Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | November 11, 2026
*Amanda Dory, President Bidnen’s Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, testified at the House Armed Services Committee, stating that cooperation with Israel has bolstered the technical and operational readiness of the US Armed Forces in the areas of advanced technologies, counter-terrorism (counter-tunneling), battlefield medicine, air and ballistic missile defense, armored vehicle protection and long-range precision fires.
*Matt Spence, President Obama’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East policy: “It was no accident that new Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford’s first visit abroad was to Israel. That is for good reason. The defense relationship [with Israel] makes America safer. Israel has the military and intelligence capabilities of no other nation in the Middle East. It provides the U.S. critical intelligence, joint military exercises, and technology…. The Defense Department should make startup funding available to joint U.S.-Israel technology projects, taking advantage of the talent from veterans of the Israeli Defense Force, U.S. military, and National Security Agency….”
*Irrespective of the nature of US policy and the existence of the Jewish State, tens of millions of Muslims have been killed in intra-Muslim terrorism/wars since the emergence of Islam in the 7th century, 11 million of them since 1948.
*The 1,400-year-old Sunni and Shiite Islamic terrorism has been driven by a fanatical, “divinely ordained” ideology, determined to obliterate the “apostate” Arabs and bring the “infidel,” “modern day Crusader” Christians, Jews, and Hindus to submission, especially “The Great American Satan.” This ideology is reinforced by a set of modern day “anti-infidel” constitutions (e.g., the 1928 Muslim Brotherhood and the 1979 Ayatollah regime), hate and martyrdom-driven school curriculum, Friday-mosque-sermons, official media and a systematic campaign of terrorism, stretching from its Middle East epicenter to Central Asia, Africa, Latin America (the soft underbelly of the US) and the US soil itself.
*Islamic terrorism considers Israel to be the most critical US vanguard, culturally, technologically and militarily, viewing Israel as the most potent force-multiplier and technology-multiplier for the US, with no need for US combat troops on the ground.
*Unlike Europe, which has lost its will to flex any muscle, and contrary to the pro-US Arab regimes – which are critically constrained by domestic instability and the machetes of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Ayatollah regime at their throats – Israel has engaged the anti-US Islamic terrorism at its point of origin, before it reaches NYC, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.
*Israel has absorbed, deterred and degraded Islamic terror capabilities, which pose an existential threat to the US, Europe and every pro-US Arab regime. Israel’s role as the first line of defense for – and a major forward security partner of – Western democracies is anchored in its geo-strategic location, unique commercial and defense technologies, and high-yield battle-proven military and intelligence capabilities.
*Israel’s exceptional optimistic and patriotic state of mind, its operational readiness, and capability to plant effective agents in every Muslim country in the violently unpredictable and intolerant Middle East, has made it the most productive ally of the US. For example, in 1999, Israeli intelligence shared with the US Islamic terror plans to replicate the 1998 car-bombing of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in five additional US embassies, which spared many lives and prevented a major blow to US global posture. In fact, Israel’s war against Hezbollah, has been a war against the perpetrator – along with the Ayatollah regime – of the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy and Marines barracks in Beirut, murdering 260 Americans. Moreover, in 2017, Israel’s cyber intelligence uncovered a technical breakthrough by a Syria-based ISIS cell, planting explosives – mimicking standard laptop batteries – that could successfully fool US airport X-ray machines. Israel shared the intelligence with the US authorities, which updated airport security procedures, sparing the US a civil aviation catastrophe. Israeli intelligence has demonstrated the capabilities to protect international aviation and people far beyond Israel’s borders. Israeli intelligence has thwarted dozens of planned terrorist operations targeting Western cities, aviation networks, and infrastructure.
*Israel’s countering Sunni and Shiite terrorism, since its 1948 War of Independence, has yielded unique defense capabilities and unmatched access to human intelligence (HUMINT), which have played a key role in securing vital international trade passages – such as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal – that underpin the stability of the global Western economy.
*Israel’s war on Islamic terrorism – which has collaborated with China, Russia and North Korea, militarily, financially and diplomatically – has exposed the limitations and vulnerabilities of Chinese, Russian and North Korean military systems, tilting the global balance of power in favor of the US.
*Every major conventional or hybrid campaign launched by the Ayatollah regime, Hezbollah and Hamas against “The Little Israeli Satan,” forces these terror entities to expend missiles, rockets, drones, fighters, and political capital that would otherwise be available for operations against the pro-US Arab regimes and “The Great American Satan” itself.
*Israel has been a bulwark against the intense Islamic terror attempts to replicate – and exceed – the precedents of September 11, 2001, 2016 Pulse nightclub attack in Orlando, 2015 San Bernardino, 2025 Bourbon Street in New Orleans, 2009 Ft. Hood, 2017 Lower Manhattan truck attack, 1993 World Trade Center bombing, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, etc.
*The US and Israel share more enemies and adversaries than they have differences in policy. Furthermore, against the backdrop of the exceptionally high return on the annual US investment in Israel (which is misperceived as “foreign aid”) – economically, technologically and militarily – does the US consider cutting off its nose to spite its face?!
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