chinese and Russian regional and global maneuverability, while enabling the US to minimize its military presence in the Middle East, which has never experienced intra-Muslim peaceful coexistence since the 7^th century. It has, also, upgraded the battle tactics of the US Armed Forces (e.g., the US Army’s intellectual center at Ft. Leavenworth, KS is highly impacted by Israel’s war and counter-terrorism experience), dramatically enhanced the productivityof the US’ defense and aerospace industries (e.g., mega-billions of dollars of saving in research and development, increased exports, and growing income tax revenues), and has deterred anti-US Islamic terrorism.

Milestones:

*During the 2025 and 2026 US wars against the Ayatollah regime – which has conducted a 47-year-war on the US irrespective of Israel’s existence – Israel has provided the US with strategic benefits, which no other ally could have provided.  Israel has operated as a technologically sophisticated regional ally, conducting complex intelligence, cyber, and air operations. It has been highlighted by disabling Iran’s air defenses and air force, which has minimized the threat to US soldiers and has reduced the need for US ground forces, enabling the US Air Force to bomb Iran’s three major nuclear facilities, unimpeded by Iran’s military. Israel’s human intelligence (HUMINT) and signals intelligence (SIGINT) networks in Iran have provided CENTCOM and the CIA with critical operational data, reducing the US’ blind spots.

*Israel’s strikes exposed the vulnerabilities of Chinese, Russian and North Korean air defenses, combat aircraft, ballistic missiles and underground fortifications, which are deployed throughout the world.

*By systematically clobbering the Ayatollah proxies, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen’s Houthis and pro-Iranian terror organizations in Syria and Iraq, Israel has significantly degraded the Ayatollah’s threats to US military installations in the Middle East and reduced the existential threats to all pro-US Arab regimes.

*The 1981 Israeli destruction of Iraq’s nuclear reactor spared the US a potential nuclear confrontation during the 1991 Gulf War. It saved the pro-US oil-producing Arab regimes from the jaws of the pro-Russian Saddam Hussein.

*The 2007 Israeli destruction of the Syria-North Korea-Iran nuclear reactor, spared the region and the globe the consequences of nuclear capabilities in the hands of the pro-Russian “Butcher of Damascus” and a potential nuclearized civil war in Syria. 

*The June 1967 Israeli military victory devastated the Soviet-supplied and Soviet-trained Egyptian military, which aimed to topple all pro-US Arab oil-producing regimes, at a time when the US was heavily dependent on Persian Gulf oil.  Israel’s victory discredited Soviet combat doctrines and equipment, generated vital intelligence on the principal adversary of the US, and spared the US a huge economic and national security setback. It also, denied the USSR a geo-strategic gold mine, and transferred to the US Israeli-captured Soviet military hardware – all at zero cost in US lives or treasure.

*Israel’s 1973 War provided the US real combat data of USSR vs. US military systems (e.g., surface-to-air and anti-tank missiles), supplying the US combat evidence it couldn’t get otherwise. These lessons were fed directly into the development of AirLand Battle doctrine, SEAD (suppression of enemy air defense) tactics, and TOW missile and armor upgrades that enhanced the US defense industries and Army doctrine. Just as in the 1967 precedent, instead of US forces having to fight Soviet-designed systems, in order to learn how they performed, Israel did the fighting and the US studied the results.

*In 1966 and 1989 Israel acquired MIG-21 and MIG-23 Soviet combat planes through defecting Iraqi and Syrian pilots. The planes were shared with the US, impacting the global balance of power, and enhancing the performance of the US Air Force and the US aerospace industry.

*In 1970, while the US was bogged down in Southeast Asia, Israel’s posture of deterrence forced a roll-back of the pro-Soviet Syrian invasion of pro-US Jordan with no exchange of fire. Thus, Israel denied Moscow a critical bonanza,while sparing the US the loss of an Arab ally, which could have triggered the toppling of pro-US oil-producing Arab regimes (when the US was heavily dependent upon Persian Gulf oil).

*Israel’s July 4, 1976 Entebbe Rescue Operation underscored Israel as a role model of pro-active, daring and innovative counter-terrorism, inspiring the US’ Delta Force and other US counter-terrorism forces.  

*Israel’s October 1982 “Operation Mole Cricket 19” was the first time that a Western-equipped air force destroyed a Soviet-built surface-to-air missile network, eradicating 20 leading Soviet surface-to-air missile batteries operated by Syria, which were perceived to be impregnable. The Israeli battle tactics, including electronic warfare technologies, were shared with the US, bolstering its military edge over Moscow, serving (until today) as a cardinal element in the training program of US combat pilots. 

The Bottom Line

*From the Cold War era until today, Israel has functioned as a forward strategic asset for US national security, combat-tested (against Russian, Chinese and Western military systems). Israel has provided a battle-tested laboratory for advanced US military systems, counterterrorism and missile defense testing ground, and intelligence collecting, with no presence of US combat troops.

*Israel has systematically provided the US strategic lessons that would otherwise have required a much greater US military exposure.

*Advancing US-Israel mutual interests in the face of mutual threats and challenges, Israel absorbs the military risk, provides the manpower, the intelligence burden and battlefield experimentation that the US otherwise might have had to undertake itself.

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
August 18, 2026

*Since the 7th century, the life expectancy of intra-Muslim/Arab agreements, as well as Muslim agreements with “infidels”, have repeatedly proven to be determined by Islamic – not by Western – norms and regime-contingent.  Their survival has been decided by foundational Islamic precepts, as well as by the longevity of the specific (tenuous) regime, or the durability of their (tenuous) policies.

*The foundational precedent is the 628AD Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, and this is currently more significant than any other single agreement.  It has become doctrinally paradigmatic rather than a mere historical event. Thus, the Prophet Muhammad concluded a ten-year truce with the “infidel” Quraysh tribe of Mecca. Within two years, citing a violation by a client tribe of the Quraysh, Muhammad abrogated the agreement, conquering Mecca and forcing the conversion of the Quraysh to Islam. Muslim/Arab regimes have treated the Hudaybiyyah Treaty as The Supreme Model-to-Emulate of a Hudna (temporary truce), legitimately and religiously revocable when the balance of power shifts, as distinct from Sulh (a fuller, more permanent peace concluded among “believers”).

*The Constitution of Medina (622AD) was a multi-tribal agreement – the highly regarded foundation of the first Islamic state – signed by the Prophet Muhammad with rival tribes, including Jewish clans.  It was gradually dissolved by expelling and obliterating the rival tribes.

