Israel as America’s Most Important Ally

Ron Dermer, a longtime adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and currently Israel’s strategic affairs minister, appeared at the annual meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, where he made the convincing case that Israel has become America’s most important security ally. More on his talk can be found here: “‘Britain has James Bond, Israel has the Mossad,’ Dermer says at Republican Jewish Coalition,” by Zvika Klein, Jerusalem Post, November 2, 2025:

Israel is the single most important ally for American security and prosperity over the next half-century, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer argued during an on-stage interview during the Republican Jewish Coalition’s (RJC) leadership summit in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Dermer told RJC CEO Matt Brooks that if Americans had to “choose one” country, it would be one that can defend itself, provide high-grade intelligence, excel in cyber, and produce advanced offensive and defensive weapons.

Running through a list of US partners, he said Canada “doesn’t have that intelligence service,” Australia lacks “that cyber capability or weapons making,” and that “Israel has a larger standing army than France.”

Germany, he added, “doesn’t have the Intel capabilities,” noting, “we’re selling Iron Dome to them, not the other way around.” He put only Britain in the same tier, but concluded that in the Middle East, where “you don’t want to put your troops,” Israel’s location and capabilities make it “more important than Britain” for US national security.

Dermer then shifted to economics and technology, framing the US competition with China as a race that will be decided by innovation. “Who’s your number one partner in the world for advanced technology,” he asked, answering that “Britain’s not in the same zip code as the State of Israel,” citing Israeli strengths in AI and autonomous systems.

“In terms of pure American interests, Israel is the most important ally in the world to sustain American national security and prosperity,” he said.

With a lighter aside, Dermer joked about Britain’s famed spy craft, recalling a meeting with the head of MI6. “I said, aren’t you ashamed of yourself? How do you let James Bond die on your watch?” he quipped, before returning to the core claim that Israel’s intelligence and cyber capabilities are world-class.

Dermer also thanked Washington for recent B-2 deployments, saying, “You sent the B-2s in, and we’re deeply grateful for that,” while stressing that “a lot of what happened happened because of the IDF” and “the leadership of Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

Dermer was referring to the B-2s that the US used to bomb Iranian nuclear sites in June, using bunker-busting bombs to strike — after the IDF had already struck the same sites during its 12-day war — uranium enrichment sites built underground at Natanz and inside a mountain at Fordow.

Israel offers the United States the fruits of its spectacular Intelligence operations,, with the Mossad second only to the CIA in such work worldwide, while in the Middle East, it is ahead of the CIA in its intelligence gathering. It shares with America, and only with America, its advances in cyberwarfare and cybersecurity, its constant improvements and innovations in both defensive and offensive weaponry (think only of Iron Dome and laser-based Iran Beam), its scientists are the equal of any working on the forefront of AI and autonomous systems. No other country offers the Americans such benefits.