America’s Alliance With Israel Remains Indispensable

America’s alliance with Israel is one of our strongest – and most critical – partnerships. This isn’t an accident. Both countries are democracies, fiercely protective of our right to self-determination; both seek a world order in which our people can build ever freer, safer, and more prosperous futures; both are grounded in the Judeo (and in America’s case, Judeo-Christian) tradition; and both truly do appear to be evidence of God’s Providence.

These truths have long been evident to many of us. And yet amid the tumult of Middle Eastern politics, and with Israel entering a tough new phase in its war with Hamas, it’s important to reiterate just how much America has gained from our partnership with Israel and how much we stand to lose should we waver from our commitment.

As the sole fully-fledged democracy in the Middle East, Israel’s interests – and its adversaries – tend to align with our own. After the Arab nations gave up on trying to destroy the Jewish tate through conventional military campaigns, Israel’s enemies shifted gears to asymmetrical terror campaigns and killed thousands of innocent civilians in the process. With support from Iran, Israel’s terrorist enemies in the north and the south have conducted years of harassment and terrorism.

Despite this constant threat, Israel continued to find ways to thrive. The resilience, ingenuity and sheer nerve of the Israeli people has always appealed to Americans’ own values of freedom, liberty, grit and determination.

Thanks to Iron Dome and the strong policies of the first Trump Administration, Israel enjoyed years of relative peace – until that terrible day on October 7, 2023, when Hamas unleashed the most brutal assault on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

A year-and-a-half later, Israel is close to decimating Hamas and has seriously damaged the leadership of both Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. But their task is not yet complete, and the Israeli government has made clear that they must remain on the battlefield until Hamas is neutralized.

I believe that most Americans understand, to their core, that this fight is our fight too; that neither Israel nor the U.S. can accept a world in which the people responsible for kidnapping and murdering children and brutalizing thousands of innocents can continue to exist; and that we cannot allow Iran to continue its evil enterprise and – much worse – allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.

But worryingly, recent polls also indicate that an increasing number of Americans have a more negative view of Israel than they did before the start of the current war. Some seem to believe that the war has simply been going on for too long or that the assault on Gaza has been “disproportionate,” or – less common but more disturbing – that Hamas was somehow in the right.  Some may believe r that U.S. military intervention to stop Iran’s nuclear program might drag us into another Middle East conflict – forgetting that an Iranian nuclear weapon could be used not just against Israel but could also reach the United States.

American leaders must make the case that the best outcome for America – and for the Middle East – is one in which Israel’s enemies are defeated and its neighbors are incentivized to pursue peaceful and productive relations with the Jewish state.

Of all my accomplishments as Secretary of State, I am most proud of my work strengthening America’s relationship with Israel and making life more difficult for our shared enemies. Our 2019 recognition of Judea and Samaria as rightful parts of the Jewish Homeland – dubbed the Pompeo Doctrine – affirmed the rights of our Jewish brethren to settle in core areas of their ancestral homeland. And the landmark Abraham Accords – which accomplished the once unthinkable task of normalizing relations with Israel and the Arab nations UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan – represented the zenith of our approach.

Working side by side, the Israeli and American governments upset the diplomatic applecart by refusing to play the same old game that had failed so many times before. Instead, we cultivated partnerships with actors with a shared interest in a future grounded in peace and prosperity rather than perpetual grievance and unending violence.

With Iran and other enemies of Israel on the back foot, we have a window of opportunity to expand the Abraham Accords to bring in additional regional powers – a development that would further isolate our adversaries and advance peace and prosperity in the region. We have the chance to ensure once and for all that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. But that will only be possible if America remains steadfast in our commitment to this indispensable partnership.