*The First Fitna (656AD–661AD civil war) was momentous, underscoringthe fundamentals of the Muslim polity. It evolved around an agreement that was concluded after the 657AD Battle of Siffin between Ali (the 4th Caliph) and Mu’awiya (the ruler of Syria who challenged Ali’s authority). The agreement collapsed summarily, leading to Ali’s assassination (3 of the first 4 Caliphs were assassinated!). It also led to the founding of Mu’awiya’s Umayyad dynasty by violence (“bullet”) rather than by a settlement (“ballot”), which is still a Middle Eastern norm.  Hence, succession in the caliphates that followed was overwhelmingly resolved by civil war rather than binding accords, as demonstrated by the Abbasid overthrow of the Umayyads; the fragmentation into rival caliphates (Fatimid, Umayyad of Córdoba, Abbasid); and the recurring pattern of vassal agreements with governors that held according to the durability of the regime.

*Ottoman-Safavid/Iran treaties (e.g., Amasya 1555AD, Zuhab 1639AD) were renegotiated roughly every generation as the frontier shifted militarily. They were durable only relative to the military stalemate, not as instruments of trust.

*In the post-Ottoman order, this violently-tenuous pattern was featured in the power-sharing 1943 Lebanese National Pact, which was in force as long as the demographic and regional balance of power persisted. It collapsed during the 1975-1989 civil wars, which still linger, as the 1989 Taif Agreement that supposedly ended the civil war is deeply frayed.

*Israel Peace Accords with Egypt Camp David (since 1979) and Jordan (since 1994) are holding for the time being, but the populations of both countries have been systematically brainwashed through anti-Jewish and anti-Israel school curriculum, mosque sermons and official media, which are the most authentic reflection of the long-term vision/strategy of non-democratic regimes. The potential toppling of the highly vulnerable General el-Sisi and King Abdoullah regimes could catapult the Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas’ “parent company”) to power in Egypt, while transforming Jordan into another platform of anti-US Islamic terrorism, dooming the peace process with Israel.

*The 1993 and 1995 Israel-PLO Oslo Accords were abrogated by the PLO before the ink dried.  Thus, Arafat pre-recorded a message, aired on Jordan TV on September 13, 1993, while the Oslo Accord was signed on the White House Lawn, stating that the Accord was consistent with the PLO’s Phased Strategy – uprooting Israel in phases.  On May 10, 1994, Arafat spoke in a Johannesburg mosque, announcing that the Oslo Accord was consistent with the foundational 628AD Hudaybiyya Agreement.  As expected by reality-driven observers, the two Oslo Accords ushered in an unprecedent wave of Palestinian terrorism, as did 6 agreements reached with Hamas between 2007 and 2023.

*Tenuous Arab regimes and agreements:

^Since 1943, Libya’s Wheelus Air Force Base was the largest US military base outside the US during the rule of the pro-US King Idris. But, the base was evacuated in 1970 following the toppling of the King by the pro-Soviet Gaddafi.
^Iran was “The American Policeman of the Gulf” when ruled by the pro-US Shah, but has become a key epicenter of anti-US wars, terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering since the 1979 Iran takeover by the Ayatollah regime.
^Under the rule of King Faisal II, Iraq joined the US-backed anti-USSR 1955 Baghdad Pact, along with Britain, Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. However, the July 1958 coup, climaxed by the hanging of King Faisal II, transformed Iraq into a pro-Soviet Persian Gulf country.
^The 1975 Iran-Iraq Algiers Agreement was annulled by Iraq in September 1980 (following the Ayatollah’s Islamic Revolution), leading to the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran War.
^The 1958 Egypt-Syria agreement to establish the United Arab Republic, combining the two countries into a single sovereign state, was dissolved in September 1961 in the aftermath of a Syrian military coup.
^From the 1960s-1980s, North Yemen was pro-US, while South Yemen was pro-USSR. During the pre-January 1991 Gulf War, United Yemen opposed the US-led war on Saddam Hussein. Since 2014, Yemen’s Houthis – a proxy of the Ayatollah regime – have joined the “Death to America” club, shelling the pro-US Saudis and Emiratis, as well as attacking Red Sea shipping lanes.
^Etc…..

The Bottom Line

*In the non-democratic Middle East, Islamic/Arab regimes do not ascend to power through the ballot. They tend to be tenuous, as are their policies and agreements, which are not anchored in democratic and legal structures, but in foundational Islamic precepts and precedents. The durability of agreements reflects the lifespan of the regimes, which are generally vulnerable, driven by religion and ideology, and which transcend financial and diplomatic considerations.

*The US attempts to negotiate agreements with the Ayatollah regime, Hezbollah and Hamas take lightly the fact that the 1,400-year-old DNA of these entities – as documented in their constitutions, school curriculum and mosque sermons – mandates them to topple all pro-US Arab regimes and bring the “infidel” West, and especially “The Great American Satan” to submission.

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: US-Israel Initiative”
August 13, 2026

*Since 1948, unrelated to Israel, about 11 million Muslims have been killed in intra-Muslim wars and terrorism from Pakistan and Afghanistan, through the Middle East to the Horn of Africa, North and Central Africa, compared to 100,000 Muslims killed during Arab-Israel wars. In fact, Refik Turan, Head of the Turkish Historical Society claims that 12.5 million Muslims have been killed in intra-Muslim wars since 1993. These Intra-Muslim wars have yielded mega-millions of displaced Muslims.  For example, 20 million refugees during the Syria and Iraq civil wars, 10 million refugees resulting from the Pakistan-Bangladesh war, 8 million refugees in Africa’s Sahel region, etc.

*Since the 7^th century, and irrespective of Israel, the absence of intra-Muslim peaceful-coexistence – religiously, ethnically, tribally, geographically and ideologically- has been a chronic and structural feature of the Middle East. It has fueled terrorism and wars among the Muslim “believers,” against the Sunnis/Shiites “apostates” and against the Western “infidel,” especially “The Great American Satan.”

*The intra-Muslim wars and terrorism have not been driven by despair, but rather by ideology and religion, transcending “money talks” and diplomacy.

