Alwaght- On Friday, Pentagon officially shifted the responsibility of the Israeli regime from European Command to Central Command in the West Asia region.
The Wall Street Journal, which was first to report the change, said it was ordered by President Donald Trump.
The move, coming days before Trump departure and Joe Biden inauguration, is intended to influence the political, security, and military strategy of the next administration for the region especially proceeding with the Arab-Israeli normalization and at the same time is expressive of the significance of the Israeli interests for Trump circle, particularly Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who aspires for the next presidential election and from now strives to gain the support of the pro-Israeli lobbies in the US.
White House’s ordered coalition making
One important goal behind the Washington move is making coalitions between Tel Aviv and the Arab countries. This is another face of the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA) for whose birth Trump struggled but failed. After normalization between the Israeli regime and some Arab countries, the Americans think the ground is more prepared to found the Arab coalition, also called Arab NATO. Including the Israeli regime within the operation sphere of CENTCOM is the first step to this alliance making.
After the August agreements, also called Abraham Accords by the Americans, Saudi Arabia said it opened its airspace to Israeli-origined flights and then Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met secretly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Israeli regime in Neom futuristic city in Saudi Arabia. Both steps are part of the preparations for a coalition with Tel Aviv.
Wall Street Journal, citing American officials, said the inclusion of the Israeli regime in the area of responsibility of the CENTCOM, is “an apparent reference to creating a more united front against Iran.
“In its announcement, the Pentagon said the change to what it calls its Unified Command Plan reflects the easing of tensions between Tel Aviv and some Arab countries. It said the Abraham Accords of last year, which have normalized Israel’s relation with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan, “provided a strategic opportunity” for the United States to “align key partners against shared threats in the Middle East,” Wall Street Journal reported.
Support cover for the Israeli regime
Another goal of the US measure is to provide a broader and more brazen cover of support to the Israeli regime.
“Putting the Israeli regime in CENTCOM’s area of responsibility would smooth the way for the Pentagon to utilize Israel more for regional operations, including by prepositioning precision-guided munitions and other much-needed weaponry for the US, Israeli and possibly partner Arab forces,” Charles Wald, a retired US army general and former deputy commander for the European Command.
This move, however, makes it clear that the Israeli power to counter the Axis of Resistance in the region has decreased, leaving the balance of power shifting against Tel Aviv's favor. As a response to this clear drop in the Israeli power, the US, which always puts high on its regional policies maintaining the Israeli regional military supremacy, now sees it is more necessary to provide military backing to the Israelis.
The expulsion of the American forces from Iraq and Syria is another factor for Washington to seek alternative bases to host its troops. Last week, reports spread about the US building a new military base in Jordan. With the Israeli inclusion, part of the US forces can be stationed in the occupied territories.
Threats to Arab countries
The area of responsibility of CENTCOM covers West and Central Asia. In the past decades, the Israeli regime was in the European Command as it was in isolation amid a regional all-out boycott. This was challenging to the CENTCOM in terms of coordinating for operation spheres not including the Israeli regime but related to it. Having in mind that the Arab sensitivity to American-Israeli sharing of defense data of the countries hosting the CENTCOM bases can be challenging for the continued presence of the American forces in those countries, Washington until recently avoided putting the Israeli regime within CENTCOM operation sphere.
But now this obstacle is removed and intelligence sharing can go ahead openly and the Arab countries hosting the American troops are not allowed to protest their military data leakage.
This means that the US arrangement not only does not offer security to the Arab states under a military coalition with the Israelis but also it would guarantee Israeli strategic supremacy over the Persian Gulf Arab states.
