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Netanyahu limited his remarks to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. None of these entities can destroy Israel, much less the Western democracies. A direct Iranian attack on Israel would be suicidal. However, he fails to mention Russia and China. The Arab nations had the backing of the Soviet Union when they attacked Israel in 1967 and 1973. I doubt the Iranians would have permitted their Hamas allies to attack without some assurances from at least Russia. These attacks benefit Russia as the need to assist Israel detracts from Western ability to support Ukraine. The attacks also benefit China as American diversion in Eastern Europe and the Middle East weakens American capacity to fight Chinese aggression.

Netanyahu is aware of geopolitical realities. He may not want to unduly antagonize Russia and China.

NATALIE ARMBRUSTER AND BENJAMIN H. FRIEDMAN
defensepriorities.com
OCTOBER 12, 2022

WHO IS AN ALLY, AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

In addition to the 51 allies the United States is obligated by treaty to defend, it has a number of quasi-allies: states the United States is not committed to defend but to which it provides a substantial degree of military and political support.

By creating uncertainty about U.S. commitments both at home and abroad, quasi-allies’ ambiguous status creates dangers for both the United States and the quasi-allies.

For the United States, the danger is entanglement; having quasi-allies can pull the United States into trouble outside its core interests, creating needless cost, risk, and even war.

Quasi-allies may suffer a kind of moral hazard; they may falsely believe they have U.S. military protection and fail to secure themselves sufficiently or become emboldened and dangerously provoke adversaries.

U.S. leaders should be more wary of these dangers and avoid loose talk and policy acts that imply a commitment to non-allies’ defense.

Wow. Russia does not need this for Ukraine. At any given time they could simply steamroll it. They haven’t, it’s called restraint. There is something else going on with Israel. For one, they knew the attack was coming. Start with thinking about that.

Netanyahu wants the US to declare war on 2 billion Muslims while Israel is backing Muslim Azerbaijan against Christian Armenia? Meanwhile Joe is facilitating Iran getting a nuclear bomb—and who does Netanyahu think it will be used against?