Steel, Fire, and Common Enemies: Why America and Israel Fight the Same War

 

Strip away the politics and the truth hits hard: Iran spreads violence everywhere, and Israel is the only ally strong enough to stand with America against a regime that feeds on instability. Two democracies. Two advanced militaries. One common set of enemies.

War has a way of revealing who your real friends are. When missiles start flying and oil prices jump like a startled cat, the polite talk about “global partnerships” disappears. Steel talks. Radar talks. Jet fighters scream across the sky. And suddenly you see who actually shows up.

That is why the alliance between the United States and Israel looks different from the usual diplomatic handshakes. It is not built on polite speeches at the United Nations. It is built on shared danger, shared values, and a shared enemy that has been causing chaos in the Middle East for almost half a century. When I look at the battlefield that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, the truth becomes painfully obvious. America and Israel are not just cooperating. We are fighting the same war.

Some people hate hearing that. Too bad. When the house is on fire, you don’t debate the color of the fire truck.

Let me start with the simple fact that critics always pretend not to see. Israel is the only fully functioning Western-style democracy in the Middle East. It holds competitive elections. It has a Supreme Court that regularly rules against its own government. Its parliament, the Knesset, is loud, messy, and democratic in the same chaotic way Congress is loud and messy in Washington. You can criticize the government in Tel Aviv without disappearing into a prison cell.

Try doing that in Tehran.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has been run by a theocratic regime that mixes religion with raw power. That revolution overthrew Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and brought Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. Within months, Iranian militants stormed the United States embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days. That was not Israel’s fight. That was America’s humiliation.

The feud between Washington and Tehran did not begin because of Israel. It began because the Iranian regime declared the United States “the Great Satan.” Those were their words, not mine. From that moment forward, Iran made exporting revolution part of its foreign policy. The results have been written in blood across the Middle East. In 1983, a truck bomb destroyed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American service members. U.S. intelligence later tied the attack to Hezbollah, a militant group created and funded by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Fast forward a few decades and the same pattern keeps repeating. Iran arms Hezbollah in Lebanon with an estimated 150,000 rockets. Iran bankrolls Hamas in Gaza. Iran funds Shiite militias in Iraq. Iran backs the Houthis in Yemen, who have attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea, threatening a trade route that carries roughly 12 percent of global commerce.

Everywhere you look, the fingerprints look the same. And in the middle of that storm stands Israel.

Here is the part that many critics refuse to admit: Israel is not some fragile little state surviving on sympathy. It is a military powerhouse. Israel has around 170,000 active-duty troops and about 465,000 reservists. Its air force operates advanced aircraft such as the F-35I Adir, a customized version of America’s stealth fighter. Israel fields roughly 600 combat aircraft, a number comparable to or exceeding the fighter fleets of several major European powers, including Britain and Germany.

Let that sink in. Germany has a population of about 84 million people. Israel has about 9.7 million. Yet Israel’s air force remains one of the most technologically advanced in the world. That is not weakness. That is competence. And competence matters in war.

The United States has spent years begging NATO members to increase defense spending. NATO agreed that members should spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense. For years, many did not. In 2014, only 3 NATO members met that benchmark. Even today, several large European economies struggle to meet it.

Israel does not struggle with that problem. Israel spends roughly 5 percent of its GDP on defense, one of the highest defense spending rates in the world. When missiles start flying, Israel does not call a committee meeting. It fires back. That kind of partner is rare.

The cooperation between the United States and Israel goes far beyond shared intelligence. It includes joint military technology that saves lives. The Iron Dome missile defense system, developed by Israel with U.S. financial support, has intercepted thousands of incoming rockets since its deployment in 2011. During the 2021 Gaza conflict alone, Iron Dome intercepted about 90 percent of rockets heading toward populated areas.

That system works because the two countries pooled their brains and their budgets. The same partnership produced the Arrow missile defense system designed to intercept ballistic missiles, including potential Iranian missiles. American engineers and Israeli engineers work side by side on these projects because they face the same threats.

Critics sometimes whisper about conspiracies, as if the alliance is some secret puppet show run behind closed doors. That is nonsense. The alliance exists for the same reason alliances have existed throughout history: survival. Iran’s leadership openly calls for Israel’s destruction. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly said Israel should be “wiped off the map.” Iranian leaders have funded armed groups that attack Israeli cities with rockets. That is not political disagreement. That is open hostility. And it does not stop at Israel.

Iran-backed militias have attacked U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria dozens of times over the past decade. Iranian operatives were linked to the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people. Iranian plots have targeted dissidents and officials in Europe and North America. This is the regime some critics want America to treat like a misunderstood neighbor. I do not buy it.

Some voices on the political fringes argue that the United States should distance itself from Israel. They claim the alliance drags America into unnecessary conflicts. But when I look at the evidence, the argument collapses. Iran’s hostility toward America began before Israel became a central issue in U.S. politics. The Tehran hostage crisis happened in 1979. The Beirut bombing happened in 1983. The pattern of Iranian-backed violence has continued ever since. In other words, the storm was already raging before Israel stepped into the picture. Israel simply happens to be the most capable ally standing in the middle of it. And that is the uncomfortable truth many critics do not want to admit. Israel is not a burden to the United States. In many ways, it is a force multiplier. Israeli intelligence has helped disrupt terrorist plots. Israeli missile defense technology protects civilians. Israeli military innovation pushes forward technologies that American forces later adopt. If you are walking through a dangerous neighborhood, you want a partner who knows how to fight.

The Middle East remains one of the most volatile regions on the planet. Energy routes, religious tensions, and regional rivalries collide there every day. Iran’s government continues to pursue influence through proxy forces and missile programs that threaten its neighbors.

Against that backdrop, the United States and Israel stand shoulder to shoulder not because of conspiracy theories, not because of sentimental politics, but because the strategic math makes sense. Two democracies. Two advanced militaries. One common set of enemies. War does not care about ideology seminars. It cares about capability.

And in that brutal arithmetic of survival, America and Israel remain natural allies—partners forged not in polite diplomacy, but in the cold, unforgiving logic of a dangerous world.

 

This article stands on its own, but some readers may also enjoy other  titles in my “Brief Book Series”. Read them here on Google Play: Brief Book Series.