Absolutely not. That must be the immediate, unequivocal, and stern response from the State of Israel if and when any formal request to relocate American military bases or assets from other countries in the region to Israel is made by the US Central Command.
The response must also be as such if presented directly by the White House. In terms of the Americans, it is quite clear why they would want to transfer military bases and installations to Israel.
Operation Epic Fury – the American segment of the war with Iran – exposed what modern warfare analysts and many astute observers of the current multipolarity of geopolitics already understood – that the United States suffers from significant gaps in military capabilities and is vulnerable to multiple asymmetrical military threats.
These hybrid and asymmetrical capabilities possessed by weaker countries, such as Iran, as well as by great powers like China, also pose a challenge to other great powers, such as Israel and India.
In the case of the US, though, the large geographic spread and the highly exposed nature of its military installations, along with a lack of integrated, concentrated, and highly synchronized multitiered and multidimensional defenses, make the hybrid and asymmetrical capabilities of lower-tier and first-tier adversaries all the more dangerous and effective.
Iran and its proxies managed to strike multiple key American installations across the Middle East and beyond the immediate region, as with the attack at the UK’s Akrotiri military base in Cyprus. The Iranian’s were even bold enough to try to hit the incredibly strategic joint US-UK military compound on the Island of Diego Garcia.
These attacks led to numerous wounded US military personnel and the loss of sensitive US military equipment and essential heavy aerial platforms. This cost the US billions of dollars beyond the plus-minus $25 billion cost of direct offensive US military strikes against Iran.
And so, it is no surprise that Washington would very much want to rebase its assets in Israel, the country with the most advanced, battle-tested, effective, and integrated multitiered aerial defense array on planet earth.
Israel’s advanced defense, security capabilities
That array, though not guaranteeing 100% effectiveness, comes along with multiple other defense and security capabilities, creating a comprehensive, unparalleled, and constantly evolving organism-like shield around the State of Israel.
The Americans want to benefit from the protection of that shield.
For the State and nation of Israel, the considerations and perspectives concerning Washington’s reported potential inquiry have been forged in the cauldron of 4,000 years of history and the follies that once plagued it.
I write these words as I arrive in Rome. Two thousand two hundred years ago, the empire that would become the nation of Israel’s greatest enemy – which would set into motion damage both physical and immaterial to Israel that would only be rectified in the modern age – was in fact our ally. Rome and the priestly warrior rulers of Israel’s second independent kingdom – the Maccabees – were in alliance.
After a few decades of mutual interest – mainly due to Jerusalem and Rome both being adversaries of the Hellenistic kingdoms in the Levant – the ostensible alliance between the Hasmonean Kingdom established by the Maccabees and Rome fell apart violently.
How? When those very Hasmoneans, the descendants of the legendary Maccabean freedom fighters who refused to submit to foreign occupation and rule, turned to Rome – this within the pretext of aiding two Hasmonean brothers vying for the crown to settle their blood-soaked feud – the infamous Roman General Pompey brought the standards and swords of the Legions to the Land of Israel by invitation.
The lesson and warning for Israel today is clear. As the Bible declared already a millennium and a half before the Hasmoneans, the people of Israel are never to place above them a foreigner to rule and, by extension, never allow foreign influence and occupation of the Land of Israel that could facilitate that. The Hasmoneans’ invitation to foreign forces and rulers to enter the land and establish a presence indeed led to exactly that. That, of course, was a fatal error, a grave sin.
The United States might be our partner for now, but there is no, and never has been, such a thing as eternal allies. US President Donald Trump has illustrated that himself in terms of his policies and rhetoric toward Western Europe and NATO, and vice versa.
Theoretical US military facilities on Israeli soil, in many cases, could serve to hamper or even prevent Israel from acting on threats to its national security, due to divergent interests, or concern for US forces on Washington’s part. Ignoring such concerns, when their men and material are on your soil, is much more difficult than the reality of them not being present.
It would also reinforce, expand, and deepen the false narratives and tropes about US blood and treasure servicing the State of Israel, as well as the lie that the country has become some sort of vassal state of the Unites States. Israel would also be blamed, without hesitation and no matter the circumstances or context, if any US personnel were killed or wounded, or if any US equipment were to be damaged or destroyed.
Israel’s overall national security, freedom of action, national pride, and status as a military and technology superpower, which has only strengthened in recent months, would also be severely degraded.
If the US needs “safer shores” in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean, it should partner with Britain at its military base in Akrotiri and expand and harden the site.
Concurrent to that, the US can and should do the same at Multinational Force and Observers bases in Sinai. Its forces have already been present at those sites for decades. This would be a more cost-effective option, which could also be implemented faster.
No foreign military can ever be hosted on Israel’s soil on a long-term basis, let alone a “permanent” one. Our history’s most painful episodes dictate as much.
The writer is an Israeli hi-tech entrepreneur and a member of the Israel Leadership Forum. He is involved with various Israel advocacy causes, including working with Christian Zionists as well as pro-Israel Noahide groups.
