For nearly eight decades, a powerful myth shaped American foreign policy in the Middle East: that close alignment with Israel would harm the United States. According to this doctrine—promoted by generations of diplomats and analysts sometimes referred to as “Arabists”—Washington needed distance from Jerusalem in order to maintain influence in the Arab world.
Recent events have exposed how deeply flawed that assumption always was.
When the United States deployed advanced aircraft to Israel and coordinated military action against Iran, critics predicted the familiar consequences: regional explosions, collapsing alliances, and widespread anti-American upheaval. For decades, this nightmare scenario was used to justify treating Israel as a diplomatic burden rather than a strategic asset.
But the predicted catastrophe never came.
Instead, the reality once again demonstrated what history has repeatedly shown: Israel is not America’s problem in the Middle East—it is one of America’s most reliable partners.
From its founding in 1948, Israel has consistently aligned itself with the United States and the democratic world. It shares intelligence, develops cutting-edge military technologies with American forces, and acts as a forward line of defense against hostile regimes and terrorist organizations that threaten both Israeli and American interests.
In contrast, many governments that Washington spent decades courting as “indispensable Arab partners” have repeatedly hedged their bets when crises emerged.
The difference is simple. Israel’s strategic alignment with the United States is rooted in shared values and shared threats—not convenience.
For decades, however, American policy was constrained by a theory that Middle Eastern instability flowed primarily from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Solve that issue, policymakers argued, and the broader region would stabilize.
Reality told a very different story.
The Middle East has been shaped by forces far more consequential: revolutionary regimes, sectarian rivalries, jihadist movements, authoritarian power struggles, and above all the expansionist ambitions of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Iran’s regime has spent more than four decades exporting violence across the region through proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and militias in Iraq and Yemen. It has attacked American personnel, targeted U.S. allies, threatened global shipping routes, and openly called for the destruction of both Israel and the United States.
Yet for years, the foreign policy establishment insisted that confronting Iran too aggressively might destabilize the region.
That caution did not produce stability. It produced Iranian expansion.
Meanwhile, Israel consistently proved itself to be the most capable regional actor willing to confront those threats directly. Its intelligence networks, military readiness, and technological innovation have repeatedly contributed to the security of Western interests across the Middle East.
The Abraham Accords further shattered the outdated narrative that Israel’s existence prevented regional cooperation. When the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco normalized relations with Israel, they demonstrated something long denied in diplomatic circles: Arab states were increasingly willing to work with Israel because it served their strategic interests.
The old assumption—that Arab governments would refuse cooperation with Israel until the Palestinian issue was resolved—collapsed almost overnight.
Today, the strategic picture is clearer than ever. Israel stands as the region’s most stable democracy, its most capable military partner, and one of the most technologically advanced societies in the world. It shares intelligence with Western allies, leads in cyber defense and missile defense technologies, and acts as a critical bulwark against the forces destabilizing the region.
Treating such a country as a liability was never realistic.
Critics of close U.S.-Israel cooperation often claim that supporting Israel undermines America’s global standing. Yet the opposite has repeatedly proven true. When Washington demonstrates loyalty to its allies—particularly democratic allies—it strengthens credibility across the world.
Abandoning allies under pressure does the opposite.
The lesson of recent events is not simply about Iran, nor about one administration’s strategy. It is about recognizing a geopolitical reality that should have been obvious long ago.
Israel is not an obstacle to American interests in the Middle East. It is one of the pillars that makes those interests defensible.
For decades, policymakers worried that standing firmly with Israel would isolate the United States in the region. Instead, every step toward deeper partnership has strengthened America’s strategic position.
History has delivered its verdict.
The era of treating Israel as a diplomatic liability is ending. The sooner American policymakers fully embrace Israel as the indispensable strategic ally it has always been, the stronger and more stable the Middle East—and America’s place within it—will become.