*Examples of the Toll of Intra-Muslim Conflicts Since 1948

Sudan civil wars 1955-present: 2,600,000-3,000,000 killed
Afghan civil wars 1978-present: 1,500,000-2,000,000 killed
Bangladesh-Pakistan war 1971: 1,500,000 killed
Bangladesh post-independence civil war: 150,000 killed
Iraq-Iran war 1980-1988: 1,000,000-1,200,000 killed
Syria civil wars 2011-2025: 600,000-700,000 killed
Yemen civil wars 1962-present: 600,000-700,000 killed
Somali civil wars 1991-present: 500,000-850,000 killed
Iraq-Kurdish wars and civil wars 1961-present: 500,000-750,000 killed
Iraq-Syria Islamic State wars: 100,000-200,000 killed
Algeria civil war 1991-2002: 100,000-200,000 killed
Lebanon’s civil war 1975-1990: 100,000-150,000 killed
Sahel Jihadist terrorism 2009-present: 100,000-150,000 killed
Iran’s executed dissidents 1979-present: 100,000 (at least 30,000 in 2026)
Chad civil wars 1966-1990: 40,000-100,000 killed
Pakistan-Balochi civil wars 1948-present: 45,000-80,000 killed
Pakistan-Jihadist clashes 2004-present: 70,000 killed
Turkey-Kurdish war 1984-present: 40,000-50,000 killed
Nigeria-Boko Haram wars 2009-present: 35,000-50,000 killed
Libyan civil wars 2011-present: 25,000-50,000 killed
Libya -Chad-Jihadist wars 1978-present: 10,000-30,000 killed
Iran-Kurdish skirmishes 1979-present: 30,000 killed
Mali-Jihadist wars 2012-present: 15,000-30,000 killed
Jordan’s “Black September” civil war 1970: 10,000-2 5,000 killed
Egypt-Jihadist battles in Sinai, 2011-present: 10,000 killed
Etc.

*The aforementioned intra-Muslim reality is critically relevant to US policy in the Middle East – including the pursuit of negotiation and peace – which has always been jerkily spiral, violently intolerant, unpredictable, tenuously shifty, fragmented and ruthlessly non-democratic.

*The absence of intra-Muslim peaceful coexistence has been underscored by the litany of intra-Muslim conflicts, accompanied by a multitude of negotiation cycles, on-again and off-again tenuous ceasefire agreements and peace accords.  This violently capricious reality showcases the Middle East as a region where negotiation is a tactical pause and an extension of warfare by other means, bolstered by Islam-sanctioned Taqiyya (dissimulation) . 

*Moreover, accords with enemies, and certainly with “infidels,” cannot be less tenuous than the regimes and their policies. These accords are profoundly inspired by the Prophet Muhammed’s 628 AD tactical treaty of Hudaybiyya, which has enshrined victory over enemies through temporary agreements, to be abrogated upon achieving military superiority.   

*The intensity of the 1,400-year-old intra-Muslim wars and terrorism reveals that negotiation and accords are considered by radical Middle East entities (e.g., the Ayatollah regime, Hezbollah, Hamas) as a tactical pause, functional-not-covenantal, a Hudna (temporary ceasefire) – a means to bring enemies to submission, not peaceful coexistence – lacking a shared commitment to durability. Furthermore, Middle East powerful entities do not negotiate with weaker entities; they trounce and subjugate them. Therefore, an initiation of negotiation in the Middle East is perceived as insecurity and weakness, which emboldens rogue entities.

*The 14-centuries-old intra-Muslim wars and terrorism have been a Middle East fixture, while negotiation and accords have been Middle East variables.

*This reality has intensified Israel’s 78-year-old existential national security challenges, which must be assessed according to the violent Middle East reality, rather than the convenient Western-manufactured alternate reality. The overriding significance of the intra-Muslim wars and terrorism highlights the reckless proposal for Israel to trade its most critical national security component – the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria (fixed assets), which dominate 80% of Israel’s infrastructures and population – for normalization/peace accords (variable assets).

*Israel’s strategic posture has served as an indispensable anchor, and the most effective force-multiplier and dollar-multiplier for the US, deterring rogue entities, and constituting the most reliable “life insurance agent” of all pro-US Arab regimes in the face of existential threats by the Ayatollah regime and the Muslim Brotherhood. Furthermore, Israel’s posture of deterrence has induced six Arab countries to conclude peace treaties with Israel. It has also prompted additional pro-US Arab countries (e.g., Saudi Arabia) to enhance defense, technological, agricultural and irrigation cooperation with the Jewish State. Israel has been a uniquely reliable, effective, democratic and stable ally of the US – commercially, technologically, scientifically, agriculturally, medically and militarily – in a region which is top heavy on non-democratic, unstable, violence-prone, unreliable and strategically elusive entities.

*The ferocious magnitude of intra-Muslim conflicts, exposes the simplistic worldview which considers the Arab-Israeli conflict as if it were “the Middle East conflict,” and the Palestinian issue as if it were the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a cause of regional turbulence and a crown jewel of Arab policy makers, ignoring the Arab view of Palestinians as the role model of intra-Arab terrorism and treachery. Hence, the failure of dozens of Western-initiatives to solve the Arab-Israel conflict, including the Palestinian issue.  In fact, the immensity of the intra-Muslim carnage dwarfs the regional and global significance of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian issue.

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
August 2, 2026

*The 47-year-war launched against the US by the Ayatollah regime, since 1979, predates – and is independent of – any specific US President or policy, as demonstrated during the Administrations of Carter and Reagan, Obama and Bush, Biden and Trump. 

*The 47-year-track record of the Ayatollah regime – as underscored in its Constitution, school curriculum and mosque sermons – provides a body of evidence that the regime’s core Shiite orientation highlights anti-Americanism as a foundational pillar of identity, rather than a temporary foreign policy.

*The Ayatollah track record has been a derivative of a fanatical, apocalyptic (Twelver Shiite) ideology. It mandates the exportation of the Islamic Shiite Revolution (1979 Constitution, article 154), establishing a globally exclusive, “divinely-ordained” Shiite Islamic governance, in preparation for the return of the Hidden Twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, which is to be preceded by chaos, suffering, rivers of blood and martyrdom. The Ayatollah’s ideology frames political conflicts in metaphysical, non-negotiable terms, yielding civilizational and religious battles in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and inside the US.

*The Ayatollah ideology mandates the toppling of the “apostate, treacherous” Sunni regimes, and bring the “infidel” West – and primarily “The Great Arrogant and Oppressive American Satan” – to submission. The US is viewed as an existential, moral, irreconcilable, illegitimate adversary. Since 1979 – despite the fact that it was a US President, who paved the road to Ayatollah Khomeini’s toppling of the Shah – Anti Americanism has functioned as a key ideological glue of the Ayatollah regime, a metric for domestic political loyalty. In fact, the annual commemoration of the November 4, 1979 US Embassy takeover isreinforced by the chant “Death to America” (“Marg bar Amrika“).

