The U.S., Israel, and the Ongoing War in Gaza

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Abstract

This article presents the results of an interim assessment of the United States’ military involvement in the first year of Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. The study focuses on the dynamics between the two countries as donor and recipient and how they affect the war. The results show that the rapid rearmament of Israel's arsenal of weapons and ammunition played a central role in escalating the war. It is argued that U.S. military assistance to Israel is an American national interest, not simply a favor to the Jewish state. Military cooperation with Israel provides a steady stream of revenue for American arms companies and keeps the production capacities of many enterprises located across the country busy. Military support for Israel in its war with the Palestinians is also considered in the context of broader American involvement in the Middle East. The article concludes that the main U.S. military actions in support of Israeli military operations during this period were related to direct conflict with the Yemeni paramilitary group Ansar Allah to protect commercial shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

About the authors

N. N Bobkin

Georgy Arbatov Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: n.bobkin@iskran.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0009-8699
Moscow, Russian Federation

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