The United States and Israel: Two Halves of a Toxic Whole
Photograph Source: James Emery – CC BY 2.0
America’s close partnership with Israel has been costly. Tel Aviv’s expansionist policies in Palestine and pursuit of military dominance over its neighbors have driven instability in the Middle East and distorted once predictable international institutions and norms.
The United States, banking on its regional proxy, has followed Israel into the abyss, destroying the framework of international law, human rights and the rules-based order it created, to its own interests, following the Second World War.
For decades, the United States has thrown the full weight of its political, economic and military might behind Israel. It has done so, to ensure that Palestine is never liberated, knowing that a free sovereign Palestine would mean the end of its Zionist proxy and the beginning of liberation movements throughout the Arab world.
Washington’s adherence to a policy of strategic opportunism has morphed into an imbalanced Israel-first agenda that has had calamitous consequences for the Palestinian people, the United States and the world.
A 2025 report titled, “U.S. Security Cooperation with Israel,” issued by the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, detailed how deeply intertwined, at all levels, Washington and Tel Aviv have become. Under U.S. law, Israel is on the short-list of America’s major “non-NATO allies,” with unprecedented privileged access to the most advanced U.S. military platforms, support and technologies.
Although Israel is ranked the 14th richest (per capita) country in the world, it has received over $317 billion (adjusted for inflation) in economic and military assistance from the United States; making it the largest cumulative recipient of foreign assistance since 1946. Concomitantly, the government has neglected the basic needs of the American people.
Despite America’s exhaustive support, most Israelis tend to believe that American officials and public are inherently “dupable and naive”, especially about the Middle East.
In order to envision a different narrative, it is important to reflect on the U.S.-Israel “special relationship” and how it has enfeebled America’s global leadership. Although Israel’s efforts to gain unilateral advantage in the region have harmed U.S. interests, Tel Aviv continues to count on the United States to do its heavy lifting.
There are many cases that illustrate how Israel has undermined and/or ignored Washington. I will, however, analyze significant examples, beginning with the forever wars it has drawn America into and continues to demand.
Forever Wars and Endless Violence
According to Brown University’s “Cost of War” project, America’s post-9-11 wars (2001 to 2022) have killed at least 4.5 to 4.7 million people and have cost taxpayers approximately $8 trillion.
The United States has paid in flesh and fortune in wars with enemies Tel Aviv has invented or created by its occupation of Palestine and seizure of the territory of its neighbors.
Tel Aviv and Washington have designated national liberation groups or countries that have opposed Israeli hegemony, as terrorists or “threats to national security;” beginning with Iraq in 2003 and followed by others.
As prime minister from 1996 to 1999, then as a private citizen, Benjamin Netanyahu strongly lobbied Washington for preemptive military action against Iraq, claiming falsely that its leader, Saddam Hussein, was developing nuclear weapons.
In a 1996 paper written for Netanyahu, titled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” influential U.S. pro-Israel neoconservatives—some serving in President George W. Bush’s administration—urged Israel to shape the region to its strategic advantage by removing “hostile” regimes. It advocated for a radical vision of a new Middle East and focused on containing Iraq, Syria and Iran.
Netanyahu, in September 2002, testified before a U.S. Congressional Committee imperiously arguing for the invasion and overthrow of the Iraqi regime; deceitfully stating, “If you take out Saddam…, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region. And, I think that people sitting right next door, in Iran, the young people, and many others will say the time of such regimes, such despots, is gone.”
Netanyahu’s predictions were not only spurious, they were deadly; as the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq proved. Netanyahu lied; Iraqis and Americans died.
Eight years and nine months later (December 2011), no weapons were found, more than half a millionIraqis and approximately 4,492 U.S. soldiers were killed, and an estimated $2 trillion (long-term costs) was squandered. The region, more unstable than ever, has never recovered from the negative reverberations of “shock and awe.” The war gave rise to the Islamic State and other extremist groups and shattered the fragile regional order that existed before 2003.
The geopolitical order in the Middle East and Iran’s place in it have been at the heart of much of the tension among Tehran, Washington and Tel Aviv.
Because Iran has been a bulwark against Israeli hegemony and an uncompromising supporter of the Palestinian cause, it has sought, since the 1979 Revolution, to weaken the country to the point of regime change. In addition, at every turn, Israel and its influencers have thwarted Tehran’s attempts at rapprochement with the United States.