*While the Ayatollah regime frequently displays tactical flexibility, when under extreme pressure, its strategic trajectory demonstrates that ideological objectives transcend financial and diplomatic bonanzas, as well as international norms. For example, the Jihad-driven doctrine of the “Resistive Economy” (eqtesād-e moqāvematī) accepts economic austerity and isolation as a price for maintaining ideological independence. In defiance of the mega-billion-dollars of financial pressure/sanctions and temptations, the Ayatollah regime prioritizes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its expeditionary arm, the Quds Force, the funding of proxy terror organizations (e.g., Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis), and the 46-year-strategic entrenchment in Latin America.

*The negotiation process provides the Ayatollah regime with the time to lick wounds, relieve pressure, gain tactical concessions, restore and upgrade conventional, ballistic and nuclear capabilities, in cooperation with China, Russia and North Korea. These countries are eager to prove their reliability and effectiveness as strategic allies, notwithstanding the devastation of their air defenses, combat aircraft and missile batteries during the 2025 and 2026 Iran wars.

*In the Middle East, a strong party’s proposal to negotiate reflects insecurity, hesitancy and weakness, which emboldens rogue entities, as demonstrated by the waves of unprecedent terrorism, that was triggered by Israel’s negotiation cycles with the PLO (Oslo 1993) and Hamas (since 2007). The Ayatollah regime would never propose to negotiate with a devastated enemy, but proceed to deal a knockout blow to such an enemy.

*The 47-year-policy of negotiation with the Ayatollah regime has not induced Iranian moderation, but bolstered the anti-US capabilities of the Ayatollah regime. The policy of negotiation has played a key role in catapulting Iran from a second/third rate strategic power to a major global strategic player. In addition, the negotiation policy has played a major role in transforming Iran from “The American Policeman of the Gulf” (1971-1978) to a chief global epicenter of anti-US terrorism, wars, drug trafficking and money laundering. 

*The tendency to kick the can down the road has reflected Western policy makers’ inclination to sacrifice medium/long-term national security on the altar of short-term convenience, as has been demonstrated by multiple precedents. For example, the 1981 Algiers Accord yielded the release of 50 American hostages, but was followed by the 1983 Beirut US Embassy and Marines barracks Iran-Hezbollah car bombs, which murdered 258 Americans. This pattern was repeated by the US-led 2015 JCPOA, when the Ayatollah regime invested most of the hundreds of billions of dollars, gained through the accord, in bolstering its ballistic capabilities, and cultivating its global terror and drug trafficking network, including in Latin America and on US soil.  Moreover, Western policy makers tend to overlook the clear and present lethal threat posed by the Ayatollah regime.

*Western policy makers have taken lightly the structural contradiction between the incompatible definitions of negotiation by Western policy makers and the Ayatollah regime.  Thus, while the West views negotiation as a win-win, deal-making, problem-solving, conflict-ending, mutually-accepted solution, and a process of permanent strategic reconciliation, the Ayatollah regime approaches negotiation as a confrontational, conflict-perpetuating, temporary ceasefire-like process – an extension of warfare by other means.  

*Western policy makers view a signed agreement as an achievement, but the Ayatollah regime views a signed agreement as a time stalling tactic, in order to advance the strategic achievement – bringing the “infidel” to submission.

*While Western policy makers approach negotiation as eager sprinters, the Ayatollah regime approaches negotiation as patient marathon runners.

*Approaching the Ayatollah regime as a transactional party overlooks the reality that anti-Americanism is not merely a negotiable policy, or a bargaining chip, but the core identity of the Islamic Republic.

*The 47-year-negotiation with the Ayatollah regime has enhanced the legitimacy of that rogue entity, paving the road to intensified violence, which could eventually usher-in the first ever apocalyptic nuclear power.

*Is the US determined to learn from critical mistakes by repeating, or avoiding, them?!

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
July 26, 2026

*The annual US $3.8bn “foreign aid” to Israel – which is earmarked to purchase only US-made military systems – has been framed under a misleading banner: “foreign aid.” To most Americans, “foreign aid” evokes images of charity, one-way transfers, funded by hard-working Americans, serving needs in foreign lands, rather than satisfying dire US domestic needs. That framing is not just imprecise; it is a most consequential misnomer in the US budget.

*Setting the record straight on “foreign aid” to Israel, in particular, and US-Israel relations, in general, behooves one to discard that misnomer. A thorough due-diligence through a clear-eyed balance sheet, documents that the annual $3.8 billion is neither “foreign aid”, nor a handout. It is the  smartest of US investments.

For example:

1.  A professional auditing reveals that the $3.8bn is an annual high-yield investment, which provides the US with an unprecedent Return-on-Investment (R-o-I). Moreover, it serves as an irreplaceable force-multiplier for the US homeland and national security, and a booming dollar-multiplier for the US economy, bolstering US global dominance, economically, militarily and technologically.

2. Israel functions as the largest, real-world, most experienced and most intense battle-tested laboratory for the US defense and aerospace industries, which employ 2.5 million people. Hence, each of the dozens of advanced US military systems, supplied to Israel, benefits from Israel’s unique existential challenges, which stress-test advanced US military systems. This Israeli battle-tested laboratory yields daily lessons and improvements – operations, maintenance, repairs, mechanical and technological – which are promptly shared with the US manufacturers. These lessons are integrated, by the US manufacturers, as modifications and upgrades in the next generation of the US military products. This process saves the US many years of research and development (10-20 years in the case of the F-35, F-16 and F-15 each), which amounts to mega-billion dollars (e.g. the total research and development cost of the F-35 was $55bn).  

3. The Israel-driven upgrades enhance the US competitiveness in the global competition, which generates billions of dollars in US export. Furthermore, Israel constitutes a global “Showroom” and a “Triple-A-Store” for the US defense and aerospace industries, demonstrating the superiority of the advanced US military systems. For instance, when US-made combat aircraft and other defense systems perform flawlessly, in combat, in Israeli hands, global and US demand surges, bolstering the US’ overall production and export, expanding domestic manufacturing employment (e.g., the F-35 related employment has expanded by 35% since 2018, when Israel received the aircraft for operational use), and increasing corporate and individual tax revenues for the US Treasury.

4. Over 250 US commercial high-tech giants – including Intel, Microsoft, Google, John Deere, Nvidia, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, Dell, Intuit, General Electric and General Motors – operate research and development centers in Israel. These US giants leverage Israel’s can-do, defiance of odds and innovative spirit and brainpower, which bolsters the US technological dominance in the global market.

5. Israel’s intelligence has systematically shared with the US vital data on enemies’ and rivals’ weapon systems, proliferation networks, and operational and pre-emptive counter-terrorism that would otherwise require the output of several CIAs. The annual budget of one CIA is around $15bn (a multiple of 400% R-o-I on the $3.8bn).

