Executive Summary

This paper demonstrates that while the US and Israel are strategic allies and boast an iron-clad partnership and friendship surrounding areas of mutual interests, Israel has never requested nor accepted US combat troops in any of its wars, past or present. Despite the unprecedented closeness of the US- Israel alliance, Israel’s strategic doctrine is rooted in self-reliance when it comes to active combat forces, ensuring that its own soldiers defend its borders and wage its wars rather than foreign forces.

Key Findings

• Historic Independence: Since the 1948 Israeli War of Independence through the 1956 Sinai Campaign, 1967 Six-Day War, 1973 Yom Kippur War, and all subsequent wars, Israel has fought with its own forces, relying only on external arms supplies or intelligence, rather than foreign troops. While some degree of active intervention has occurred in certain flashpoints, such as the Trump administration’s deployment of B-2 stealth bombers and Tomahawk missiles to target Iran’s nuclear sites, these did not include any active boots on the ground and have always taken place as a minimal intervention on top of the existing mass of Israeli military undertaking.

• Enduring Doctrine: Israeli leaders, beginning with David Ben-Gurion, embedded the principle that Israel must “defend itself, by…