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A New Book Shows the Path Forward for the US-Israel Alliance
An Israeli flag and an American flag fly at Abu Dhabi International Airport before the arrival of Israeli and U.S. officials, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates August 31, 2020. REUTERS/Christoper Pike
Eight days before Hamas’ barbaric invasion of Israel, President Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, declared, “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”
That single statement epitomized an administration that never understood that Israel’s national security is directly related to that of the United States, and that US foreign policy can directly – and negatively – impact Israel’s security as it did on October 7, 2023.
This is one of the premises of former Deputy National Security Council Advisor Victoria Coates’ The Battle for the Jewish State: How Israel – and America – Can Win. Senator Ted Cruz penned the forward for the book noting, “[Hamas’] war is not just being waged against the United States, our citizens, and our national security interests. The objective of Israel’s enemies is not just the elimination of the Jewish state, but also Western civilization, led by America writ large.”
The Battle for the Jewish State serves as a reminder of why a strong US-Israel alliance is not only critically important to both countries’ national security interests, but also stability in the region more generally. When a strong alliance is the basis for US policy, as was the case under Donald Trump, relative quiet is accompanied by new alliances among Israel and her neighbors. When US policy is based on daylight between the two nations, as implemented by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who sought to realign the region by elevating, enriching, and empowering the Islamic Republic of Iran, war results.
Coates sets out to address how we got to October 7th, where we are now, and what our policy options are going forward, understanding that the values of both countries are at stake in this existential war.
As to how we got here, she says that Obama/Biden foreign policy is the main culprit. Post-10/7, US policy has consisted of equivocation and suggestions of moral equivalence between Israelis and Palestinian terror groups and terror-supporting leaders, calls for a ceasefire, unprecedented demands that Israel provide humanitarian aid to its enemies, absurd talk of creating a Palestinian state despite the attack, and a partial arms embargo — on Israel.
The media regurgitates Hamas talking points on civilian death tolls and starving civilians, and legitimizes terrorism as a tactic of resistance. Hamas-support networks, international non-governmental organizations, and the flagrantly antisemitic United Nations have all played active roles in delegitimizing Israel’s right to exist while bolstering Palestinian propaganda and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But throughout the book, Coates weaves in the role of cultural Marxism which begins with the 30-year march of Critical Race Theory (CRT) through higher education. She recognizes that the indoctrination from childhood into the cultural-Marxist construct of the “oppressors” versus the “oppressed” has reflexively supported the Palestinians as the oppressed party in the conflict with Israel, consigning the Jewish State, but also Jews around the world, to the category of “oppressors.”
Thus, do we see generations of brainwashed extremists infiltrating American institutions that begin in academia but permeate the media, corporate board rooms, and local, state, and federal governments. As Coates points out, it’s not surprising that Hamas invents propaganda to demonize Israel; what is shocking, however, is that senior members of the Biden administration including the president himself amplify and legitimize the lies. Coates compares the perpetuation of this warped narrative by campus radicals to the “Vietnam playbook of counterculture resistance” which is being used today to destroy the US-Israel alliance.
CRT proponents may repudiate history as they wrap themselves in Keffiyeh-adorned anti-Zionism, but Coates’ book makes a strong case for an incoming Trump administration to cease the indoctrination destroying the hearts and minds of American students. Recognizing that the “progressive rejection of ‘Judeo-Christian values’ in recent years…threatens both the legacy of our greatest American leaders and our alliance with the state of Israel,” she writes, “The great lesson of the Holocaust should be that antisemitism is a noxious cancer that can corrupt and consume a great culture. It is tolerated and justified at our peril.”
The second chapter of The Battle for the Jewish State tells the story of a long-standing tradition of American sympathy for Judaism and support for the Jewish State. The understanding that the US and Israel, the “Start-Up Nation” with scientific geniuses like Chaim Weizmann, face common enemies has led to a strong alliance that includes intelligence sharing, military collaboration, and economic partnerships.
If only the Palestinians realized the reality that alliance presents. Referring to Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s 1923 essay “The Iron Wall,” which recognized that until the Palestinians accept that the Jewish state is not going away, their “Plan A” will always be the eradication of Israel, Coates concludes, “If a president of the United States ever decides to acknowledge the actual truth and unequivocally declare Israel’s victory, the sad history of US engagement in Vietnam may not need to play out again in the Middle East.”
