Iron Dome and U.S.-Israel security partnership face House vote threat
Netanyahu weighs in on Trump relationship, saying America has “no greater ally” than Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks exclusively with Jacqui Heinrich about the enduring US-Israel alliance. Netanyahu underlines common values and common goals with the United States, especially regarding Iran’s nuclear ambitions. He also expressed concern about the rise of anti-Semitic sentiment among young Americans and emphasized the historic solidarity between the two countries.
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On January 8, 2011, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head in Tucson, Arizona. Among the tools first responders reached was the ‘Emergency Bandage’, a pressure dressing so closely associated with the Israeli military that American troops dubbed it the ‘Israeli bandage’. He saved his life.
The deep friendship between America and Israel has saved and continues to save American lives. Israel is a friend and ally in every sense of the word.
AMERICA AND ISRAEL: AN AGREEMENT, NOT A CONTRACT
Admiral Brad Cooper, Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), recently visited Israel as the official guest of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff LTG Eyal Zamir. CENTCOM Commander and Chief of General Staff first had a long one-on-one meeting. This was followed by a meeting attended by other commanders. The IDF says the meeting serves as another expression of the relationship between the commanders and represents an additional step in developing the close strategic relationship between the IDF and the US military and strengthening defense cooperation between the two countries. (IDF Spokesperson Unit.)
The U.S. House of Representatives is about to vote on security aid to Israel, including an amendment by outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., to eliminate that aid altogether. Policy disagreements may exist even among closely related nations. “But these should not come at the cost of American lives and regional stability.”
Massie, the anti-Israel representative, found himself on the wrong side of the president after Trump endorsed his opponent in the last GOP primary. Result: Ed Gallrein defeated incumbent Massie as his voters turned to his increasingly unpopular positions.
Israel’s critics have long framed America’s support as charity, a one-way aid to a dependent client state. In doing so, they ignore what the relationship really is: a mutual strategic security and technology partnership built on shared values that has paid off for the United States time and time again.
The current conflict with Iran demonstrates this unique relationship. In 1979, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, called the United States the “Great Satan” for the first time; a day after the regime seized the US embassy in Tehran, setting off a 444-day hostage crisis. Later that year, Khomeini branded Israel the “Little Satan”; A deliberate hierarchy cast Israel as an American outpost. Israel is a beacon of Western values in a dark region, and it is this light that the regime is trying to extinguish. The decades since have seen American, Israeli and Western bloodshed at the hands of the Islamic Republic and its proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis.
People hold US and Israeli flags in front of a large group of anti-Israel protesters in Los Angeles, California, in November 2023. (David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images)
Two facts follow from this. First, believe your enemies when they tell you who they are: When they chant “Death to America,” they mean it. Second, what begins with the Jews never ends with the Jews. The terror carried out by Hamas against Israel in the 1990s spread to New York on and after September 11. America’s enemies are Israel’s enemies, and both fight for the benefit of civilization as a whole.
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Israel is also a major exporter and co-developer of technology, not a passive buyer; cyber technology is widely adopted by the United States and NATO. Among the most successful missile defense systems in operational history, Iron Dome is a US-Israeli joint venture built with American components alongside David’s Sling and Arrow. Israeli innovations in drones, cybersecurity, and armor have flowed into American systems as much as American funds have flowed into Israeli systems.
It doesn’t end here. In 2017, it was reported that senior Israeli cyber experts had infiltrated a small cell of extremist bomb makers in Syria. This is how the US learned that ISIS was working on explosives designed to fool airport X-ray machines by looking just like laptop batteries.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport before boarding his flight to Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. President Trump is visiting the country just hours after Hamas released the remainder of Israeli hostages captured on October 7, 2023, as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement to end the war in Gaza. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In another incident, Iran launched a large-scale drone strike on the Al-Tanf base near the Iraq-Syria border, where approximately 200 US troops are stationed. The base was recently evacuated upon early warning from Israeli intelligence. No American losses were reported. Long and deep Israeli-US intelligence cooperation has saved many innocent lives. From Iran’s latest assassination plot against President Trump to this regime’s use of criminal organizations in Australia and Europe to attack Iranian dissidents and other civilian targets, Israel is strategically positioned to be the eyes and ears of the West in a dangerous, volatile region filled with forces hostile to freedom and democracy.
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Almost every dollar Israel receives is spent on American-made weapons, aircraft and systems. The money doesn’t so much come out of the U.S. Treasury, it flows from there, reaches American manufacturers and supports jobs in all 50 states. Israel Aerospace Industries alone works with more than 800 American suppliers in 44 states. This is not a charity; a life-saving alliance through shared intelligence, battle-tested defense systems, and a military that never asks U.S. troops to defend it.
Aug. 1, 2011: In this footage from House TV, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., appears in the House chamber for a vote on a plan to increase the federal debt limit. (AP)
This is a partnership between two capable allies, not a welfare arrangement. This is the kind of alliance that puts the right bandages in the right hands at the right time on a January morning in Tucson. Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington at the time, said learning this fact was one of the proudest moments of his tenure.
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Some partnerships are measured in deals and dollars. Others are measured by a single life saved.
