Expanding NATO Membership to Israel and the Middle East
Abstract
This paper proposes a new Middle East initiative to expand permanent North Atlantic treaty Organization (NATO) membership to the States of Israel and Jordan and the establishment of NATO protectorate status for an interim Palestinian government. The death of Yasser Arafat provides an opportunity for a completely new approach to address the on-going Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict is the single biggest source of anti-American moral support for Islamic extremists in the Muslim world and foreign policy discontent among traditional US friends and allies. Reversing the growing anti-Americanism trend is necessary to win the war on terrorism. The US challenge is to orchestrate an end to the conflict between Israel and an interim Palestinian government while at the same time maintaining Israel's long term security needs. In much the same way that post-World War II France and Germany and Cold War Greece and Turkey were bound together through NATO membership, Israel, Jordan and potentially Palestine in the future would be bound together through permanent and probationary membership to NATO. Expanding NATO membership to the region would be difficult and require NATO members to commit actual forces to the establishment of an interim Palestinian state and a long term presence in defense of Israel proper. Israeli acceptance of NATO membership would require acceptance of a sovereign Palestinian State, a substantial West Bank withdrawal, and a change to Israel's long standing policy of not relying on others for its internal defense. NATO expansion would be an effective counter to Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction proliferation. This NATO defense umbrella would provide an overwhelming deterrence to region conflict and Iranian nuclear ambitions. The end state would be a stabilized Middle East acquired through NATO co-binding.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 18, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA432200
Entities
People
- Wesley J. Jennings
Organizations
- United States Army War College