And yet US administrations continue the futility of failed attempts at a two-state solution which ultimately led to the disastrous Oslo Accords and other misguided mistakes under both Republican and Democrat administrations. But it’s Obama’s legacy that brought us to where we are today, with his pivot to Iran and claims in a speech in 2013 that “the only way to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine.” With Biden’s foreign policy team comprised of Obama alumni, the Palestinians’ Plan A seemingly became US foreign policy. October 7th was the result.
What’s next? In the final chapter, Coates sets forth policy recommendations the basis of which can best be summarized in a quote from a 2016 Trump’s speech: “[W]hen the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially…we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel. The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely, totally unbreakable.”
One can only imagine what would have transpired over the past four years if Trump had won a second term: peace with expansion of the Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia and others, the fall of the Islamic Republic through continued maximum pressure, weakened Houthis and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, 1200 Israeli civilian lives saved, and the Palestinians moving on to “Plan B.”
Notably, the antisemitism genie would still be locked inside its bottle, and on this front, Coates has much to recommend understanding how this corrosive ideology harms both Israel and the United States. Understanding that “American antisemitism isn’t just hatred of Jews, it is hatred of the very essence of the United States as well,” Coates lays out several prescriptions to address the scourge.
The Battle for the Jewish State provides a roadmap for Israeli victory but also for a stronger US that returns to its Judeo-Christian values and that once again leads the West in navigating these dangerous and tumultuous times. That begins by abandoning generations of failed policies that emboldened Palestinians while once again recognizing that Israel is a vital ally helping to project American power throughout the region and bringing peace in its wake.
Lauri B. Regan is the Vice Chair of the Endowment for Middle East Truth, Vice President and Treasurer of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, and board member of Polaris National Security.
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Rashida Tlaib Introduces Resolution to Mandate Federal Recognition of Palestinian ‘Nakba’
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) addresses attendees as she takes part in a protest calling for a ceasefire in Gaza outside the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 18, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Wednesday introduced a resolution recognizing the 77th anniversary of the “nakba,” the Arabic term for “catastrophe” used by Palestinians and anti-Israel activists to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
“The nakba never ended. Today we are witnessing the Israeli apartheid regime carry out genocide in Gaza. It is a campaign to erase Palestinians from existence,” Tlaib said in a statement.
“War Criminal Netanyahu,” she continued, referring to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “has threatened to ethnically cleanse the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, annex the land, and permanently occupy it. As we mark the 77th anniversary of the nakba, we honor all of those killed since the ethnic cleansing of Palestine began, and the Palestinians who were forced from their homes and violently displaced from their land.”
Co-sponsors of the bill include Democratic Reps. André Carson (IN), Summer Lee (PA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Ilhan Omar (MN), Ayanna Pressley (MA), Delia Ramirez (IL), Lateefah Simon (CA), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ).
The resolution does not mention the Jewish people’s millennia-long connection to the land of Israel or any instances of Palestinian terrorism against the Jewish state.
“Nakba refers not only to a historical event but to an ongoing process of Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land and its dispossession of the Palestinian people that continues to this day, including the systematic destruction of Palestinian homes, the construction and expansion of illegal settlements, and the confinement of Palestinians to ever-shrinking areas of land,” the bill reads.
“It is the sense of the House of Representatives that it is the policy of the United States to commemorate the nakba through official recognition and remembrance; denounce the ongoing nakba of the Palestinian people; [and] reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United States government with denial of the nakba.”
Tlaib, the only Palestinian American woman in Congress, further repudiated the US as being “an accomplice” in the alleged ongoing “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” by supporting Israel’s defensive military efforts.
Since entering Congress in 2018, Tlaib has established herself as one of the most vocal critics of Israel. She has repeatedly characterized Israel as an “apartheid state” and accused the Jewish state of transforming Gaza into an “open-air prison.”
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led slaughters in Israel, Tlaib ramped up her condemnations of the Jewish state. She was initially hesitant to condemn the terrorist attacks in Israel, in which 1,200 people were murdered and 250 hostages were kidnapped. However, Tlaib was among the first US lawmakers to accuse Israel of committing “genocide in Gaza. In most of her public statements regarding the war in Gaza, she has omitted any mention of the Hamas terrorist group. Moreover, the lawmaker has sparked backlash by attending multiple pro-Palestine events connected to terrorists.
