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Which country is America’s most important ally?
Hands down, it is Israel. Israel is the only other genuine democracy on the planet that is a nuclear superpower with the will and ability to project hard power across vast distances and which provides the United States with a reliable ally in what has been the most turbulent area of the world since the end of World War II.
Israel, is, of course, not our only ally in the free world, or even our only ally in that region. Former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis has routinely referred to the United Arab Emirates, to cite the obvious example, as “little Sparta” for two decades, and the general is right to call attention to the U.A.E.’s reliable friendship and commitment to our shared interests.
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In the Pacific, we rely on Australia, India, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea to help the U.S. maintain freedom of the seas and pose a balancing force to the hegemonic ambitions of General Secretary Xi and the People’s Liberation Army and Navy. Even communist Vietnam is tipping towards the status of “ally.”
Our old allies remain, in theory at least, our partners in protecting freedom around the globe, but increasingly are limited by their growing anti-Israel and generally left-leaning populations when it comes to joining with the U.S. to project power anywhere outside of Europe.
Did you see any British or French fighter aircraft alongside our B-2s and fighter planes and the Israeli Air Force when it came time to demolish the imminent nuclear threat of Iran? Of course not, and not just because of the political pressures generated by waves of new immigrants from the devastated countries of Libya and Syria and the poverty-stricken countries of Africa.
Europe is changing before our eyes, and we should be happy that it can still summon the will to join with Ukraine on one “hot” front in the second Cold War. Both France and the United Kingdom will point to their efforts alongside ours in helping Israel protect itself against the missile assaults by Iran in 2024, but both nations were missing during the 12-day war of Israel and the United States against Iran in June of this year. All of Europe benefited from defanging the mullahs, but they were not there when Iran’s nuclear capabilities were obliterated, even as Iran’s ballistic missiles rained down on the Jewish state. Both then engaged in a “two-state theater” when the U.S. and its Gulf allies were imposing a cease-fire on Hamas, one which included the return of the last 20 living hostages from the tunnels of Gaza.
We have to hope that India grows closer to the U.S. and that Japan and Australia join South Korea in ramping up their defense spending. (South Korea expends 2.8% of its GDP on defense while the other two nations are below 2%.)
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We don’t have to “hope” for anything when it comes to Israel. Israel is spending 8.8% of its GDP on the IDF in these years of war and is closer to 5% than 4% even in the most peaceful of years. Israel’s high-tech defense sector also powers much of the innovation the free world requires to remain free. Even its critics recognize Israel as an “intelligence superpower,” and its democracy as genuine as any Western nation.
When it comes to assessing America’s allies, Israel is “first among equals.”
Hugh Hewitt is host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show,” heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
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