Q: If Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East, why aren’t they asked to contribute in the fight against ISIS?
—James David, Marietta
A: Israel has a limited role in the conflict with ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), which also is called ISIL or the Islamic State group, because of the politics of the region.
Israeli participation in the coalition to fight ISIS could upset the balance with Arab countries, Paul Pillar, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies and the Brookings Institution’s Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, told Voice of America in September 2014.
“Any Israeli involvement in multilateral efforts in that region tends to be counterproductive,” he said.
Israel wasn’t part of the coalition to defeat Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, because it “would break up this otherwise broad-based Arab coalition,” Max Abrahms, professor of public policy at Northeastern University, said in the article.
Israel has provided the United States with satellite imagery and intelligence, Reuters reported last year.
A Western diplomat told the news service that Israel’s satellites provide different angles of the region than U.S. satellites, which helps the Pentagon “fill out its information and get a better battle damage assessments.”
ISIS “does not pose an immediate threat to Israel,” Efraim Inbar, a professor of political studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, told Q&A on the News in an email.
“Iran is the greatest threat to the region and the West,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, ISIS, a despicable organization, distracts attention from the most dangerous and capable bad guys in Iran.”
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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