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The U.S. is using more of its resources to defend Israel than Israel is itself, according to U.S. officials who spoke to The Washington Post on Thursday.

The officials disclosed that the U.S. military has depleted much of its missile-defense inventory after using far more of the weaponry to defend Israel throughout the war on Iran than Israel has used itself.

The U.S. has launched more than 200 THAAD missiles, approximately half of the Pentagon’s total stock, as well as over 100 Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6 interceptors fired from naval vessels in the Mediterranean. Israel, on the other hand, fired fewer than 100 of its Arrow interceptors and around 90 David’s Sling interceptors — often firing these second-rate missiles when countering rockets fired by Hezbollah or the Houthis, and preserving its higher-end interceptors.

This raises questions both about the U.S.’s relationship with Israel as well as the U.S.’s use of weapons throughout the war on Iran.

Israel, the U.S.’s closest ally in the region since the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew Iran’s U.S.-backed Shah, reportedly pressured Trump to begin the war on Iran. Netanyahu’s administration has consistently pushed for a........

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