Our relationship with Israel benefits us infinitely, as would our relationship with our other close allies such as the UK, Canada, etc.
How?
In
specifically what way?
Your saying so doesn't make it so. You need to back that up with some solid facts. And there are none.
What are you, a total ignoramus? US Israel relations are very similar to US and any of its close allies. The fact that you're an antisemite who has problems dealing with it, doesn't mean jack.
Memorandum of Understanding
To address threats to security in the Middle East, including joint military exercises and readiness activities, cooperation in defense trade and access to maintenance facilities. The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding marked the beginning of close security cooperation and coordination between the American and Israeli governments. Comprehensive cooperation between Israel and the United States on security issues became official in 1981 when Israel's Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and American Secretary of Defense
Caspar Weinberger signed a
Memorandum of Understanding that recognized "the common bonds of friendship between the United States and Israel and builds on the mutual security relationship that exists between the two nations". The memorandum called for several measures.
Missile program
One facet of the US–Israel strategic relationship is the joint development of the Arrow Anti-Ballistic Missile Program, designed to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles. This development is funded by both Israel and the United States. The Arrow has also provided the US with the research and experience necessary to develop additional weapons systems. So far, the development cost has been between $2.4 and $3.6 billion, with the United States picking up 50 percent of the final costs.
Counter-terrorism
In April 1996, President
Bill Clinton and Prime Minister
Shimon Peres signed the US–Israel Counter-terrorism Accord. The two countries agreed to further cooperation in information sharing, training, investigations, research and development and policymaking.
Homeland security
At the federal, state and local levels there is close Israeli–American cooperation on homeland security. Israel was one of the first countries to cooperate with the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security in developing initiatives to enhance homeland security. In this framework, there are many areas of partnership, including preparedness and protection of travel and trade. American and Israeli law enforcement officers and Homeland Security officials regularly meet in both countries to study counter-terrorism techniques and new ideas regarding intelligence gathering and threat prevention.
In December 2005, the United States and Israel signed an agreement to begin a joint effort to detect the smuggling of nuclear and other radioactive material by installing special equipment in Haifa, Israel's busiest seaport. This effort is part of a nonproliferation program of the
U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration that works with foreign partners to detect, deter, and interdict illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials.
Military bases
The United States maintains six
war reserve stocks inside Israel,at Airwing 7 air base and maintains some $300 million in military equipment at these sites. The equipment is owned by the United States and is for use by American forces in the Middle East, but can also be transferred to Israeli use during a time of crisis. The United States is also alleged to keep fighter and bomber aircraft at these sites, and one of the bases is thought to contain a 500-bed hospital for US Marines and Special Forces.
[139][140] According to the American military journalist and commentator
William Arkin in his book
Code Names, the US has prepositioned in at least six sites in Israel, munitions, vehicles, and military equipment, and even a 500-bed hospital, for use by US Marines, Special Forces, and Air Force fighter and bomber aircraft in a wartime contingency in the Middle East.
[8]Arkin in his book writes that some of the sites are located at
Ben Gurion Airport, Nevatim, Ovda air base, and in
Herzliya Pituah. The sites are numbered as "site 51," "site 53," "site 54," "site 55" and "site 56." Some of the depots are underground, others were built as open hangars. According to Arkin, site 51 holds ammunition and equipment in underground depots. Site 53 is munitions storage and war reserve vehicles at
Israeli Air Force bases, site 54 is an emergency military hospital near
Tel Aviv with 500 beds, and sites 55 and 56 are ammunition depots.
[141] However, Israel is not the only country in the Middle East to host US military bases; there are American facilities in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia (mostly withdrawn from in 2003), Oman, and the Persian Gulf states of Kuwait, Bahrain (headquarters of the
United States Fifth Fleet), Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The Bahrain headquarters of the United States Fifth Fleet is meant to act as a watchdog and deterrent to potential Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf region.
[8]
The Israeli Mediterranean
Port of Haifa hosts regular visits by navy vessels of the
United States Sixth Fleet, which is headquartered in
Naples, Italy.
[142]
The
Dimona Radar Facility is an American radar facility in the
Negev desert of Israel, located near
Dimona. The facility has two 400-foot radar towers designed to track ballistic missiles through space and provide ground-based missiles with the targeting data needed to intercept them. It can detect missiles up to 1,500 miles away. The facility is owned and operated by the US military, and provides only second-hand intelligence to Israel. The towers of the facility are the tallest radar towers in the world, and the tallest towers in Israel.
Intelligence relations
The United States and Israel have cooperated on intelligence matters since the 1950s. Throughout the
Cold War, Israel provided the US with information on
Soviet-built weapons systems captured from the Arabs. Israel also provides the US with much of its Middle Eastern
human intelligence. The CIA became more reliant on Israeli intelligence following the
Iranian Revolution and the
1983 Beirut barracks bombing.
[143] Meanwhile, the US provided Israel with satellite imagery, and in the early 1980s, the CIA reportedly began giving Israel intelligence that it denied its closest
NATO allies. In particular, Israel received almost unlimited access to intelligence from the
KH-11 Kennan military satellite, though Israeli access was more restricted following
Operation Opera..
The National Security Agency has confirmed that it provides to Israel raw unfiltered information intercepts that include private details and messages of American citizens.
[153]
