U.S.-Israel Partnership “One of the Most Valuable Operational Relationships We Have Anywhere in the World”

JINSA Senior Fellow John Hannah, former National Security Adviser to Vice President Cheney, joined I24 News’s American View to assess the state of the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship in the aftermath of Operation Epic Fury, offer a candid verdict on the MOU, and make the case for deepening military-to-military cooperation as direct financial aid gradually phases down.

Hannah called the operational military cooperation between the U.S. and Israel during the war “a qualitative leap forward,” describing it as “Israel’s first war in English” and saying the IDF proved itself “not only one of the finest militaries in the world but clearly one of America’s most valuable operational military partnerships anywhere in the world.” On the war’s strategic outcome, he was candid: it was “a mixed, ambiguous picture” that fell well short of the total victory both leaderships previewed. On the MOU specifically, he said it was “overwhelmingly within its four corners on Iranian terms, not American terms,” attributing this to Iran presenting the president with two military problems CENTCOM lacked optimal kinetic solutions to — closing Hormuz and holding Gulf partners at existential risk — which effectively “checkmated” the administration and made an off-ramp “almost inevitable.”

On the future of the relationship, Hannah argued the case for Israel is straightforward: no partner anywhere in the world offers the same combination of military capability, intelligence penetration of adversaries, high-tech innovation, and willingness to project power against common enemies. He endorsed a gradual phase-down of direct financial aid paired with deeper integration — joint R&D in AI, missile defense, cyber, and quantum computing, and expanded American military basing in Israel to gain strategic depth away from Iranian reach. He pointed to Israel’s integration into CENTCOM since 2021 as “a game-changer” that made the war’s operational achievements possible, and expressed optimism that Gulf states, having seen what Israeli and American capabilities can do together, will want more of that integration rather than less going forward.