Israel and the future of NATO

By Bjorn Hallberg

Ivan Eland makes a good case for why Israel should never be admitted to NATO. And it’s not just a question of geography.

Because threats to Israel’s security have diminished over time, and Israel is wealthy compared with its immediate neighbors, it does not need NATO protection. NATO membership would obligate the United States—the security guarantor in NATO—and its feckless European allies to help Israel battle Hamas and other radical groups in the streets of Palestine. The United States is already involved in two quagmires in Islamic nations—Iraq and Afghanistan. It doesn’t need to further inflame radical Islamist terrorists around the world by also helping Israel occupy Palestine. If you think anti-U.S. Islamist terrorism is bad now, try waving this red flag in front of the bull.

Additionally, this can be seen as a gimmick to breathe new life into NATO. Which is important to the U.S. as it is the one thing that binds European nations to American power. The resuscitation it was given with the Yugoslavian terror bombing campaign apparently didn’t do much. The idea of bringing in a member that is already a diplomatic black sheep and that cannot abide even superficially to human rights is bound to drag other NATO members, feckless or not, into a perpetual war.

Israel aims to do exactly what the U.S. is doing today, namely to introduce other NATO members into conflicts as means to legitimize their policies. And the NATO command structure is of course not shy about employing force, getting new deadly toys and sucking up to the U.S. Traitors as they are, working within the ranks of European society, but serving another master. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to make membership of the EU contingent on a withdrawal from NATO. Then, the U.S. and Israel can have NATO to themselves until they perish in the hate and the blowback of their own making.