Supporting Israel isn’t charity — it’s America’s best weapon

Opinion>Opinions - National Security The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the view of The Hill Supporting Israel isn’t charity — it’s America’s best weapon Comments: by Earle Mack, opinion contributor - 08/08/26 9:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Earle Mack, opinion contributor - 08/08/26 9:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied Title: Israel AP Poll Reaction Image ID: 26211437696929 Article: FILE - An Image of the U.S. and Israeli flags is projected on the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, July 22, 2025. Following the U.S. involvement in the war between Israel and Iran. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)

Title: Israel AP Poll Reaction Image ID: 26211437696929 Article: FILE - An Image of the U.S. and Israeli flags is projected on the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday, July 22, 2025. Following the U.S. involvement in the war between Israel and Iran. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)

FILE – An Image of the U.S. and Israeli flags is projected on the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, Sunday, July 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)

America needs a tough, capable ally right now — not a fair-weather friend, not a country that ghosts us the moment things get hard.

Israel is that ally. No nation on Earth matches its military muscle, intelligence reach, technological edge, combat experience and sheer will to fight.

The recent war proved it. John Hannah, a former national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, called the U.S.-Israel military partnership “a qualitative leap forward.” This isn’t a handshake deal. It is a battle-tested alliance that delivers results in real time.

And the enemy it delivers against is Iran, the world’s top exporter of terrorism.

Iran’s regime is a fanatical machine that crushes its own people to fund chaos abroad. The way it treats women is not a side-issue — it is the regime’s playbook. A regime that subjugates half of its population isn’t just wasting talent. It is teaching domination as doctrine: obedience over freedom, force over persuasion. That doctrine doesn’t stay at home; it is Iran’s chief global export.

Tehran has chosen repression, torture and slaughter over prosperity. Oil money that could build schools instead bankrolls Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis — terrorist proxy militias spreading misery from Gaza to the Arabian Sea.

The Houthis have already choked off shipping lanes. Iran doesn’t even need to fully shut the Strait of Hormuz, since the mere threat is enough to spike insurance costs and gas prices from Ohio to Osaka.

If we stop short of finishing the job in Iran, its regime walks away with its uranium intact, its missiles intact and a stranglehold on global oil. Weakness, to Tehran, is an invitation to continue to terrorize the Middle East and possibly the free world.

This is why Israel matters. It built its military, intelligence and tech edge because its survival demanded it. And unlike some allies, it still has the guts to use it. Britain used to play this role, but decades of budget cuts and lost nerve have ended that. Nobody else brings what Israel brings.

Some American politicians are cheering for the wrong side. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has at times vowed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the moment he lands in New York, despite having zero legal authority to do it. His dangerous stunt only tells Iran and its terror network that politics might succeed where bombs have failed in splitting America from its strongest ally.

Netanyahu himself called it out for what it is. On Fox News, he said Mamdani was “fomenting hate” and turning New Yorkers against each other, and he is right. A sitting mayor spending his political capital boasting about the unlikely arrest of a foreign head of state, rather than the safety of his own constituents, isn’t leadership; it is theater with a target on someone’s back.

And Mamdani’s isn’t some fringe temper tantrum — over 100 House Democrats already voted to cut off military financing for Israel.

The fix is straightforward, if overdue: Stop treating this alliance like a handout. No other partner brings Israel’s combination of firepower, intelligence and tech innovation. That is the case for retiring the word “aid” and building a real partnership in its place.

Direct financial assistance can shrink as the alliance gets deeper — joint research, shared weapons programs, intelligence sharing, coordinated planning on AI, missile defense, cyber warfare and quantum computing. This is not about scaling back. It’s about leveling up.

It is smart politics, too. As long as this relationship runs through “aid,” critics on both sides will keep painting Israel as a freeloader instead of what it actually is: a battle-tested partner that makes America safer.

Make that shift, and you kill the argument being used to tear this alliance apart. Israel stays indispensable — but everyone finally sees the relationship for what it is: an investment, not a handout.

This isn’t charity, it’s national security.

Iran offers fanaticism, repression and chaos. Israel offers strength, innovation and the will to fight back. America must stand with Israel and deny Iran its win. Let’s finish the job.

Earle Mack is a former U.S. ambassador to Finland.