Marc Lynch

We were running out even for the Gaza war, let alone intercepting missiles that were coming from Iran or the Houthis later on with the U.S.

Without the U.S.

intercepting them, the 12-day war would have looked differently even in the end.

Now, even now, think about what we are deploying in the Middle East.

We are depleting our missiles

right now, our own stockpiles, to the point that we're now not able to employ them in Ukraine, or we're telling Japan that we can't deliver the Tomahawk missiles because we have to use them now.

This is a superpower.

Remember, we are the mightiest

state on earth.

We are the richest state on earth.

And we still, to fight this war with Israel, we're running out ourselves.

So no.

And this, of course, does not... I mean, the most critical part for Israel is, of course, the military technology and the dominance in that area.

Because you take that away, it's impossible to maintain that posture.

But then there is the international law part, because it's the shielding at the UN.

It's the shielding at the International Criminal Court.

Without that, there would have been many more

measures that the US had either vetoed or prevented a UN Security Council to come that would have stopped settlements, for example.

And by the way, even aside from the military dimension and the intervention international organizations, anyone who worked with the US government or advised the US government, as I have,

gets a sense of the amount of time we spend twisting arms of other people using our muscle with this country or that country or that country in order to protect Israeli policy.