Admiral Mullen's Visit: The Mutually Beneficial US-Israel Relations
Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, Executive Director of "Second Thought"
YnetNews, February 22, 2010
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3851844,00.html

The February 2010 visit to Israel by Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, sheds light on the larger context of US-Israel
relations, which transcends the Arab-Israeli conflict, leverages Israel's
unique capabilities, and benefits both the US and Israel. The visit
reaffirms that US policy toward Israel is based, primarily, on regional and
global strategic interests and not on domestic politics. US-Israel relations
do not resemble a one-way-street (the US gives and Israel receives), but a
mutually-beneficial two-way-street.

Admiral Mullen's visit to Israel centered on a series of aggravated mutual
threats and on the implication of the expected US withdrawal from Iraq
related to those threats: Iran's nuclearization, global Islamic terrorism,
domestic and regional war in Iraq, escalation of the ballistic threat,
Iran's subversion of the Gulf and the Middle East, Al-Qaeda's entrenchment
in Yemen which controls key sea lanes for oil tankers, the war on the
Saudi-Yemen border, the intensification of Iranian-Syrian cooperation, the
enhanced Middle Eastern profile of Russia and China, the Islamization of
Turkey, etc.

The evacuation of US forces from Iraq could trigger a political/military
volcano, with boiling lava sweeping Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and Jordan,
further deteriorating the region, highlighting Israel's contribution to the
national security of its most critical ally, the USA.

For example, in 2010, US special operations forces in Iraq and Afghanistan
leverage Israeli battle tactics and 61 year counter-terrorism experience. US
Marines
benefit from the Israeli-developed "Pioneer" unmanned aerial vehicle, which
provides intelligence otherwise unobtainable, preempting terrorists, thus
saving many lives. A US special operations colonel told me - in the office
of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - that his battalion benefited in Iraq
from Israel's unique contribution in the areas of training, urban warfare,
improvised explosive devices (IEDs), car bombs, booby-traps, suicide
bombers, roadblocks and checkpoints, interrogation of terrorists and
anti-tank missiles. According to Brig. General Michael Vane, Deputy Chief of
Staff at the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, the Israeli experience
played a role in defeating terrorists in Iraq's "Sunni Triangle."

According to Senator Daniel Inouye, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee
and its Subcommittee on Defense and a veteran of the Intelligence Committee,
contends that "Israel's contribution to US military intelligence is greater
than all NATO countries combined."

In September 2006, Israel demolished a nuclear plant in Syria, thus dealing
a blow to the anti-US Syria-Iran-North Korea axis, while upgrading the
posture of deterrence and joint interests of the US and Israel.

In 1982, Israel's air force was the first ever to destroy a Soviet built
surface-to-air network. Israel destroyed 23 most advanced Soviet
surface-to-air missile batteries, employed by Syria and considered
impregnable. Israel's battle tactics and lessons, electronic warfare and
other technological innovations were shared with the US, thus tilting the
global balance of power in favor of the US.

In 1981, Israel devastated Iraq's nuclear reactor, in defiance of brutal US
and international pressure - including a military embargo - thus according
the US the conventional option during the 1991 war against Iraq. It spared
the US and the world a nuclear confrontation, along with its mega human
losses and mega-billion dollar cost.

In 1970, a Soviet proxy, Syria, invaded a US ally, Jordan, aiming to topple
the Hashemite regime and activate a pro-Soviet domino scenario into Saudi
Arabia and the Gulf States. US forces were overly-involved in Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia, but Israel mobilized its military, forcing a Syrian evacuation
of Jordan, thus preventing a collapse of pro-US regimes, a setback to US
national security, havoc in the Arab oil producing countries and a blow to
the US standard of living. Israel's capability of snatching roasting
chestnuts out of the fire - with no US involvement - transformed President
Nixon into a supporter of enhanced US-Israel strategic cooperation, in spite
of the fact that only 12% of US Jews voted for him, and irrespective of
severe US-Israel disagreements over the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Former Secretary of State, General Alexander Haig, a former Supreme
Commander of NATO, refers to Israel as "the largest, most battle-tested and
cost-effective US aircraft carrier, which does not require a single US
personnel, cannot be sunk and is located at a most critical area for US
national security interests."
If Israel did not exist in the eastern flank of the Mediterranean - adjacent
to most critical oil resources and water lanes, in the intersection of
Europe, Asia and Africa - the US would have to deploy a few aircraft
carriers to the region, along with tens of thousands of military personnel,
costing scores of billions of dollars annually and risking involvement in
additional regional and international confrontations.

The Jewish State constitutes a battle-proven laboratory, which has improved
thousands of US-made military systems and technologies, sharing with the US
such improvements, thus enhancing the competitive edge of the US defense
industries, expanding US employment and export base, upgrading US national
security and saving many US lives and mega billion of dollars in terms of
research and development cost. For instance, the current generation of the
F-16 includes over 600 modifications, which were introduced by Israel.

If there had been an Israel-like nation in the Persian Gulf, there would not
be a need to dispatch hundred of thousands of US military personnel to the
region!
The US-Israel strategic cooperation surged meteorically during 1949-1992,
despite rocky disagreements over the Arab-Israeli conflict, entirely due to
a series of mutual threats and joint interests, which are much more
pertinent to US national security. In hindsight, such disagreements have
been merely bumps on the road toward unprecedented strategic cooperation.
On a rainy day - in the battle against Iran and other threats - Admiral
Mullen prefers a "tough nut" over a "punching bag" as an ally!