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No Diploma for NYU Senior After Unauthorized Anti-Israel Commencement Speech
Students and professors attend the New York University (NYU) graduation ceremony at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City, US, May 15, 2025. Photo: Eduardo Munoz via Reuters Connect.
New York University is withholding the diploma of a senior student at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study who lied to the administration about the content of his commencement speech to conceal its claim of a genocide taking place in Gaza, an anti-Israel falsehood propagated by neo-Nazi groups and jihadist terror organizations.
“My moral and political commitments guide me to say that the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine” the student, Logan Rozos, said, delivering the unauthorized remarks to a din of acclamation from the audience. “I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been live streamed to our phones for the past 18 months.”
He continued, “I want to say that I condemn this genocide and complicity in this genocide.”
Rozos drew a trenchant rebuke from a university that has enacted a slew of policies to reduce antisemitic discrimination on its campuses. Since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, a bloody invasion that started the war in Gaza, NYU has issued policies which acknowledge the “coded” subtleties of antisemitic speech and its use in discriminatory conduct that targets Jewish students and faculty.
“NYU strongly denounces the choice by a student at the Gallatin School’s graduation today — one of over 20 school graduation ceremonies across our campus — to misuse his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views,” university spokesman John Beckman said in a statement. “He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules. The university is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.”
He continued, “NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him.”
Jewish civil rights groups rebuked Rozos as well, with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) saying he uttered “divisive and false comments about the current Israel/Hamas war.” The group added, “We are thankful to the NYU administration for their strong condemnation and rather pursuit of disciplinary action.”
End Jew Hatred (EJH), writing to The Algemeiner, called on NYU to impose the severest disciplinary measure possible on Rozos: withholding his diploma in perpetuity as punishment for using so high an honor to spread lies that have been used to justify antisemitic violence and discrimination.
“It was right to denounce his deception and abuse of the platform, and it was essential to affirm that hate speech masquerading as political commentary has no place at a graduation ceremony,” the group said. “But that cannot be where it ends. The diploma must be permanently withheld. The full process — from Rozos’s selection to speech approval to mic control — demands transparency. And NYU must do more than punish a student; it must confront the climate that made this outburst possible.”
The conclusion of the 2024-2025 academic year has seen other attempts to place anti-Zionism at the center of the public’s attention.
A group of pro-Hamas students at Yale University recently vowed to starve themselves inside an administrative building until such time as officials agree to their demands that the university’s endowment be divested of any ties to Israel as well as companies that do business with it. However, Yale officials are refusing to even meet with the students, who have been told that their demonstration, held in Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall, is “in violation of university policy.”
At the University of Washington, in Seattle, over 30 members of a pro-Hamas student group calling itself “Super UW” were arrested for commandeering the university’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB) to protest and demand the termination of the institution’s partnerships with The Boeing Company, whose armaments manufacturing they identified as a resource aiding Israel’s war to eradicate Hamas from Gaza.
The illegal demonstration involved students establishing blockades near the building using “bike rack[s] and chairs,” burning trash — while setting off sizable fires — that they then left unattended, and calling for violence against the police. Law enforcement officers eventually entered the building equipped with riot gear, including helmets and batons.
University officials’ tolerance for such disruptions is depleting.
Earlier this month, George Washington University suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter until Spring 2026, punishing the group for a series of unauthorized demonstrations it held on school property last month. The move marked one of the severest disciplinary sanctions SJP has provoked from the GW administration since it began violating rules on peaceful expression and assembly, as well as targeting school officials for harassment, following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel. Until next May, SJP is barred from advertising and may only convene to “complete sanctions or consult with their advisor,” according to a report by The GW Hatchet.
SJP will be placed on probation for one year after its suspension is lifted, the paper continued, during which it must request and acquire prior approval for any expressive activity. Additionally, members will be required to attend “teach-ins on university policy” for “ten consecutive semesters.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Trump Announces $200 Billion in Deals During UAE Visit, AI Agreement Signed
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Yousif Al Obaidli, director of Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, as he tours the mosque grounds in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, May 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
President Donald Trump on Thursday pledged to strengthen US ties to the United Arab Emirates and announced deals with the Gulf state totaling over $200 billion and the two countries also agreed to deepen cooperation in artificial intelligence.
