Relations between Israel and the United States

Relations between the U.S. and Israel are momentarily particularly complex. The hour approaches in which Iran and the international community could sign an agreement regarding the dangerous Iranian nuclear program before the end of March, which would freeze the program for at least 10 years.

For the state of Israel, Iran is obviously a very serious security problem — presumably, the most serious one the country faces. Moreover, it is a clear existential threat, since the leaders of the ambitious Iranian theocracy do not even recognize the right of the state of Israel to exist. Furthermore, Iran is certainly behind two terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas, financing and arming them. Both groups are violent; from the borders they share with Israel today, they point thousands of missiles Iran supplied them with at whatever target they see in the territory of Israel, not excluding innocent civilians. It is thus relatively simple to conclude that, for the Israeli authorities, this is a question of priority. The mere thought of the possibility of an Iran endowed with atomic weapons plunges them into an immediate and overwhelming nightmare.

For this, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tenaciously opposes negotiations of the international community with Iran regarding the suspected Iranian nuclear program. Israel will only feel safe if it is discontinued and completely left aside, but this deal would be very difficult for the religious leadership of Iran of today to accept.

This explains Netanyahu’s recent address in front of both chambers of the U.S. Congress, which was filled with tension toward the alluded negotiation should it enter into its final phase. For him, the arrangement that is in sight would always be extremely damaging to Israel; Netanyahu could never subscribe to what Iran seeks. However, the relationship between Israel and the U.S., beyond tactical ways, will surely not be affected if Netanyahu is ignored. It is built on shared values. The U.S. will always defend, we believe, the right of Israel to be the proud state that it is today, whatever the circumstances they may have to confront.

Nonetheless, it is also certain that the Middle Eastern board has enormously complicated itself. Iran, which has grown blatantly in its aspirations to become a regional power, is deeply involved in what is happening in Syria and Iraq, with troops in the various battles being fought today on both soils and with an unusual factional cruelty. Iran itself has a substantial influence in the current Yemeni chaos that has exploded on the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the leaders of which openly accuse Iran of having regional hegemonic pretensions.

Iran is, paradoxically, a de facto ally of the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State group and its inhumane barbarism. Their troops are on the ground, whose fighting is backed up by the decisive aerial support of the Western coalition — which is essentially in charge of the U.S. Air Force and coordinated indirectly through Iraq.

Today, just as they had done to other Iraqi cities — Amerli, Erbil and Baiji — the experimental Iranian militias, led by General Qasem Soleimani, accompany Iraqi governmental forces in their attempt to recover Tikrit; tomorrow, predictably, they will do this also in the decisive battle to retake Mosul, the second Iraqi city still in the hands of the Islamic State group which will be free by the middle of this year. These militias, it should be remembered, are the same that were responsible for the factional atrocities that were committed in the Iraqi civil war which erupted in 2011, when the U.S. troop withdrawal occurred.

The Middle Eastern crisis, as can be seen, has greatly expanded and the deep religious intra-Muslim conflict that pits Sunnis against Shiites has been enormously complicated. From there, the delicate question concerning Israel’s relevance and importance, which unfortunately is not yet resolved, is no longer the only urgent matter to consider in a region that has been filled with barbarism and inhumane horrors.