In the unfolding confrontation with Iran, a difficult and increasingly undeniable truth has come into sharper focus: Israel is not merely fighting its own war. It is, in many respects, fighting the West’s war—often alone, often first, and at a cost others are spared.

This reality is made all the more striking by a simple fact: Israel is not a member of NATO.

It does not benefit from Article 5 guarantees. It is not formally sheltered beneath the West’s security umbrella. And yet, in practice, Israel has proven itself to be among the most consistent and effective defenders of Western strategic interests.

The contrast is no longer theoretical—it is visible, and increasingly jarring.

When Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the leader of a NATO member state, publicly accuses Israel of waging an unlawful war against Iran and assigns it primary blame for the conflict, one might expect a forceful response from fellow members of that alliance.

Instead, what followed was something closer to silence.

Not a unified rebuttal. Not a clear reaffirmation of shared strategic reality. Not even a sustained effort to challenge the inversion at the heart of the claim.

And that silence is not incidental. It is revealing.

Because it suggests that the problem is no longer confined to one outlier within NATO. It points to something broader: a diminishing willingness across parts of the........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)