America and Israel’s War to Remake the Middle East

The United States and Israel may have different names for their latest military campaigns in Iran, but there is nothing separate about them. They constitute the first truly combined U.S.-Israeli military operation, and it is hard to overstate how groundbreaking the partnership is. Normally, the U.S. military works in broad coalitions, designing the operation, commanding it, and doing most of the fighting. In the U.S.-NATO engagement in Afghanistan that began in 2002, the United States conducted most airstrikes and deployed the bulk of ground forces; it also conducted the vast majority of the opening salvos during the 2003 “shock and awe” campaign in Iraq. In the mid-2010s, when Washington launched Operation Inherent Resolve to oust the Islamic State from Iraq and Syria, it led the air campaign while training and funding partners on the ground. Indeed, the United States has not fought an adversary in a fully combined manner—dividing targets and working equally within a shared operational construct—since World War II. With the opening of this new chapter against Iran, the U.S.-Israeli relationship has crossed a threshold...

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