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The Invaluable U.S.-Israeli Alliance
(Foreign Policy) Yair Lapid - The real value of the soon-to-be-renewed military aid agreement between the U.S. and Israel isn't in the dollar amount, but in the defense technology that Israel will receive and the depth of the security cooperation between the two countries. The first words that need to be said from the depths of our hearts are "thank you." This agreement is critical to Israel's security and the safety of its citizens. We live in the worst neighborhood in the world, surrounded by fundamentalist Islamists who would like nothing more than to see us killed. This agreement is a crucial component of our ability to defend ourselves. Critics will argue that Israel is the reason the U.S. needs a military presence in the Middle East, but that argument is unfounded. Israel has no connection to the American presence in Iraq, the Persian Gulf, or Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden didn't claim that Israel was the reason for the attack on the Twin Towers, and the Islamic State doesn't pretend to be interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In addition, there are the savings in lives and money that we will never be able to detail. Israel is a regional intelligence superpower, and our bitter experience has turned us into the Middle East's leading experts in the covert fight against terrorism. The vast majority of the money Israel receives as military aid - and in the near future, all of it - remains in the U.S. Israel will purchase equipment from U.S. defense industries, and the result is the creation of American jobs and a relatively cheap way to test the most advanced arms in field conditions. One of the most difficult moments in the Jewish collective memory is the knowledge that when they came to murder us all, no one came to the rescue. That's the reason Israel was founded, and the reason we'll never leave our fate in the hands of others. But the fact that the largest and strongest country in the history of the world stands by our side is nothing less than momentous. The writer, chairman of the opposition Yesh Atid party, is a former Israeli finance minister.