6. Israel’s strategic effectiveness has deterred and weakened anti-US rogue entities, tilting the global balance of power in favor of the US. It has been demonstrated – since the Cold War era – by clipping the wings of the anti-US Sunni and Shiite terrorism, constraining the strategic maneuverability of China and Russia/USSR, while identifying the vulnerabilities of their air defenses and combat aircraft, and by enhancing the stability of all pro-US Arab regimes. Israel’s strategic effectiveness has resembled the largest US aircraft carrier, combat-ready, with no US boots on board, deployed in a critical area between the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.  It spares the US the need to manufacture a few more real aircraft carriers, and deploy them to the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, accompanied by 5-7 ground divisions. Constructing and deploying one advanced aircraft carrier costs $13bn, in addition to the $1bn required for every ground division deployed to the Middle East (a multiple of over 300%).

7. Israel constitutes an innovation center for the US Armed Forces, sharing with the US military counterparts its unique battle experience. This process has upgraded the battle tactics of the US air force, air defenses, special operations, counter-terrorism, urban warfare, naval operations, cyber warfare, combat medical care, etc.

8. While European allies frequently pivot their foreign policy stances and defense cooperation, depending on whether left-leaning or right-leaning coalitions take power, Israel’s commitment to the US is a rare common-denominator in the otherwise highly polarized Israeli society.  Whether governed by the Israeli Left or Right, Jerusalem’s alignment with Washington remains rock-solid. Israel offers something increasingly rare among allies of the US: unwavering Israeli bipartisan reliability.

9. The US maintains its military bases in Western Europe at an annual cost of $35bn annually, including 80,000 American troops.  At the same time,the annual US investment in Israel is $3.8bn with no large stand-alone US military bases, yielding to the US an annual Return-on-Investment of well over 1,000%.

10. The $3.8bn appropriated to Israel annually is not an expense, but a rare, low/no-risk, outsized-yielding investment.  It is a windfall to the US taxpayer, and a most productive line-item in the US budget, underscoring the mutually-beneficial two-way-street US-Israel cooperation.  

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: US-Israel Initiative”
July 22, 2026

*Independent of Israel’s existence, the Ayatollah regime’s hostility toward the US is deeply rooted in its 1,400-year-old fanatical, apocalyptic, anti-“infidel” ideology, as is reaffirmed in its Constitution, school curriculum, mosque sermons, official media and daily geo-strategic conduct.

*Notwithstanding US-Israel relations, the overriding ideology of the Ayatollah regime mandates the global exportation of the Islamic Revolution, as a step in the long-term battle to crown the Twelver Shia as the sole, predominant, divinely-ordained religion on earth.

*Nongermane to Israel, the Ayatollah regime is committed – religiously, historically and strategically – to expedite the reappearance of the 12th Shiite Imam, Mohammad al Mahdi, who disappeared in the 10th century.  This reappearance is preconditioned upon a victory over the “treacherous Sunni apostates” and “Western infidels,” especially “The Great American Satan,” which requires rivers of blood and martyrdom, supposedly yielding the end of time messianic Shiite deliverance.

*Irrespective of Israel, the ideological, religious and geo-strategic core of the Ayatollah’s Islamic Republic frames the US as the most critical enemy, “The Great American Satan” (Sheytân-e Bozorg), the ultimate source of global temptation, corruption, and imperialistic “infidel” arrogance. The US is regarded as the chief global oppressor and usurper, exploiting Islamic resources, propping up immoral “infidel” (Western and pro-Western) and “apostate” (Sunni) entities, and proliferating a venomously decadent culture. Moreover, the Ayatollah’s Constitution and core ideology mandate the regime to establish “The Axis of Resistance,” in order to bring the US to submission through a perpetual Jihad (Holy War).

*Extraneous to Israel, the Ayatollah regime is driven by an imperialistic, megalomaniacal, worldwide mega-vision, which requires mega-capabilities (conventional, ballistic and nuclear), and is preconditioned upon overcoming and subjugating a mega-hurdle (the USA).  The Ayatollah regime views the US as  a mega-hurdle in its pursuit of regional hegemony and its historic duty to topple all “treacherous and apostate” Sunni regimes, which happen to be aligned with the US.

*Regardless of Israel’s role in the Middle East and beyond, and despite the US’ critical role (1978/79) in paving the road of the Ayatollah regime to power, the Ayatollah regime seized the US Embassy in Tehran, in November 1979,and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

*Unrelated to Israel, since 1980, the Ayatollah regime – jointly with Hezbollah – has entrenched itself in Latin America, which is considered “the soft underbelly” of the US, and a critical segment of “The Axis of Resistance.” The Ayatollah regime has intensified cooperation with drug cartels in Mexico, Columbia, Bolivia and Brazil, supplying them with predator unmanned aerial vehicles and underground tunnel-construction equipment. The regime has established a strategic posture in the lawless tri-border areas of Argentina-Paraguay-Brazil and Chile- Bolivia-Peru, training terrorists, promoting drug trafficking and laundering money.

*Despite the fact that in 1982, the US deployed US Marines to Lebanon, in order to constrain Israel’s offensive on PLO terrorists in Lebanon, the Ayatollah regime and Hezbollah car-bombed (in 1983) the US Embassy and the Marines barracks in Beirut, murdering 270 Americans. The Ayatollah regime and Hezbollah were also involved in the planning and execution of the 1998 car-bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, murdering 224 people, including 12 Americans.  More than 1,000 Americans have been murdered in the Middle East by the Ayatollah regime and its terror proxies in Iraq, Syria and Jordan.

*Unconnected to Israel, the Ayatollah regime has expanded its network of sleeper terror cells on US soil, as cautioned by the FBI Director in a November 2023 Hearing in the House Committee on Homeland Security: “…As the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, the Iranians have directly, or by hiring criminals, mounted assassination attempts against dissidents and high ranking current and former US officials, including right here on American soil…. Hezbollah, Iran’s primary strategic partner, has tried to seed operatives, establish infrastructure and engage in spying here domestically… planning future operations in the US….” The 2025 Threat Assessment issued by the FBI and the Homeland Security Department highlighted the Ayatollah’s surrogate network within the US, aiming to intensify fear of Islamic terrorism, while undermining the confidence of Americans in their own government.

*Israel is correctly portrayed by the Ayatollah regime as the most effective US vanguard in “the abode of Islam” – “The Little Satan.”  The US is perceived as the strategic global enemy, while Israel is a tactical regional instrument, serving the Oppressive US’ civilizational, religious, and geopolitical war on the Oppressed entities. The Ayatollah regime has concluded that undermining Israel’s strategic posture – through its Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi proxies, as well as its own ballistic missiles – undermines the US regional and global posture. The Ayatollah’s view of Israel is a derivative of its view of the US, independent of the Palestinian issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

*In 2026, the US has an opportunity to correct the misguided 1978/79-2024 US policy – which transformed Iran from “The American Policeman of the Gulf” to a leading global epicenter of anti-US wars, terrorism and drug trafficking – by uprooting the Ayatollah regime.  

