For more than 75 years, the partnership between the United States and Israel has been one of America’s strongest and most enduring strategic alliances. American security assistance to Israel is not simply foreign aid. It is a strategic investment that strengthens both nations, supports life-saving joint defense technologies, enhances intelligence cooperation, and helps counter common adversaries, including Iran and its terrorist proxies.
American investment and support for Israel has paid for itself many times over. The United States has reaped enormous strategic benefits from its longstanding security partnership with Israel.
The historically close ties between the United States and Israel reflects America’s strategic, win-win partnership with the only democracy and our only reliable ally in the Middle East. Which other country in the Middle East could come close to matching what Israel has done for the United States during the past 75 years?
Reasonable people can disagree about the policies of any Israeli government, just as they can disagree with the policies of the United States government. Israelis themselves engage in vigorous debate every day. But there is a fundamental difference between criticizing government policy and voting to harm one of our country’s most important allies by eliminating security assistance that has helped Israel defend itself during an unprovoked and ongoing war that Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah launched on October 7-8, 2023.
Sadly and inexplicably, Congressmember Salud Carbajal voted last week to completely halt U.S. security assistance to Israel. Congressmember Carbajal joined 101 other Democrats in supporting this legislative amendment, authored by the virulently anti-Israel Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky. The vote, although falling well short of the required majority of 218, represents a significant and stunning break with the longstanding bipartisan commitment that has underpinned the U.S.-Israel strategic alliance for the last seven decades.
Both the Obama and Biden administrations maintained and strengthened this commitment. Congressmember Carbajal has now voted to abandon it.
This is not about partisan politics. Nor is this solely an issue for the Jewish community. Support for Israel’s security has long been a fundamental bipartisan principle because it advances both American national interests and democratic values while reinforcing the security of a close ally facing existential threats on multiple fronts.
Congressmember Carbajal’s vote was a lost opportunity to take a strong national security stand in support of one of America’s most important strategic partnerships. Instead, he chose to cave to the anti-Israel mob mentality prevailing at the fringes of both political parties.
Congressmember Carbajal’s vote harmed America’s national security, which depends on a strong Israel to help protect our vital interests in the Middle East, especially against Iran’s nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile aspirations. The Iranian regime, which for decades has threatened the United States and murdered and kidnapped hundreds of Americans, has made no secret of its intent to use those weapons. The consequences would be catastrophic.
This is a profoundly worrisome development, not just for Israel, but for all Americans who believe our national security depends on supporting our most important allies in an increasingly dangerous world.
Congressmember Carbajal owes his constituents an explanation for his vote. At the very least, he should explain why he believes his vote will protect and advance America’s national security interests. And, now that he has chosen to abandon a longstanding U.S. ally, he should identify which Middle Eastern country can serve as a better, more reliable, and more loyal strategic partner for the United States than Israel has been for the last 75 years.
