US Influence? CENTCOM's Not So Shy in Israel
Al-Monitor's headline, 'As CENTCOM sets up in southern Israel, fears grow of expanding US influence,' frames this deployment as a nascent concern. 'Expanding US influence'? Is that what we're calling it now? This isn't newfound entanglement; it's a deepening of a relationship cemented with decades of military aid and geopolitical alignment. For context, the US has provided Israel with over $130
billion in military assistance since 1948, a figure that makes 'fears of expanding influence' sound quaintly understated. Just last year, Congress authorized another $3.3 billion for the country. The US military's deepening integration isn't a fresh expansion; it's a public acknowledgment of an operational reality that has been meticulously funded by the American taxpayer for generations. One
might wonder, who are these 'fears' coming from? Certainly not from the politicians who consistently greenlight billions in unconditional aid, many of whom receive substantial campaign contributions from lobby groups like AIPAC. This isn't influence being 'expanded'; it's influence being made visible, a permanent fixture in what many argue is a proxy conflict for US interests in the region.