Israel will ‘be America’s most important ally in the 21st century,’ says Dermer

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer tells AIPAC conference “security and technology” will be the cornerstone of the U.S.-Israel alliance going forward.

By Aaron Bandler, JNS

Israel is going to be “America’s most important ally in the 21st century,” Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., Dermer said the two most important things the United States looks for in an ally are “security and technology.”

When it comes to security, both Israel and Britain are America’s most reliable allies, said Dermer, but when it comes to technology Britain is “not in the same time zone as Israel.”

The future of technology will involve artificial intelligence, and the four countries that have made the most progress in that field are the United States, Israel, China and Russia, said Dermer.

“China and Russia are not allies of the United States,” he added. “Israel is.”

He went on to say that “10 years from now, when an Israeli ambassador is going to sit here, people are going to say, ‘Of course Israel is America’s most important ally in the 21st century.’”

Additionally, Dermer recalled how in 2018, while he was touring the crematorium in Majdanek, a Nazi concentration camp in Poland, he discussed with U.S. national security advisers how to deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“If you ever needed to encapsulate the great transformation that has happened in the life of the Jewish people from a stateless and powerless people to a sovereign people that is capable of defending itself, it was right there,” said Dermer. “And that’s why it was a remarkable moment.”

Dermer also said that the Israeli government is thankful for President Donald Trump’s policies on Iran, arguing that Trump’s exit from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and sanctions on the Iranian regime have starved the “regime of the fuel, the money it needs to fuel its war machine in the region.”

The Israeli ambassador said that the U.S. decision to kill Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani “has helped restore American power and deterrence in the Middle East,” arguing that Iran and its proxies now know that the U.S. will take action to protect itself.”

This article first appeared in the Jewish Journal.