*The cost of regime change would be dwarfed by the cost of refraining from regime change, highlighted by the emergence of the first ever apocalyptic nuclear power, afflicting humanity with catastrophic cost. Failing to trigger regime-change, would erode the US posture of deterrence, emboldening China in the Pacific, African and Latin American arenas, invigorating Russia in the Baltic Sea and East Europe, and energizing anti-US Islamic terrorism on US soil. It would also intensify existential threats to all pro-US Sunni Arab regimes, induce more wars and terrorism, while discouraging the expansion of the Abraham Accords.

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”
July 15, 2026

*The gap between Middle East talk and walk is underscored by the Arabic colloquialism “On words one does not pay custom,” or “Words spoken at night are erased by daytime.”  

*Middle East Talk has been highlighted as a primary weapon ofpsychological warfare, stalling fortime, a survival mechanism, tactical flexibility, diplomacy, Taqiyya (dissimulation), deterrence, rallying morale, intimidating and gaslighting rivals/enemies and befogging real intents, without committing oneself to a specific Walk, and without abandoning one’s ideology.  

*Since 1978, US policy makers have indulged in a diplomatic dialogue with the Ayatollah regime, which has flooded US negotiators with tempting, business-like and peaceful-like talk, camouflaging the Ayatollah’s rogue, apocalyptic walk. The Ayatollah’s walk is clearly documented in the 1979 Constitution, school curriculum, mosque sermons and official media, which have transformed Iran from “The American Policeman of the Gulf” to a chief global epicenter of anti-US terrorism, wars, drug trafficking and money laundering in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and on US soil.

*The Jordanian Hashemite regime’s talk has consistently urged Israel to halt its military offensive against Hamas terrorists, demanding an immediate ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

However, the Jordanian regime’s walk – which reflects national security priorities – has diametrically contradicted its talk, especially since Hamas’ October 2023 terror offensive on Israel.  It intensified the Hashemite fear of another “Palestinian Black September” attempt to topple the Amman regime. Jordan is aware of the systematic collaboration between the trans-national Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian terrorism. It considers Hamas – a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot – a major epicenter of subversion, incitement, money laundering, drug trafficking, terror plots and rockets/drones/drugs smuggling and manufacturing. Moreover, Hamas has collaborated with Iran’s Ayatollah regime, other Palestinian terror organizations and the Muslim Brotherhood (which was outlawed in April 2025, although it’s political arm, the IAF, is the largest party in Jordan’s Parliament). Hamas was expelled from Jordan in 1999, but has renewed its terrorism there, as well as against US bases in Jordan. Irrespective of its anti-Israel talk, the Hashemite regime’s military, commercial and diplomatic walk recognizes that Israel supplies critical water and counter-terror intelligence, and averted its potential oblivion in 1970 (forcing Syria to rollback its invasion of Jordan), and still acts as a line of defense for the pro-US, highly vulnerable Hashemite regime.

*Egypt’s talk has condemned Israel’s war on Hamas, demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. However, just like Jordan, Egypt’s walk has been a derivative of its national security requirements, especially Hamas’ affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is viewed by General Sisi as an existential threat.  Since its establishment in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood has attempted to topple Egypt’s central regimes, and since 2013, it has been outlawed, designated as a terrorist organization. Cairo is also aware of Hamas’ strategic alliance with the Ayatollah regime, which aims to topple all “apostate” pro-US Sunni regimes, including General Sisi. Moreover, Hamas has been effectively outlawed in Egypt, as a terrorist organization, including its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party. Egypt has heavily restricted Hamas operations in Egypt, designating its armed wing (Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades) as a terrorist entity.

*While the talk of both Jordan and Egypt, as well as that of most Arab countries, has castigated Israel for a disproportionate response to Hamas’ terrorism, and severely criticize the proposal to facilitate a voluntary relocation of Gaza residents to Egypt and Jordan, their national security driven walk is the inverse. They consider Israel’s war against Hamas to be aligned with their own homeland and national security requirements.  They have concluded that a failure to obliterate Hamas would be perceived as a dramatic Hamas victory, generating a robust tailwind to Islamic terrorism in their own countries, posing an existential threat to most pro-US Arab regimes. On the other hand, Israel’s obliteration of Hamas would relieve all pro-US Arab regimes of a major lethal threat, and minimize regional instability. 

*Furthermore, Egypt’s and Jordan’s refusal to consider the relocation of Gaza residents to their countries is a derivative of the Palestinian terrorist walk in Egypt (during the 1950s), Syria (1960s), Jordan (1968-1970), Lebanon (1970-1983), Kuwait (1990) and Iraq (until 2003), which transformed Palestinians into the role model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism, treachery and ingratitude.  While the Western establishment is infatuated with the Palestinian moderate talk, embracing the proposed Palestinian state, the Arabs focus on the Palestinian rogue intra-Arab walk, and therefore have refrained (since 1948) from advancing the cause of the proposed Palestinian state.  For instance, none of the 6 Israel-Arab peace treaties was preconditioned upon the establishment of a Palestinian state….

*The Saudi and the UAE’s public talk has emphasized restraint, diplomacy and de-escalation of the war on the Ayatollah regime. However, the walk of MBS, the Saudi Crown Prince, and MBZ, the President of the UAE, (including constructive defense, counter-terrorism, commercial and diplomatic cooperation with Israel) reflects full awareness of the lethal implications of the fanatical and apocalyptic Ayatollah vision, which mandates the toppling of every “apostate” Sunni regime – especially Saudi Arabia – and bring to submission the Western “infidel,” especially “The Great American Satan.” Both MBS and MBZ are concerned about the US continued embrace of the negotiation option, which, since February 1979, has been the leading engine of the Ayatollah surge to global geo-strategic prominence, setting the Ayatollah machete closer to the throats of all pro-US Sunni Arab states.  Irrespective of its public talk and the renewal of diplomatic relations with Iran (ain’t the first, or the last, time!), Saudi Arabia and the UAE would be greatly relieved by a regime-change in Tehran. Both of them, as well as all other pro-US Arab regimes, consider Israel as the most reliable ally in their existential battle against the Ayatollah regime and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Bottom Line  

*The contrast between rhetoric (talk) and reality (walk) has been ingrained in the Middle East for 1,400 years, following in the footsteps of the 7th century Caliph Muawiyah, who laid the groundwork for shifting allegiance and flexible talk, trumpeting adherence to pacts.