Decades of anti-Iran propaganda and covert operations against the Islamic Republic culminated on 21 June 2025 with the U.S. dropping 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs on three Iranian nuclear facilities and 12 days of Israeli airstrikes that killed over 1,000 Iranians.
During the Trump administrations, Tel Aviv has been able to achieve two of its demands: 1) abrogation of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which would have limited its nuclear program in exchange for economic sanctions relief; and 2) America’s direct entry into Israel’s long-sought war against Iran.
That the JCPOA could have laid the foundation for detente between Washington and Tehran ran counter to Israel’s destabilizing expansionist project.
It was Netanyahu’s threats to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities that prompted the Obama administration to negotiate and finalize the JCPOA; thereby, neutralizing the Israeli-manufactured nuclear crisis and avoiding war. And it was Netanyahu’s strident campaign against it that led the Trump administration to withdraw in 2018.
At the start of Trump’s second administration, Netanyahu had already proposed a series of options to attack Iranian facilities. The threat that Israel might attack unilaterally—which U.S. intelligence indicated it might do—as well as hawkish Israeli allies, thrust the United States into Israel’s longed-for war; a war that had been soundly rejected in 2015.
Netanyahu continues to press Washington for more military action against Iran, regardless of consequences to the U.S. and the entire region. This time Israel’s target includes the country’s missile program—its major line of defense against Israeli air strikes.
Years of unflagging support has led Israel to understand that direct attacks on the United States and its citizens will be tolerated by American politicians. The destruction of the USS Liberty and murder of American citizens established that precedent.
Assault on the USS Liberty
Israel, in 1967, waged war not only on its Arab neighbors, but on the United States as well, and got off scot-free. The long-suppressed story of Israel’s assault on the Liberty, is testament to the great lengths that Washington has been willing to go to protect Israel.
The violent attack of 8 June on a U.S. Navy intelligence ship by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War resulted in the deaths of 34 American crew members and the wounding of 171 others.
During the sustained onslaught, U.S. rescue jets that were sent to assist the Liberty were recalled by orders from Washington. The cover-up began soon after the attack. A total news blackout was imposed and survivors were told, under threat, not to discuss it with anyone.
There is little doubt that Israel intended to sink the Liberty, leave as few survivors as possible and that both regimes covered it up.
It is astounding that Washington has, over many years, systematically failed to hold Israel criminally accountable for the killing of American citizens. That dereliction has been especially evident with regard to the murder of Americans in Palestine. U.S. citizenship has provided no protection or immunity from Israeli violence.
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old human rights activist from Washington State, was crushed by a military bulldozer while protesting house demolitions in Gaza in 2003. Since then, 13 other U.S. citizens have been reported killed by Israeli soldiers and squatters or while in Israeli custody. Justice was never given them or their survivors.
Spies Among Us
Israeli intelligence agencies have long been active in the United States, carrying out a number of operations, including the likely theft in the mid-1960s, from a nuclear processing plant in Apollo, Pennsylvania, of enough highly enriched weapons-grade uranium to make at least ten nuclear bombs.
One of the most serious betrayals of national trust was the case of Jewish-American Jonathan Pollard, a U.S. naval intelligence analyst, who spied for Israel. His case made tangible that Israel has never been a loyal American ally.
FBI agents arrested Pollard on 21 November 1985 for spying on the U.S. government. The U.S. military had entrusted him with some of the most sensitive government secrets. Rather than uphold his oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the U.S. against all enemies, foreign and domestic;” he chose to betray the national trust in favor of a foreign regime.
For large sums of cash, Pollard gave Israel tens of thousands of top-secret documents, that seriously damaged U.S. intelligence and jeopardized lives. Because of the magnitude of the stolen data, he received a life sentence in 1987.
Vehement opposition from U.S. defense and intelligence officials, across Republican and Democratic administrations, was a primary reason that efforts to secure Pollard’s freedom failed, despite numerous pleas from Israeli leaders. George Tenet, CIA director in 1998, threatened to resign if President Bill Clinton released him as part of a Mideast peace deal.
During Pollard’s incarceration, Israel gave him citizenship and deposited $5,000 a month in his name in a Swiss bank account. He was paroled in 2015, after serving 30 years. Five years later, the Trump Justice Department lifted his parole restrictions. He was then flown to Israel on a private jet courtesy of Zionist American billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, and given a hero’s welcome by Prime Minister Netanyahu upon arrival in Tel Aviv.
