The case for a permanent US base in Israel

For decades, American power in the Middle East rested on a Gulf architecture built around Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait. That arrangement reflected the strategic assumptions of another era. It assumed that energy security required permanent deference to Gulf monarchies and that American freedom of action could be preserved through transactional understandings with regimes whose priorities were often temporary and narrow...That order is weakening. Gulf states increasingly hedge between Washington, Beijing, and Moscow... The proposal is not simply to maintain radar crews or missile-defence officers, but to leave a significant standing US force in Israel and potentially shift assets...