Every year, the United States transfers $3.8 billion in military assistance to Israel. The sum is often characterized as foreign aid — a gesture of support for a close ally in a volatile region. But according to former Israeli ambassador Yoram Ettinger, the arrangement functions less as a gift than as an investment — one that yields returns far exceeding its cost, in the form of battlefield-tested technology, unmatched intelligence, and a strengthened American posture in the Middle East and beyond.
“Israel is not a foreign aid recipient. It is a force multiplier,” said the late Senator Daniel Inouye, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in remarks once shared privately with Israeli analysts. “The scope of intelligence Israel has shared with us is greater than that provided by all NATO allies combined.”
A Strategic Ally Without U.S. Troops on the Ground
Unlike NATO members, South Korea or Japan — which host tens of thousands of American troops — Israel bolsters U.S. strategic power without U.S. bases or personnel on its soil. Successive Israeli governments, whether led by the left or right, have acted unilaterally against groups and regimes hostile to American interests, from Hezbollah to the Islamic State.
Military analysts say Israel’s pro-active posture has strengthened U.S. deterrence in the face of adversaries such as Iran, Russia and China. Its operations provide Washington with a constant stream of battlefield data — intelligence that American forces use to refine tactics, upgrade weapons systems, and anticipate emerging threats.
“The U.S. military has saved billions in research and development because Israeli forces effectively serve as a cost-effective laboratory for our defense industry,” said retired Air Force General George Keegan, who once headed U.S. Air Force intelligence. “If we had to replicate the intelligence we get from Israel on our own, we’d need to build five more CIAs.”
Intelligence With Global Impact
The cooperation has often played out far from public view. In 2017, Israeli cyber specialists uncovered an Islamic State plot to smuggle explosives disguised as laptop batteries onto airplanes. U.S. and allied airports immediately tightened security.
In early 2020, Israeli intelligence on Qassem Soleimani — Iran’s powerful Quds Force commander — helped American forces locate and kill him in Baghdad, according to U.S. and Israeli officials familiar with the operation.
More recently, Israel’s interception of Iranian drone and missile communications enabled U.S. forces to thwart planned strikes on American bases in Syria, Jordan and Iraq. In June of this year, Israeli air operations degraded Iran’s air defenses, paving the way for U.S. bombers to destroy three nuclear sites without encountering significant resistance.
Israel has also supplied critical information on Iranian, North Korean, and Chinese missile and drone technologies — data with direct implications for U.S. homeland defense.
A History of Shaping U.S. Military Advantage
The intelligence partnership dates back decades. During the Cold War, Israeli forces captured Soviet-made aircraft, tanks, radar systems and missile batteries from Arab states, passing them on to U.S. engineers. That trove, officials say, influenced everything from radar jamming techniques to the design of American fighter jets.
In the late 1960s, Israeli pilots developed tactics to evade advanced Soviet missiles in Egypt — maneuvers later adopted by U.S. gunship crews in Vietnam. In the post-9/11 era, Israel’s counterterrorism experience has shaped American doctrine in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Brig. Gen. Michael Vane, a senior U.S. Army trainer, acknowledged in 2003 that Israel’s lessons in counterinsurgency “shaped the U.S. war on terrorism” in ways few other allies could match.
A Return on Investment
Supporters of the arrangement frame it as an unusually productive security partnership. They point to Britain’s early 20th-century dismissal of the strategic value of a Jewish state — and the eventual loss of British influence in the region — as a cautionary tale.
“The U.S. recognized what Britain ignored: that Israel is not a financial burden but a uniquely reliable ally whose contributions more than pay for themselves,” said Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli diplomat and veteran of bilateral negotiations.
With the next decade of security assistance already under discussion, advocates argue that the $3.8 billion outlay should be viewed less as charity than as a shrewd investment in American security — one whose dividends are measured not just in dollars saved, but in lives spared and threats neutralized.
