With Mubarak gone, US-Israel relationship more essential than ever

By Channah Barkhordari

In a mere two months, the wave of protests erupting across the Middle East has furthered one very simple truth to Americans: the United States requires a true, democratic friend and ally in the region. Amid rapid revolutions sweeping over country after country, the US-Israel relationship is vital.

With Mubarak’s departure from Egypt, US relations with the country are precarious, if not entirely uncertain. Though they have promised to honor Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt, current Egyptian military rulers are the only governing force of a country now lacking a true leader, undermining their once-solid partnership.

Whereas for the past 30 years the US government has supplied over $1 billion in yearly aid to Egypt and supported Mubarak, given the governmental vacuum created in his stead, there are no certain indications of continued monetary or political support. Though President Obama ultimately expressed that it was indeed time for Mubarak to step down, as history unfurls over the banner of tenuous international shifts, yesterday’s coalitions are fast becoming today’s question marks.

Tunisia’s future is clouded in uncertainty, as the flight of US-backed President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali has ungrounded the country’s mostly secular image to an alarmingly Islamic one. Thousands welcomed Rachid Ghannouchi back into the country with fanfare cheering after the leading Islamic party leader returned from exile.

In Lebanon, though President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton both threw their support behind former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the Iran-backed, Hezbollah favored candidate Najib Mitaki was named the new prime minister. Despite 30 years of U.S. involvement, including the presence of peacekeeping forces in the 1980s, tensions are rising and the future of the country is unknown

Likewise, all week thousands of Yemen’s students have emerged from their homes in protest, gathering in mirror of Egypt’s uprising and calling for the resignation of their president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Reports indicate that Yemenite officials used tasers and batons against the students.

Today, the only unflinching democratic partner the US can turn to in the Middle East is Israel. Now more than ever, as Egypt and its neighbors push for freedom, it is time to emphasize that support for Israel.

Checked against the surrounding turmoil, suddenly the benefits of an existentially unbreakable friendship with Israel are all too clear. An outpost of political, social, and economic cohesion, Israel is the premier strategic platform for the US, and one that would be impossible to replicate.

Other governments, on the other hand, are taking preemptive steps to avoid similar outbreaks among their own peoples.

At the start of the month, King Abdulah II of Jordan suddenly sacked his entire government from fear of becoming the next Egypt or Tunisia. On Sunday, the PA took a page from Abdullah’s book and dismissed all members of its cabinet with plans to hold upcoming elections, in an effort to ease the Palestinian population of the West Bank. In between, when faced with the threat of civil unrest following these recent trends, Syria lifted the ban on social networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

Argentina and Bahrain have also emerged as platforms of civil unrest. The former also recently seized materials aboard a United States Air Force cargo plane, accusing the US of attempting to smuggle in spy equipment, drugs and weaponry into the country, their mistrust resulting in a rift between the two nations.

In Bahrain, on the other hand, though the Gulf Cooperation Council recently came out in support of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, protesters stormed the island country’s main hospital with the bodies of over 200 dead citizens killed in the riots, while some doctors even joined them to express their outrage at being prevented from reaching the injured.

Similar uprisings are taking place in Morocco, where waves of democratic reform over the years have given way to covert dictatorship, while in Lybia the air force’s use of bombs to quell demonstrators brought the White House to condemn the “appalling violence.” Lybia’s longtime leader, Muammar Qaddafi, continually calls for the death and execution of the protesters.

The massive wave of anti-government protests that have swept Middle East in recent weeks makes one thing abundantly clear about the US-Israel relationship: it is invaluable.

Israel protects its citizens’ fiscal and social rights, runs on a free market economy, and enjoys open trade with a myriad of Western countries. More importantly, the rights that Arab populations currently seek—a representative government, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the right to vote, and other mainstay democratic values—are the very same longstanding policies that Israel upholds. In Israel, women and Arab-Israeli citizens visit ballot boxes side by side with supreme justices and Knesset members of the same gender and ethnicity.

Further, the US benefits from the strong compatibility between these sister societies, and American troops have even trained side by side with Israeli troops, share military and strategic intelligence, and like the citizens they protect, often face similar threats.

Were it not for its unbreakable ties with Israel, the US would have lost all footholds on the Middle East today. Without Israel, the US government would be faced with the challenge of attempting to create such a relationship—but to whom would they be able to turn? Israel is the only country in the Middle East with a practical system of governance, rooted in an unshakably democratic foundation; and as these past months have proven, it’s easier said than done.

As the US looks to make budget cuts in 2012, it must recognize that no cuts must be made to Israel. Continued and full support of Israel is both imminently necessary and beneficial. In 2007, President Obama released a security funding plan of $30 billion to Israel over ten years, and in 2011 requested $3 billion for security technologies assistance. These investments are sound not only because they directly confront the threats Israel faces from Iran and its internal proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, nor only because almost three fourths of that aid is spent on US-produced military materials. They are essential because when it comes to the Middle East, Israel is our sole democratic ally, and our only unshakable friend.

Take Action:

Contact your congressmen and urge them to continually voice their support for Israel.

Write to your local or campus media and articulate the importance of Israel today.

Additional Reading:

Will Egypt Be a Partner in Peace? Michael B. Oren, The New York Times

A Sudden Reminder that Values Still Matter Daniel Gordis, The Jerusalem Post

Israel Has Never Looked So Good David Suissa, Huffington Post

The Arab World's New Political Establishment Khaled Abu Toameh, Hudson New York

The Way Forward in Egypt Bret Stephens, The Wall Street Journal