Yesterday I wrote that cooperation with Israel is critically important to maintaining American military power, and that prompted some surprise. There is, after all, a widespread notion in public discourse that America is incapable of pursuing its own economic and strategic interests—or, alternatively, that every major American politician is a pedophile being blackmailed by Israeli intelligence, along with plenty of similar nonsense. These theories contradict one another, but that does not seem to trouble anyone. Even many intelligent people who do not believe such things are nevertheless under the impression that, for some inexplicable reason, Americans are financing Israel’s defense.
It is therefore worth explaining how the arrangement actually works:
- The U.S. government provides the Israeli government with $3.3 billion in grants each year, on the condition that the money be spent with American defense contractors.
- Israel deploys those weapons in actual combat and passes the resulting experience back to the manufacturers, allowing them to refine the weapons.
- There are also several programs through which Israeli combat experience is incorporated into U.S. military procedures.
- Major American defense contractors such as Raytheon incorporate various sophisticated devices developed in Israel into their weapons.
- The U.S. military has access to most or all Israeli military technologies, including Iron Dome.
The $3.3 billion a year mentioned above amounts to roughly 0.3 percent of U.S. military spending.
The arrangement is sometimes described by saying that Israel serves as a testing laboratory for the U.S. military. It is worth remembering that Israel follows this model whenever it can. For example, it received Pfizer’s vaccine earlier than other countries and, in return, provided access to data from its hospitals so that the manufacturer could refine the vaccine.
I can readily imagine that the Israelis are capable of arranging such deals on terms favorable to themselves, simply because their administration is infinitely more capable than the American bureaucracy. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to assume that if the United States ended this cooperation, within a week the Israelis would begin testing Chinese weapons—with all the consequences that would entail for the global balance of power. And that is without even considering the possibility of combining Israeli combat experience with Chinese robotics.
None of this should be taken to mean that there is some inverse dependency in which American military power depends on Israel. It is simply a partnership whose termination would harm both sides. That does not necessarily mean, however, that the partnership will continue.