Why America Wins When Europe and Israel Stand Together

US-European tensions at the Ankara NATO summit highlight the tectonic changes in the US global posture. America First may be the most misunderstood doctrine in modern American foreign policy. A lot of people, including plenty of Republicans, hear it as isolationism, a signal that the United States plans to pull back from the world. Democrats often read it as something worse: an abandonment of alliances that hands rivals an opening and leaves old partners exposed. Both readings may be missing the actual logic. The doctrine is narrower and more transactional than either side admits. Wealthy allies should carry more of the load. American commitments should pay measurable returns. And the United States should stop taking on jobs that others can do for themselves.

Apply that test to the relationship between Europe and Israel, and the case for strengthening it almost makes itself. A closer partnership lightens America’s own defense burden, keeps critical technology inside the Western bloc, feeds the intelligence that protects the homeland, and heads off the kind of regional collapse Washington would otherwise have to clean up. None of it asks for more American money or attention. Most of it asks for less.

Take the economics first. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, a relationship worth nearly 50 billion dollars a year, and the headline number understates how tangled the two economies have become. Israeli pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and precision machinery sit deep inside European supply chains. European capital, in turn, funds a good share of Israel’s tech sector.

The defense side matters even more. Israeli systems are already built into European arsenals. Germany’s Arrow 3, the interceptor at the center of the European Sky Shield air-defense plan, is an Israeli design. More than a dozen European militaries field Rafael’s Spike missiles. As Europe scrambles to rearm, Israeli radar, drones, and electronic-warfare gear are filling gaps that European industry cannot close fast enough. And because much of this hardware shares American components and joint development, the money flowing into it strengthens the U.S. defense base rather than competing with it. The more Israel helps Europe defend itself, the less Washington has to and the more it earns in revenues.

The quietest argument may be the strongest one. A tight Europe-Israel relationship keeps a great deal of valuable technology out of China’s hands, and that is not a hypothetical worry. Some of America’s oldest allies are already hedging against Washington, trimming F-35 orders and pulling U.S. software out of sensitive systems because they no longer fully trust the supplier. Israel, meanwhile, has been on Beijing’s wish list for years. If the European relationship sours, additional allies, including regional and European countries, have reasons to look east for trade and technology, and the capabilities the West can least afford to lose would go with them. A strong Europe-Israel-U.S. triangle does the reverse. It anchors cyber, drones, missile defense, AI, and semiconductors inside the Western ecosystem, which is exactly what the administration says it wants, at no extra cost to America.

Then there is intelligence. On Iran, on jihadist networks, on Hezbollah, Israel is among the best collectors in the world. Europe is often where those threats surface first, in its cities, its ports, its migration routes. When Europe and Israel share what they know, problems get intercepted there, before they reach American soil or an American target abroad. It is hard to find a better deal anywhere in the security budget: a real layer of protection that costs Washington close to nothing, paid for by allies doing the watching themselves.

The last point is the one that should focus minds in Washington. If the Europe-Israel relationship breaks down, the region grows more dangerous, and the United States is left with two bad options. It can step back in directly, which defeats the whole purpose of America First. Or it can walk away and let Russia, China and Iran move into the space. Retreat carries a price too, and it tends to show up later as a bigger bill: more instability, less influence, real damage to American interests, until staying out costs more than staying in ever would. Keeping Europe and Israel close is the cheapest insurance against that outcome.

None of this means taking sides in Europe’s bitter internal fight over Gaza, the West Bank, or the legal arguments around the Association Agreement. Those debates will play out on their own. But pressing Israel over policy is one thing, and cutting the strategic, economic, and technological cords that tie a capable ally to the West is another. The first is ‘normal’ politics. The second would be a self-inflicted wound, and America would help pay for it.

So, Washington has a job here, even if it is a quiet one. Spend more diplomatic capital to keep the current disputes from hardening into a permanent break. Push for continued joint defense and economic ties instead of decoupling. And say plainly, to both partners, that driving two of the West’s most capable players apart does no one any good except Beijing, Moscow, and Tehran. For a doctrine built on asking less of America, this is about as good as it gets: a payoff that costs almost nothing, as long as someone bothers to protect it.

David Siegel is the President of ELNET-US; he served as Consul General to the Pacific Southwest US and Chief of Staff to three Israeli Ambassadors to the U.S. Lawrence Muscant is a geopolitical & economic analyst, former Senior VP at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and adviser to the NAGEN Project.