Twenty-eight countries, including many hitherto reluctant to do so, have demanded an immediate end to Israel’s war in Gaza. Several, including France, the UK, Canada and now Australia, have moved to recognise the Palestinian state. Israel’s isolation among its traditional allies is deepening. Yet the United States, the only country with the power to stop the war, remains unflinching in its support. Under President Donald Trump, that support is unabashed, extending even to Israel’s proposed takeover of Gaza city.

But when it comes to Israel, Trump is not an outlier among US heads of state. Not in substantive terms. The truth is that no US president, Democrat or Republican, has been willing to use America’s enormous leverage to rein in Israel.

It goes back a long way. Harry Truman recognised the State of Israel within minutes of its declaration in 1948. It was a decision shaped by Holocaust memory, Cold War geopolitics and domestic political calculations. The US–Israel compact has been fortified by an intricate web of military cooperation, cultural identification and economic integration.

It has survived wars, occupations and repeated humanitarian crises, not because Washington is blind to Israel’s excesses, but because the costs of confrontation are deemed too high by the American political leadership.

The US–Israel partnership is quite unique. Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid, much of it military. The current ten-year agreement, signed by Barack Obama, guarantees $3.8 billion a year in US security assistance.

That money largely circles back to the US defence sector, creating tens of thousands of jobs. Joint projects like the Iron Dome missile defence system show how intricately intertwined the American and Israeli defence industries are.

Israel’s intelligence services feed US counterterrorism operations; its air force can strike Iranian weapons convoys or proxies without putting American troops in harm’s way.........

© National Herald