*The unpredictable, violently intolerant and shifty intra-Arab/Muslim track record behooves US policy-making to be driven by Middle East walk (reality) – as frustrating, costly and inconvenient as it is – rather than Middle East talk (alternate reality), as appealing as it may sound.

Support Appreciated

Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative”

inFOCUS Magazine, Summer 2026

In the arena of US alliances, no relationship delivers the outsized return for the American taxpayer as does the US-Israel partnership.

Conventional wisdom often frames the annual $3.8BN US credit to Israel (spent on the acquisition of military systems only in the US) as “foreign aid” – a one-way handout, supposedly at the expense of American taxpayers. Formally, it is “foreign aid.” However, due-diligence reveals that this is not aid, but a low/no-risk, high-return investment for the US.

Since 1967, Israel has functioned as Washington’s premier dollar and defense multiplier, the most effective battle-tested laboratory, the most sophisticated commercial and defense research and development center (for over 250 US high tech giants, in addition to the US defense and aerospace industries), a unique source of intelligence for the US, and a geopolitical force-amplifier with no American military bases on its soil.

The Mutually Beneficial Two-Way-Street

In fact, US-Israel cooperation has been mutually beneficial, generating an annual Return-on-Investment (R-o-I) of well over 1,000% on Washington’s “foreign aid” to Israel.  This has yielded the US billions of dollars in research and development savings, bolstered economic output and export, expanded employment, increased tax revenues, boosted technological edge, and enhanced US national and homeland security.   No other ally can deliver such benefits.

At the heart of this multiplier effect lies Israel’s role as a real-time, combat-proven showroom and innovation hub for the US defense and aerospace industries. For example, in 2018, Israel was the first country to receive the F-35 combat aircraft for operational use. At that time, leading US experts considered it a failed program.  

However, by 2019, the combat-experienced Israeli Air Force, together with Lockheed-Martin, had solved most/all of the software/technical and hardware/mechanical glitches. This transformed the F-35 into the flagship of the US Air Force’s future fighter fleet and the premier program of the US aerospace industry. The Israeli experience and resulting upgrades have been shared on a daily basis with the US manufacturer, saving 10-20 years of research and development, which amounts to tens of billions of dollars (the F-35’s total development cost amounts to $55BN).

These battle-tested refinements have dramatically enhanced the aircraft’s reliability, maintainability, electronic warfare capabilities, weapons integration, and survivability.   As a result, since 2019, the uniquely intense use of the F-35 by the Israeli “showroom” has yielded a surge in global demand. Since 2019, more than 1,200 F-35s have been exported to US allies, including Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, and others. By late 2025, Lockheed-Martin reported a staggering $173BN–179BN backlog as well and a $72BN in annual US economic output, including $40BN in exports.

Currently, the F-35 project supports 290,000 jobs (a 35% expansion since 2019). It contributes about $3BN in annual corporate and personal income tax revenues to the US Treasury.  This almost completely offsets the $3.8BN annual investment in Israel from this single platform alone.

This role of Israel as a unique dollar and defense multiplier for the US applies to dozens of advanced US military systems, enhancing the fortunes of US defense and aerospace industries, which employ 2.5 million people. For instance, Boeing’s Apache attack helicopter and Lockheed-Martin’s Black Hawk utility helicopter have benefitted from Israel’s intense operational tempo since the 1990s. Israel’s combat use has resulted in upgraded avionics, survivability features (including advanced missile warning, electronic warfare, and countermeasures), and combat networking for the helicopters.

These improvements, validated in real-world conditions rather than simulations, have slashed research and development timelines and costs.  For the Apache the figure is $16BN; for the Black Hawk $21BN in today’s dollars.

Moreover, Israel’s track record has propelled American exports, such as recent Apache deals with Poland, South Korea, Britain, and others, in excess of $20BN.  Black Hawk sales to Greece, Australia, Sweden, Brazil, and others totalled $8BN–10BN for 2023–2026 alone. Similar dividends flow from the upgrading of the F-16 and F-15 combat aircraft, as well as US-made precision munitions, drones, air defenses, etc..

Israel-Driven US Innovations

Beyond hardware, Israel serves as the US Armed Forces’ premier innovation center for battle tactics and training.  Israeli operational lessons—drawn from thousands of hours in high-intensity, do-or-die environments—have reshaped US doctrines in air-to-air combat, radar suppression, urban warfare, counter-IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) operations, special forces raids, and hostage rescue. In addition, some US Special Operation battalions on their way to Iraq and other countries spend a few weeks in Israel, trained by Israeli experts in facing car bombs, suicide bombers and the deadly IEDs. US urban warfare units have adopted a training program, based on the Israeli daily experience in facing Islamic terrorism in Lebanon, Syria, Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Furthermore, the 1976 Jonathan (Entebbe) Operation directly inspired US counter-terrorism, in general, and the creation of Delta Force, in particular. The 1982 Israeli “Operation Mole Cricket 19” destroyed 20 advanced Soviet surface-to-air missile batteries (which were perceived by the US to be impregnable) and downed 82 Syrian (Soviet) MiGs without Israeli losses, remains a cornerstone of US Air Force training programs and battle tactics.  

More recently, Israel’s systematic sharing of maintenance, repair, and performance data on the performance of the F-35, F-16, F-15 in the war against Iran has provided the Pentagon with priceless insights on the vulnerabilities of Chinese and Russian air defenses, aircraft and ballistic missiles, which are deployed throughout the globe.  These insights have impacted the global balance of power, by eroding China’s and Russia’s posture of deterrence, while bolstering the US own deterrence. No other ally provides the US with such intensive, high-quality volume of national and homeland security support.

Intelligence Cooperation

Intelligence cooperation delivers a most staggering R-o-I due to Israel’s demography, which includes many people, who could easily blend into every Muslim country, as well as Israel’s daring, innovative, can-do, defiance of odds and out-of-the-box state-of-mind. Former US Air Force Intelligence Chief, General George Keegan, stated in an interview with the New York Times that if the US were to procure on its own the scope of intelligence provided by Israel, then the US would have to establish “5 CIAs.”  The annual budget of one CIA is around $15BN, which amounts to a 400% annual R-o-I on the $3.8BN investment, and probably twice or three-to-five times as much.  Senator Daniel Inouye, who served as the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, assessed that Israel shares with the US more critical intelligence on enemy and rival military systems and counterterrorism than all NATO countries combined.

