We Can Only Rely on Ourselves
Israel has repeatedly outsourced its security to others--the results have always been disastrous
The state created in 1948 to ensure that the Jewish people would never again have to rely on anybody else for our security has repeatedly outsourced its security to others. The results have always been disastrous.
In the 1950s, we outsourced our security to UN peacekeepers in Sinai and Gaza only to see them evicted overnight by Egypt in 1967. During the First Gulf War in 1991, when the IDF was prepared to intervene against Iraqi forces firing Scud missiles at Tel Aviv, Israel instead relied on U.S. troops to fire Patriot missiles at the Scuds. The Patriots missed. In the 1970s and again after 2006, we outsourced our security in Lebanon to an international force - UNIFIL - that not only failed to preserve our security but helped the enemy to undermine it. In 2012, Prime Minister Netanyahu refrained from taking military action against Iran and instead gave President Obama the time and space to conclude a nuclear deal that would address Israel’s basic security needs. Obama, instead, forged a treaty that enabled Iran to keep its nuclear facilities and vastly increase its funding for the terrorists seeking to destroy us.
Now, even after the agonizing lesson of October 7, Israel is once again outsourcing our fundamental security. We expected the United States to deter the Houthis and save the IDF from having to do that difficult job. But, as the published correspondence between U.S. decision-makers revealed, America was bombing Yemen not to protect Israel but to shield international shipping—and that only reluctantly. The U.S. and British campaign, moreover, has proven singularly ineffective in stopping Houthi missile fire at Israel. It has only increased and, as of Sunday morning, has scored a strategic victory by striking our airport.
Having witnessed again and again the dangers of outsourcing, it is crucial that Israel must not make the same mistake by relying on some other country or countries to eliminate the greatest threat of all. If Iran is once again enriched by a nuclear deal, it will reestablish its hegemony over Syria, revive Hezbollah and Hamas, and return Israel to the situation that existed on the morning of October 7.
Though Israel can justifiably seek compensation for such a deal—the purchase of US strategic bombers, for example. In times of crisis, we can receive foreign financial aid and the reinforcement of our anti-missile defense. But such measures cannot substitute for Israel defending itself, by itself, against existential dangers.
Seventy-seven years ago, the State of Israel declared its commitment to take the destiny of the Jewish people into our own hands. We must remind ourselves of that commitment and do whatever it takes to fulfill it.
This article originally appeared in Hebrew in Ynet on March 5, 2025
The old adage in life is true, in all situations. No one is coming to save you.
I’ve always felt Israel relying on weaponry from the U.S. was a big mistake. However, I suspect there's a powerful US military-industrial lobby, backed by AIPAC, that wants to keep the status quo 'as is' since it’s a highly lucrative deal for U.S. defense manufacturers. Why so lucrative? Because Israel’s military aid requires her to spend 75% of the aid on U.S. weaponry thereby subsidizing the U.S. military-industrial complex. This also lets the U.S. put its thumb on the scale to influence Israel’s defensive actions while giving our large base of evangelical friends the mistaken belief that the US / Israel bond is unshakeable and resolute based on shared democratic, cultural, and religious values. However, it wasn’t long ago, when Joe Biden thought he might lose Muslim votes in MN and WI that Chuck Schumer and the democrat politicians turned on Israel faster than a rat could scurry up a drain pipe. Just imagine the horror for Israel if Kamala and the democrats would have taken power.
Lastly, Israel has the brainpower and finesse to develop her own state-of-the-art weaponry providing hundreds of thousands of well-paying jobs to Israelis. In fact many of the U.S.’s most advanced weapons were developed by Israel or co-developed between Israel’s Rafael Defense Systems and America’s Raytheon. Weapons manufacturing could boost Israel’s economy exponentially and give her the option to make new military alliances with friendly countries if she wanted. The downside to America besides losing a huge subsidy is it wouldn’t be able to exert control over Israel’s decision making. But isn’t that good for the Jewish State?