From the 60 Second Expert: The Divergence of America and Israel, over at FPIF.
In reality, Israel offers limited value in the most important areas of the U.S. foreign policy agenda: stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, given the ongoing expansion of Iran’s power in the Middle East, Turkey will likely become a more instrumental U.S. ally, as it is capable of balancing Iran’s inevitable influence among Iraq’s Shiite majority.
The full article is also very illuminating.
I agree that Turkey (and the Kurds) are becoming very important allies of the United States, however I don’t think that they have become more important than Israel. As evidence I offer the following four things…
- Israel’s military is the most mighty in the Middle East.
- The Mossad is one of the most bad ass intelligence agencies in the world.
- Isreal has nuclear weapons.
- Every US President has a desire to make the “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians part of his legacy.
It will be interesting to see where things lie in ten years, but for the time being, I’d say Israel will remain the country to which the United States stays the closest.
Tags: forgein policy, FPIF, intelligence, Isreal, Kurds, Middle East, Mossad, nuclear weapons, Palestinains, peace process, Turkey