To add insult to injury, U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a Christian Zionist and staunch Israel supporter, broke protocol, and met in secret with the convicted traitor, Pollard, at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in July 2025 (disclosed in November).
U.S. counterintelligence officials consistently rank Israeli espionage as the most active in America. According to a 1996 General Accounting Office report, “Country A (identified by intelligence sources as Israel) conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the United States of any U.S. ally.”
Although the Pollard case remains the most high-profile because of his life-sentence, he was not the only American to spy for Israel; among the most notable:
+ Richard K. Smyth, physicist and government consultant, arrested in 1985. Smyth was the principal link in aiding Israel obtain critical nuclear components and technology. Between 1980 to 1982, he illegally exported shipments of krytons (nuclear trigger devices) to Israeli arms dealer, Arnon Milchan (who went on to become a prominent Hollywood producer), who then mediated the transfer of the krytons to Israel. Although Milchan admitted publicly that he spent years working as an undercover operative for Israel, he was never indicted.
+ Ben-Ami Kadish, an engineer, provided classified military manuals on U.S. missile defense systems and nuclear weapons design to his Israeli handler (he reported to the same handler as Jonathan Pollard). Although he committed espionage in the 1980s, Kadish was sentenced in 2009, paid a $50,000 fine and served no prison time.
+ Lawrence Franklin worked as a senior Pentagon analyst at the Department of Defense, specializing on Iran. While working for Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, he passed classified documents to an Israeli diplomat and to AIPAC. He pleaded guilty in 2005 and received a 12-year sentence, serving only ten months under house arrest.
+ Stewart Nozette, U.S. government scientist, was arrested in 2009, for attempting to transfer U.S. nuclear and space technology to Israel. He served 13 years in prison and was released in 2020.
Israel’s ongoing deception was evidenced again in 2019 when the FBI and other intelligence agencies concluded that it had been planting cellphone surveillance devices near the White House and other sensitive Washington locations to intercept the private conversations of top American officials. Israel faced no consequences or rebukes from the White House.
Israel’s hubris has mobilized detractors and enemies worldwide. It was the toxic union between the United States and Israel that gave birth to the horrific attacks of 9-11 on American political, military and financial centers.
Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the architects of the 2001 attacks, detailed the reasons for the assault in bin Laden’s “Letter to America” of 24 November 2002. The letter makes clear that the interminable suffering of the people of Palestine, enabled by the United States, was the principal grievance that motivated 9-11.
The suicidal bombers of September 2001 employed terrorism to attack U.S. foreign policy and to influence events. And Israel cynically used the event to implement its regional expansionist agenda, fabricating pretexts for an invasion of Iraq.
The tragedy of 9-11 left little doubt: America’s alliance with Israel has been destructive and fatal. Despite its espionage and perfidy, the United States has not condemned, rebuked, sanctioned or punished Israel in any manner. On the contrary, it has continued to empower the genocidal regime.
The United States has allowed AIPAC, Israel’s political action arm in the United States, to influence U.S. elections and promote policies favorable to Israel’s interests. Although those objectives most often run contrary to American national interests.
The United States has not required the influential group to register as a foreign agent even though:
+ its predecessor, the American Zionist Council, was ordered to do so by the Justice Department in 1962; it relaunched as AIPAC in 1963, and skirted the law by using U.S. donors.
+ it operates an office in Jerusalem since 1982, has direct links to Israeli leaders and sponsors trips to Israel for members of Congress.
+ it collaborated with Tel Aviv to commit acts of espionage, passing on classified U.S. documents to Israeli officials in 1984 and 2005.
Conclusion
Over the last two years, the U.S. government has demonstrated the lengths it will go and the cruelty it will tolerate to protect its investment in Israel. In service to the apartheid colony, it has curtailed freedoms and placed America and Americans at the center of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
Israel has changed America; not for the better. Like Tel Aviv, the U.S. government has become overtly lawless (case in point: the recent U.S. invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of its president and unlawful strikes on alleged drug boats in international waters, killing over 100).
In Israel’s quest for regional domination, it has, with Washington’s permission, gotten away with murder. It has become the model for the Trump administration, hell-bent on
It may be too late to detoxify the vicious worldview that was set in motion decades ago. In the absence of law, moral rules and accountability, disorder will increase.
Israel has determined that America is clueless and its politicians can be bought and sold. It is past time to bring sanity, sobriety and decency to Washington, to end the “special relationship” and prove Israel wrong.
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