Israel Is Not America’s Client. It Is America’s Forward Defense Partner

On Nov. 23, 2025, Israel struck at the heart of Beirut and eliminated Hezbollah’s chief of staff, Haytham Ali Tabataba’i. The operation was carried out by the Israeli Air Force, based on intelligence collected by the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate. Alongside Tabataba’i, four other known Hezbollah operatives were killed. No innocent civilians were killed.

In a single operation, Israel – without putting a single American soldier at risk – removed one of the world’s most notorious terrorists from the battlefield. The U.S. State Department had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Tabataba’i, citing his senior role in Hezbollah and his responsibility for operations that killed Americans.

This was not the first time Israel has acted in this way. For years, Israel has directly advanced American interests and helped protect the United States, Israel and the free world from some of the most dangerous terrorist organizations on earth. In many respects, Israel today stands at the forefront of the struggle against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – organizations responsible, directly or indirectly, for the deaths of thousands of Americans.

The reason lies in the common threat these actors pose to both the United States and Israel. Many of these terrorist organizations do not meaningfully distinguish between Israel, the “Little Satan,” and the United States, the “Great Satan.” They act consistently to endanger the shared interests of both countries. It also lies in Israel’s deep national understanding that the ultimate responsibility for its security rests on its own shoulders. Even in 2022, before the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks, Israel had the highest defense expenditure as a share of GDP in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as well as one of the largest militaries relative to the size of its labor force. Unlike many other U.S. partners, Israel does not depend on American troops to defend it against threats shared by both countries. It acts proactively to confront those threats itself.

In that sense, the U.S. benefits from an ally that does not merely receive American support, but actively removes direct threats to American interests – often without requiring American forces to fight.

The recent war with Iran underscored this point even more clearly. Many countries in the region shared the assessment that Iran posed a grave strategic threat. But only one country had both the capabilities and the willingness to act shoulder to shoulder with the United States in carrying out the campaign, while assuming significant risk. The military and intelligence cooperation with Israel enabled exceptional operational results that could not have been achieved in the same way without it. One may debate the justification for the war with Iran. But once the United States decided to pursue it, it had no more capable, committed and effective partner than Israel.

This partnership reaches its highest expression in the intelligence domain. Israel is not a member of the Five Eyes alliance, but its unique and diverse intelligence capabilities have served American security in countless ways. Israeli intelligence has helped thwart terrorist activity on U.S. soil, systematically weakened terrorist organizations, protected Americans in the Middle East, and collected unique intelligence around the world. In many respects, the Israeli and American intelligence communities are deeply intertwined. As in many other areas, cooperation between two of the world’s leading intelligence communities creates a whole greater than the sum of its parts – making both nations safer.

Israel is also one of the most effective real-world testing grounds for American military systems. Israel’s extensive use of U.S.-made weapons creates an unparalleled learning laboratory in which American systems are tested in combat against Soviet, Russian and Iranian-made weapons. When Israeli F-35s successfully operate against Russian or Iranian air defense systems in the skies over Lebanon, Syria or Iran, the United States gains critical lessons, and the world sees, in real time, the superiority of American military technology over its competitors.

The two countries’ cooperation in military force buildup, defense innovation and research and development is equally unique. The combination of America’s “aircraft carrier” and Israel’s “speedboat” generates value that neither country could produce on its own. Israel’s startup culture – defined by innovation, flexibility, creativity and ambition – when integrated with the scale and depth of the American defense ecosystem, has helped produce some of the world’s most advanced missile defense layers. This is only one example of the bilateral cooperation and American access to Israeli defense innovation that directly serves the U.S. effort to preserve its military and technological edge over its rivals.

During my years of service in the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, I saw firsthand the strength of the U.S.-Israel security partnership – and the way it makes both countries safer, stronger and more innovative. That view was widely shared by my American colleagues, who understood well that the United States has few partners as effective, useful and proactive as Israel.

Media narratives and political accusations cannot change this central fact: Security cooperation with Israel protects the U.S. and American citizens, saves American taxpayers money and helps anchor American military superiority around the world. Israel’s presence in the Middle East, its unique capabilities, and its willingness to defend itself by itself make it one of the highest-return security investments the United States can make.

Lt. Col. (res.) Or Horvitz is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, and a former Lieutenant Colonel in Israeli Defense Intelligence (IDI), where he served as Head of the Hezbollah and Lebanon Branch (2022–24) and later as Senior Advisor to the Director of IDI (2024–26). Or was centrally involved in post–Oct. 7 transformation processes and Israel’s campaigns against Hezbollah and Iran.