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The Defense Relationship with Israel Makes America Safer

(Defense One) Matt Spence - The U.S. and Israel are far closer than many realize on our core issues. As President Obama's deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy from 2012 to 2015, I traveled to Israel over two dozen times to discuss the deepest threats to our nations and how to preserve Israel's "qualitative military edge." Last week, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter reinforced his priority that America's military must develop an insurance policy should Iran back away from the nuclear agreement. The defense relationship with Israel makes America safer. Israel has the military and intelligence capabilities of no other nation in the Middle East. It provides the U.S. critical intelligence, joint military exercises, and technology. Defensive technological cooperation can find better ways to shoot down enemies' missiles, defend against cyber attacks, and detect weapons smuggled through tunnels on Israel's border. The battle scars over the Iran nuclear agreement are not as deep as the shared interest in holding Iran accountable to the deal, and deterring and responding to Iran's destabilizing threats. A joint monitoring group for the Iran nuclear deal should be created. Its purpose should include discussing Iran's destabilizing activities in the region that go beyond the nuclear issue - Iran's significant conventional forces in the region, its terrorist attacks, and cyber capabilities. The writer is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for International Affairs.
2015-11-09 00:00:00
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