After Trump’s meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the White House said he announced deals that included a $14.5 billion commitment from Etihad Airways to invest in 28 Boeing 787 and 777x aircraft powered by engines made by GE Aerospace.
The US Commerce Department said the two countries also agreed to establish a “US-UAE AI Acceleration Partnership” framework and Trump and Sheikh Mohamed attended the unveiling of a new 5GW AI campus, which would be the largest outside the United States.
Sources have said the agreements will give the Gulf country expanded access to advanced artificial intelligence chips from the US after previously facing restrictions over Washington’s concerns that China could access the technology.
Trump began a visit to the UAE on the latest stage of a tour of wealthy Gulf states after hailing plans by Doha to invest $10 billion in a US military facility during a trip to Qatar.
“I have absolutely no doubt that the relationship will only get bigger and better,” Trump said in a meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“Your wonderful brother came to Washington a few weeks ago and he told us about your generous statement as to the 1.4 trillion,” Trump said, referring to a UAE pledge to invest $1.4 trillion in the US over 10 years.
Trump was referring to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheikh Mohamed’s brother and the UAE’s national security adviser and chairman of two of Abu Dhabi’s deep-pocketed sovereign wealth funds.
The US president was met at the airport in Abu Dhabi by Sheikh Mohamed, and they visited the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, its white minarets and domes, impressive in the late-afternoon light.
“It is so beautiful,” Trump told reporters inside the mosque, which he said had been closed for the day.
“First time they closed it. It’s in honor of the United States. Better than in honor of me. Let’s give it to the country. That’s a great tribute.”
$200 BILLION IN NEW DEALS
A White House fact sheet said Trump had secured $200 billion in new US-UAE deals and accelerated the previously committed $1.4 trillion.
It said Emirates Global Aluminum would invest to develop a $4 billion primary aluminum smelter project in Oklahoma, while ExxonMobil Corp, Occidental Petroleum, and EOG Resources were partnering with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company in expanded oil and natural gas production valued at $60 billion.
Sheikh Mohamed told Trump the UAE was “keen to continue and strengthen this friendship for the benefit of the two countries and peoples,” adding to Trump: “your presence here today, your excellency, the president, confirms that this keenness is mutual.”
Before his departure for the UAE, Trump said in a speech to US troops at the Al Udeid Air Base southwest of Doha that defense purchases signed by Qatar on Wednesday were worth $42 billion.
UAE has been seeking US help to make the wealthy Gulf nation a global leader in artificial intelligence.
The US has a preliminary agreement with the UAE to allow it to import 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips a year, starting this year, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The deal would boost the UAE’s construction of data centers vital to developing AI models, although the agreement has provoked national security concerns among sectors of the US government.
The AI agreement “includes the UAE committing to invest in, build, or finance US data centers that are at least as large and as powerful as those in the UAE,” the White House said.
“The agreement also contains historic commitments by the UAE to further align their national security regulations with the United States, including strong protections to prevent the diversion of US-origin technology.”
Former US President Joe Biden’s administration had imposed strict oversight of exports of US AI chips to the Middle East and other regions. Among Biden’s fears were that the prized semiconductors would be diverted to China and buttress its military strength.
At the UAE presidential palace, Trump and Sheikh Mohamed could be seen in TV footage in conversation with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Trump said he would probably return to Washington on Friday after a regional trip that began on Tuesday, although he said it was “almost destination unknown.” Trump had hinted he could stop in Istanbul for talks on Ukraine.
DEALS, DIPLOMACY
Other big business agreements have been signed during Trump’s four-day swing through the Gulf region, including a deal for Qatar Airways to purchase up to 210 Boeing widebody jets, a $600 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to invest in the US and $142 billion in US arms sales to the kingdom.
The trip has also brought a flurry of diplomacy.
Trump said in Qatar that the United States was getting very close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran, and Tehran had “sort of” agreed to the terms.
He also announced on Tuesday the US would remove longstanding sanctions on Syria and subsequently met with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
He urged Sharaa to establish ties with Syria’s longtime foe Israel.
Trump has made improving ties with some Gulf countries a key goal of his administration. If all the proposed chip deals in Gulf states, and the UAE in particular, come together, the region would become a third power center in global AI competition after the United States and China.
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