U.S. CENTCOM Shift to Arab-Israeli Cooperation

| January 16, 2021


Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, center, will have to figure out how to fold Israel into his mix. (Staff Sgt. Alexandria Brun/Air Force)

In a last-minute reorganization of the American defense structure in the Middle East, President Trump has ordered that the U.S. Central Command oversight be expanded to include Israel. Pro-Israel groups have long advocated for greater cooperation in the region.

U.S. CENTCOMM duties will now include execution of American military policy involving both Israel and Arab nations. This is a departure from policies in place for decades due to the hostilities between Israel and some of the Pentagon’s allies in the Middle East.

In waning days, Trump shakes up CENTCOM to increase Arab-Israeli efforts against Iran

Howard Altman

With just days left in his presidency and in a bid to solidify Arab-Israeli efforts against Iran before Joe Biden takes office, Donald Trump has shaken up the headquarters overseeing U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.
Trump has ordered U.S. Central Command to add Israel to the list of nations for which it has responsibility.

Moving Israel from U.S. European Command responsibility to CENTCOM was once a non-starter because of long-simmering tensions between Israel and its regional neighbors, who have been CENTCOM’s allies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. It is the crowning piece of Trump’s efforts to stitch together disparate nations with a common enemy, following the signing of the Abraham Accords, in which Israel normalized relations with former enemies Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

Israel will become the 21st nation under CENTCOM’s purview, joining as it is increasingly cooperating with the Sunni-led Gulf States in an alliance of convenience against Shia-led Iran.

Biden spox have no comment. This makes the existing arrangements official, but there is more involved. Read the entire article here: Military Times

Category: Big Pentagon, International Affairs, Israel

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ChipNASA

I think with the existing agreements in the UAE, Israel, Sudan, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia (?), I think this is necessary and prudent.
It’s unfortunate Trump couldn’t broker more agreements between more countries, because he’s such a giant piece of shit, right??

5JC

You got it all wrong. He is a fascist warmongering revolutionary strong man. He was trying to make things peaceful in the Middle East so he could bring in mixed units of IDF and Muslim Brotherhood to the US so he could remove himself from power and then demand he be reinstalled. If only Twitter and Facebook had played along.. .

SFC D

And he’d have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for those meddling kids!

Hate_me

Morocco, not Saudi (the Kingdom of Bhutan also recognized Israel on Dec 12; it’s neither an Arab nor predominantly Muslim country, thus, largely overlooked in significance).

KoB

One more thing for Sniff and Blow to dismantle. Their Chinese Communist and Iranian Mullah Masters will demand it. Prolly do away with CENTCOM entirely. The foreign aid usually earmarked for Israeli Defense will be placed on a pallet with the other cash.

Green Thumb

The Chinese invest in Islamic counties but they ain’t the biggest fans of it (the religion or the practices).

Much like All-Points Logistics based in Merritt Island Fl – they exploit anybody.

Hate_me

Hardly last-minute (strategically, but I’m glad he got made it official, under the wire). This has been anticipated for a long while.

MI Ranger

Man…we are always the last to know! I guess HQ (USCENTCOM) will eventually tell us to write an order to explain that Israel is now part of the AOR, and we can stop going through EUCOM to coordinate everything!

I’ll have to check my e-mail for the spelling, to make sure I write my own order correctly.

Hate_me

An edit feature would certainly be appreciated. Autocorrect is digital tyranny, and evidence that computers haven’t yet surpassed human intelligence. Yet, I can’t blame anyone but myself for overlooked typos.

I take it from your comment that you’re currently working out of CENTCOM HQ. I’m not, so I’ll demur out of respect to your insight into recent scuttlebutt, yet it was was circulating at least a few years ago that Israel should be moved to CENTCOM, for every reason beyond the shortsighted idea that CENTCOM is a de facto IslamCON (and, if so, why not make similar geographic exception and include Indonesia?).

Why this change didn’t happen with the establishment of AFRICOM and the reordering of the related theaters appears to be a major oversight and an unnecessary administrative burden. Culturally, geographically, and politically, Israel is much more invested in the CENTCOM AOR than in EUCOM’s.

I can see a certain logic behind the idea that EUCOM nations comprised less-likely threats to US national security, but that is as shortsighted and ham-fisted as designation by dominant religion.

Slow Joe

This is the difference between Trump and Obama.

Obama last order to the Armed Forces was to accept transgenders in the services.

5JC

No that happened way earlier. His order altered the requirements for Purple Hearts.

5JC

Last order.

MI Ranger

Does a Hangnail from a staple made in China count?! I was in a war zone!

Green Thumb

At least it was not for The PTSD from being near said actions.