Israel is our only ally in the Middle East is a pervasive geopolitical myth used to justify singular diplomatic focus. By examining regional security pacts, we find that the claim Israel is our only ally in the Middle East is factually false.
The Big Lie: Israel is our only ally in the Middle East
The usefulness of the “only ally” lie is obvious: If everybody over there dislikes us except Israel, we’d better be buddies with Israel in order to defend and pursue our interests in the region. You needn’t be a Zionist to embrace such a pragmatic argument. My Jordanian friend Ahmad has lived in the United States for several years and is a notably successful businessman in a community not far from Washington, D.C. He is also an ocular contortionist.
Ahmad can roll his eyes a prodigious distance upward and back when he hears someone say, “Israel is America’s only ally in the Middle East,” and one hears this often enough that nowadays I am afraid for Ahmad’s long-term health. I have heard it so often, for so long, as a native of the United States, that a dollar for every repetition would enable me to pay Ahmad’s medical bills and have plenty left over for that holiday at Cap Ferrat that I’ve always coveted.
“Israel is our only ally in the Middle East” is a superb example of the Big Lie.
Quoth Adolf Hitler: “The great masses of people…will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.” Propagandists, who during the last century have come to outnumber legitimate educators and journalists, understand that for maximum effect the Big Lie should be absurd enough to make the audience think that surely no one would say such a thing were it not true, should be uttered with matter-of-fact confidence, and should be repeated often.
Regional Facts Beyond Israel is our only ally in the Middle East
Hitler would have especially admired the manner in which the “only ally” myth ignores the fact that Turkey has been a NATO member since 1952 and provides the second-largest military force in that alliance. As a member, it participates in the mutual defense pact that commits all NATO countries to the military aid of any other member that comes under attack.
Once the presence of the Turkish elephant in the room has been denied, the Major Non-NATO Allies are easily overlooked.
According to the State Department:
Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status is a designation under U.S. law that provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation. The Major Non-NATO Ally designation is a powerful symbol of the close relationship the United States shares with those countries and demonstrates our deep respect for the friendship for the countries to which it is extended. While MNNA status provides military and economic privileges, it does not entail any security commitments to the designated country.
MNNA Status Proves Israel is our only ally in the Middle East is False
Such nations are, among other things, eligible for loans of material for cooperative research, development, and testing; eligible for agreements providing for joint military training; eligible for consideration to purchase depleted uranium ammunition; eligible in the same manner as NATO countries to bid on contracts for maintenance of U.S. military equipment outside the U.S.; and eligible for participation in joint counter-terrorism projects.
Of the nineteen MNNAs worldwide, six are in the Middle East: Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar–and Israel. The U.S. and Israel also maintain a number of bilateral agreements pertaining to defense and trade, but such agreements also exist between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, the UAE, and Oman.
Why Pragmatism Fuels the Myth that Israel is our only ally in the Middle East
The usefulness of the “only ally” lie is obvious: If everybody over there dislikes us except Israel, we’d better be buddies with Israel in order to defend and pursue our interests in the region. You needn’t be a Zionist to embrace such a pragmatic argument. Of course, if you are a Christian Zionist, you now have pragmatism as well as theology on your side (see “Christian Zionism Isn’t Christian,” 25 March 2026). You can even be that exceedingly rare Zionist who admits that Israel behaves execrably but “We can’t live without them, because they’re our only ally in the Middle East.”
The question of whether the unwavering U.S. support of Israel might contribute to tension with other Middle Eastern countries simply doesn’t arise. What actually happens is that those countries are vexed by the behavior of our friend, and vexed with us for always supporting that friend, so we embrace our friend even more closely because everyone else is vexed with us, which means we need a friend…
This would be moronic even if none of the other countries were our friends too, but I believe I have demonstrated that they are, so we have passed beyond the moronic and into the insane.
What I fear is that the Big Lie will take on the quality of self-fulfilment, for the current era is one of dislocation and reevaluation: The president of the United States speaks seriously of leaving NATO. The UAE has withdrawn from OPEC. The West and Turkey are increasingly uncomfortable with each other. Trade disputes disturb the harmony of U.S. relations with the Pacific Rim.
Global Reputations and the Slogan: Israel is our only ally in the Middle East
Meanwhile, alternative media make Israel’s conduct in war, in the administration of the Palestinian territories, and in its treatment of Arab prisoners, more difficult to ignore. It revels in the role of rogue state, flouting international law and flaunting its transgressions, defiantly strutting and swaggering in hobnailed jackboots that far too many Americans like Ambassador Mike Huckabee have mistaken for the humble sandals of a holy man. Its international reputation has never been worse.
Unfortunately, Big Lies take hold because they serve as explanations, and people crave explanations. Evil is what happens when people seek explanations instead of facts, and the “only ally” lie has explained to a great many Americans, for a very long time, what their country is doing and should be doing in the world’s most volatile region, who the sheep and the goats are, the saints and sinners.
From Lie to Fact: The Future of Israel is our only ally in the Middle East
So the terrible irony is that the Big Lie might one day become the truth. In that scenario, the world’s most powerful nation, operating on the basis of willful blindness, will be willing to march to Armageddon hand-in-hand with one of the world’s most reviled human rights pariahs, heedless of any other, benign influence to promote sensible behavior.
“Israel is our only ally in the Middle East” is one of history’s biggest, boldest, baldest lies. It is more than harmful enough in that capacity. What is even more to be feared is that it will become a Big Fact. That so many more basic vital facts are already ignored does not inspire optimism.