For example, in 2017, Israeli human and signal intelligence exposed a Syrian ISIS unit, which developed the means to insert explosives into laptops, bypassing US civic airport security. Upon receiving the information from Israel, the US upgraded its airport security systems, which spared the US a catastrophic loss of human lives, severe cost to US airliners, and a grave blow to public morale and the US’ global posture of deterrence. Israeli tracking aided the elimination of chief Shiite and Sunni Islamic terrorists. Moreover, Israel has delivered to the US Soviet-era advanced military hardware, such as the MiG-21 and MiG-23, the T-72 tank, the SA-6 missile, the P-12 radar, etc. These were leveraged for reverse-engineering, radar-jamming techniques, and battle-tactic refinements that tilted the Cold War balance of power. Recent Israeli contributions include detailed profiles of Iranian drones, North Korean ballistic missiles, and Hezbollah networks in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and on US soil.  This directly enhances US homeland security, the safety of US installations in the Middle East and worldwide, and the stability of all pro-US Latin American and Arab regimes.

Israel’s Strategic Value for the US

Strategically, Israel functions as the largest US military beachhead with no US boots on the ground.  This is equivalent to a fleet of unsinkable aircraft carriers and multiple ground divisions in the Mediterranean-Red Sea-Indian Ocean-Persian Gulf theater.  During the 1970s and the 1980s, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who served as Chief of Naval Operations and General Alexander Haig, who served as NATO Supreme Commander and US Secretary of State, contended that the Israeli track record and potential replaces the need to manufacture and deploy to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean a few more aircraft carriers and deploy additional ground divisions to the Middle East. The manufacturing cost of one advanced aircraft carrier is $10-$13 billion (more than 300 percent R-o-I), and the cost of deploying one ground division to the Middle East is $1 billion.

This region serves as the platform of 48% of global oil reserves, the intersection of critical shipping lanes between the Far East and the West, and the epicenter of anti-US Islamic terrorism. Israel’s deterrent posture has minimized the instability of pro-US Arab regimes (especially Jordan), facilitated six Israel-Arab peace treaties and constrained the maneuverability of Russia, China and anti-US Sunni and Shiite Islamic terrorism. Contrast this with the $35BN annual cost of US military bases in West Europe, in addition to 80,000 US servicemen stationed there….

Historical Precedents

Since 1967, Israel has been a leading national security-multiplier for the US as demonstrated by the following examples:

Israel’s 1967 victory aborted Soviet-backed Egyptian military/terror offensive to assume pan-Arab leadership, while toppling all pro-US Arab oil producing regimes.  That would have dealt the United States a historic economic and national security setback, while boosting the global strategic stature of the USSR.

In 1970, pro-Soviet Syria invaded Jordan, aiming to topple the pro-US Hashemite regime, and trigger ripple effects, toppling the pro-US Arab Gulf regimes. This was averted by Israel’s deployment of military forces to the Golan Heights (the tri-border area of Israel-Syria-Jordan) at a time when the US was bogged down in Southeast Asia. The 1973 Yom Kippur War Israeli victory convinced Egypt to realign itself from pro-Soviet to pro-US.  

The 1981 Israeli destruction of Iraq’s nuclear reactor snatched all pro-US Arab oil producers from the jaws of the pro-Soviet Saddam Hussein, and spared the US a potential nuclear confrontation during the 1991 First Gulf War. Israel’s 2007 destruction of Syria’s nuclear reactor averted the first ever nuclearized civil war (in Syria).

The 2024 Israeli offensives against Hezbollah sparked the toppling of Syria’s Assad regime. That in turn opened the door for the US to replace Russia as Syria’s major influencer. The June 2025 Israeli air offensive against Iran’s Ayatollah regime, devastated Iran’s air defenses and air force, enabling the US air force to bomb the three leading Iranian nuclear sites unimpeded. This exposed the vulnerabilities of Chinese and Russian air defenses, which has tilted global balance of power in favor of the US.

Israel’s Reliability

Israel presents zero “zig-zag” risk unlike other allies of the US, like regimes in Iran, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, and Yemen, which have flipped from pro-US to anti-US overnight due to coups, revolutions, or ideological shifts. Qatar hosts the massive Al Udeid US military base, but it bankrolls Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood anti-US Sunni terrorists, while on-again off-again cozying up to the anti-US Ayatollah regime. European allies’ support of US action is often conditioned upon domestic politics or multilateral approval, earning the quip “NATO = No Action Talk Only.” Realistically, West Europe is not willing to flex a muscle against Islamic terrorism and additional threats, if – given shrunken military establishments – there is a substantial muscle left…  Israel, by contrast, maintains a rock-solid, cross-spectrum pro-US domestic consensus (Left and Right, secular and religious, hawks and doves). It does not wish US bases on its soil; almost-fully-funds and fully mans its own military forces, and acts proactively against mutual threats. Since joining CENTCOM (the US military Central Command, overseeing the Middle East) in 2021, operational integration has surged dramatically, enhancing CENTCOM’s preparedness and battle tactics.

Israel’s multiplier-effect extends beyond defense into commercial high-tech. More than 250 US giants, such as Google, Intel, Nvidia, Microsoft, Apple, John Deere, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric maintain R&D centers in Israel, leveraging its brainpower, defiance-of-odds culture, and frontier mentality to pioneer dual-use breakthroughs in AI, cyber, communications, medicine, agriculture, irrigation and financial technology. These innovations sustain US global technological supremacy, boost US exports, and create high-value jobs in the US.

The Bottom Line

*Israel is to the US what Michael Jordan was to Nike – a transformative global ambassador and performance enhancer – but on a vastly larger, strategic scale. It is a self-funded, battle-hardened, democratic partner whose contributions to the US economy, national and homeland security, and power projection dwarf the annual investment of $3.8BN.

*The $3.8BN investment is erroneously defined as foreign aid.  In fact, the US supplies Israel with US-made advanced military systems, which are stress-tested, upgraded, and showcased globally by the Israeli battle-tested laboratory, generating an annual Return-on-Investment (R-o-I) of more than a 1,000%.  This outsized R-o-I is generated through research and development saving, export increase, employment expansion, corporate and personal income tax revenues, intelligence windfalls, and reduced US military footprints. Israel is not a passive recipient of US military hardware, but an active co-developer and multiplier of its value.

*In an era of peer competition and persistent threats, the US-Israel mutually-beneficial two-way-street remains indispensable. Policymakers and citizens alike would do well to recognize Israel as one of the US’ most astute investments.  It delivers to the American people unmatched financial and defense returns that secure freedom, prosperity, and deterrence for generations to come.

*In a world of costly uncertainty, a compact, capable ally that translates battlefield lessons into market-ready solutions is not merely valuable — it is indispensable.

Support Appreciated