Saving Dmitri: The U.S. Must Support Israel
Israel is under threat, and it is not only facing terrorism and missiles, but also the prospect of losing its greatest ally: the United States.
Israel was assaulted by Hamas, an Iran-backed terrorist organization largely based in Gaza, on Oct. 7, 2023. This has set off a chain of hostility that has continually escalated, most recently in the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) pager bombings of Hezbollah (a large terrorist organization, also known as “the party of god”) and Iran’s missile launch on Israel in response to the IDF’s assassinations of various terrorist leaders.
These events, while not directly involving the United States, continue to shape Western attitudes toward relations with Israel. The importance of U.S.-Israel relations cannot be understated for the nation of Israel, as it lies geographically among a plethora of past and present enemy governments and organizations, which have never gone an extended time without aggression toward the Israeli state, according to Middle East Forum.
When the Israeli state was formed May 14, 1948, President Harry Truman was the first world leader to recognize it as a country, according to the U.S. Embassy in Israel. Since then, the U.S. has remained Israel’s closest ally. However, the tide is turning in this regard, and Israel can no longer rely on the U.S. to have its interests in mind; a Pew Research poll indicated that among young adults — that is, America’s future decision-makers — Palestine is viewed more sympathetically than Israel. This poll was conducted after a surprise attack from a Palestinian territory on Israel.
Despite the fact that much of the anti-Israel movement in the U.S. is being led by uninformed college students who do not understand the consequences of their words, they are a large voter-base that many politicians will grant an audience to obtain votes. And to meet the demands of many within the movement, it would mean lawmakers would have to greatly draw back foreign aid to Israel.
It must be noted that according to the Department of State, the U.S. has consistently obligated about $3.3 billion to Israel in the previous five years. But in 2024, only around $453,000 has yet been committed to the nation, with Palestinian territories on track to receive about 425 times more than that by the end of this year. It remains to be seen whether this is a result of anti-Israel protestors getting their message across or simply a reflection on America’s quickly shifting foreign policy objectives.
But what is certain is that defunding or ignoring Israel is the best thing the United States can do to encourage further Middle Eastern genocide. To the uninformed, holding back funds and support from Israel (particularly the IDF) would seem like the most fitting tool to diminish the prospect of violence. However, the less America supports this small country amid countless enemy forces, the more an opportunity arises for the annihilation of Israel as a whole, which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran calls his “duty,” according to Al Jazeera.
Additionally, if Israel is left to fend for itself, it would likely deal even more harshly with its enemies because it would be condemned to live on by demonstration of its own strength, without the superior military might of the U.S. While Amnesty International accuses Israel of human rights abuses and U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese claims there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel is committing genocide, it seems few acknowledge that cutting off American aid would probably result in escalated violence. They also seem to have forgotten that ethnic Jews (who make up 73.5% of Israel’s population, according to the CIA) have been the target of some of the worst genocides in history.
The bottom line is that although Israel has proven its capability to defend itself, it cannot realistically do so forever. The threat of its American alliance is one of Israel’s greatest weapons, and as that is diminishing, so too is its time as an independent nation. Freedom House indicates that Israel is the only free country in the Middle East besides Cyprus. To deny a like-minded state the aid it needs to continue as a light of freedom is to allow this region to face the unkindest of consequences that come when a nation abandons an ally.
Kilker is the opinion editor for the Liberty Champion.