Reports that Israel’s historic peace agreement with the United Arab Emirates included a promise by the US to sell Abu Dhabi advanced F-35 fighter jets have led to many questions being asked by Israeli parliamentarians and the general public . The hot button issue stems from the fact that Israel already has an agreement with the United States to maintain the Jewish State’s military superiority in the Middle East. The UAE’s acquisition of these advanced warplanes could result in Israel losing this edge.
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US Commits to Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge
Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, concluded early on that the only way the state could continue to exist while surrounded by enemies was to ensure it possessed the most advanced army in the Middle East. The United States informally helped Israel accomplish this goal in the first few decades following its establishment.
Ronald Reagan was the first US president to outright commit to making sure that Israel maintained a Qualitative Military Edge (QME) over its neighbors, and subsequent American leaders have reaffirmed — and even strengthened – that commitment.
In 2008, for example, Congress passed the Naval Vessel Transfer Act (P.L. 110-429). Section 201 of the law requires the US president to make an “empirical and qualitative assessment on an ongoing basis of the extent to which Israel possesses a qualitative military edge.”
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The law stipulates that Israel be allowed to maintain,
The ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors, while sustaining minimal damages and casualties through the use of superior military means, possessed in sufficient quantity, including weapons, command, control, communication, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities that in their technical characteristics and superior capability to those of such other individual or possible coalition of states or non-state actors.
That legislation also amended Section 36 of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), requiring all US deals to sell arms to any Mideast country other than Israel to include “a determination that the sale or export of the defense articles or defense services will not adversely affect Israel’s qualitative military edge.”
In 2012, Congress passed the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act (P.L. 112-150), which, among other things, reiterated official US policy “to help the Government of Israel preserve its qualitative military edge amid rapid and uncertain regional political transformation.”
Two years later, Congress passed the US -Israel Strategic Partnership Act (P.L. 113-296). This act amended Section 36 of the AECA to require that the administration explain, in cases of sales or exports of major US defense equipment to other Middle Eastern states, what is “Israel’s capacity to address the improved capabilities provided by such sale or export.”
This law also required the US government to assess,
how such sale or export alters the strategic and tactical balance in the region, including relative capabilities; and Israel’s capacity to respond to the improved regional capabilities provided by such sale or export” [and to identify] “any specific new capacity, capabilities, or training that Israel may require to address the regional or country-specific capabilities provided by such sale or export; and a description of any additional United States security assurances to Israel made, or requested to be made, in connection with, or as a result of, such sale or export.
Members of Congress routinely seek to reassure Israel that the US will work to maintain its QME. For example, in 2017, when the US was negotiating a significant arms sales to Saudi Arabia, a bipartisan bill called the Defending Israel’s QME Act was introduced. It required the president to consult with Israel about its needs before authorizing the sale of arms or any defense technologies to any Middle Eastern countries. As Rep. Brad Schneider, a co-sponsor of the bill explained: “The United States must continue to ensure that Israel, our closest, most reliable ally in the Middle East, if not the world, has the tools to maintain its qualitative military edge over those who seek to do it harm.”
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UAW: First Arab Country To Possess an F-35?
For some time now the United Arab Emirates has been trying to become the first Arab country to possess the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Israel has purchased from the US. Reports dating back to 2017 claim that US President Donald Trump has been exploring the idea, but that no decision has been formally reached to enter into such negotiations.
Shimon Arad, a retired IDF colonel, has been one of the more vocal critics of the potentiality: “The release of F-35s to the Gulf states is a fundamental military game-changer that, in combination with the advanced fourth-generation fighters and the tens of thousands of sophisticated munitions, will cancel out Israel’s QME.”
Congress has made it clear that maintaining Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge is a priority for the US. Therefore, any agreement reached with the UAE or any other Arab country will have to meet the legal criteria to ensure Israel remains protected.
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