On October 1, Iran launched a massive aerial attack on Israel in retaliation for the assassinations of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders and some Iranian officers in Beirut and Tehran.

In anticipation of the attack and to help defend its ally Israel, the United States had expanded its already significant military presence in the Middle East. Its destroyers helped intercept the 180 projectiles Iran fired at military bases in Israel. Such military action has become routine for the US, which has repeatedly intervened in the region in the past decades to directly or indirectly protect Israel.

However, US military interventions have had the opposite of the intended effect: They have made Israel more vulnerable and more dependent on ever greater deployment of American military power. This legacy has also made Israel the most dangerous place in the world for Jews.

This is because the US-Israeli fixation on military force has prevented any efforts to address the core causes of tensions in the region – primarily the Palestinian-Zionist conflict. This has also generated powerful new military actors and popular resistance groups across the Middle East. Hezbollah, Hamas, Ansar Allah (the Houthis) and others now routinely attack both US and Israeli targets.

The power of the axis currently confronting Israel derives not only from its weapons, but also from its close alignment with Arab public opinion. It is willing and able to militarily resist Israel’s occupation and subjugation of Arabs, which no Arab state has done since 1973. All this reflects the decades of American-Israeli aggressions and wars, and Arab governments’ inability to protect their lands, people, and sovereignty.

Washington’s quick and massive military support for Israel perpetuates the cycle........

© Al Jazeera