“Israel: A U.S. Outpost to Exploit Middle East Resources”

By Qamar Bashir

The world has long decried Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza. From charred hospitals and bombed refugee camps to the anguished cries of children buried beneath rubble, the imagery emerging from the Strip has rightly shocked global conscience. Yet the real puppeteer of this unending carnage is not Tel Aviv—it is Washington, D.C.

A chilling interview from the early 1980s by then-Senator Joe Biden revealed the U.S. logic behind Israel’s existence. Biden stated bluntly: “If there were not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.” This was not a passing remark—it was a declaration of strategic doctrine. Israel is not merely a nation-state to the U.S.; it is an outpost of American power projection, a regional gendarme tasked with ensuring U.S. supremacy in the Middle East.

This context clarifies why the U.S. continues to bankroll Israel’s military-industrial complex with unwavering zeal. Since 1948, Washington has provided over $300 billion in aid to Israel—most of it military. In 2023 alone, despite deepening deficits and rising domestic discontent, the Biden administration approved $14.3 billion in additional military aid for Israel amid the Gaza war, bringing the annual military aid total to nearly $4 billion. This funding flows even as the world watches Gaza transform into what European commentators now call a “slaughterhouse.”

Eyewitness testimonies from international doctors and aid workers reinforce this grim reality. In a recent televised interview, a British trauma surgeon broke down in tears recalling the story of a Gazan child whose limbs were blown off while she watched her siblings die beside her. The doctor’s raw anguish mirrored a deeper horror: if frontline humanitarian workers are emotionally shattered by what they’ve seen, how can the leaders who finance the machinery of this devastation remain unmoved?

The answer lies in the structural alliance between the U.S. and Israel. This is not a partnership of equals. It is a symbiosis in which the U.S. leverages Israel to control the Middle East—its oil, its politics, and its people. From U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia to drone strikes and surveillance coordination across the region, Washington’s grip is not only firm but deliberately hidden beneath the veil of Israeli action.

Consider the latest developments during Iran’s missile retaliation following Israeli strikes on its consulates in Damascus—attacks that killed Iranian military leaders. When Tehran responded with a barrage of missiles and drones, it wasn’t only Israel that scrambled to intercept them. U.S. forces from CENTCOM, using air defense assets stationed in Jordan, Iraq, and aboard naval carriers in the Mediterranean, actively participated in downing Iranian projectiles. The message was clear: in any war involving Israel, the U.S. is not just a supporter—it is a combatant.

Meanwhile, in global forums meant to uphold peace and human dignity, America’s duplicity becomes even more glaring. At the UN Security Council, multiple humanitarian resolutions—such as those demanding a ceasefire or the restoration of aid to starving Gazans—have been passed with near-unanimous international support. Each time, the U.S. stood alone in vetoing these motions. No explanation suffices for a country that claims moral leadership yet blocks food, water, and medicine from reaching dying civilians.

This moral collapse is now triggering a domestic reckoning. In universities across America, students are staging sit-ins, hunger strikes, and mass protests condemning U.S. complicity in what is widely being described as genocide. Hollywood celebrities, congressional staffers, and even Pentagon insiders have voiced dissent. A January 2025 Gallup poll showed a dramatic shift: 63% of Americans under 35 now disapprove of U.S. military aid to Israel, up from 29% just a year earlier. This generational rupture suggests that Washington’s pro-Israel orthodoxy is rapidly losing legitimacy at home.

The façade of Israel as a sovereign actor also cracks when one examines intelligence cooperation. The CIA, NSA, and Mossad are now known to operate in near-total synchronization. From satellite surveillance and cyberwarfare to human intelligence networks, the boundaries between American and Israeli operations are increasingly blurred. This integration was vividly demonstrated during joint U.S.-Israel military exercises simulating strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, including rehearsals for air dominance and precision bombardment of underground bunkers.

Moreover, the U.S. arms Israel with the very weapons used to decimate Gaza. In just the first three months of the 2023-2024 war, Washington approved emergency weapons shipments including 2,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, white phosphorus artillery, and guidance kits for JDAM precision munitions—all used in densely populated civilian areas. These are not defensive tools; they are instruments of annihilation.

The argument that the U.S. is merely reacting to Israeli aggression no longer holds water. Washington is not following—it is leading. The Biden administration has framed its Middle East policy as a defense of “democratic values,” but what democracy sanctions mass child casualties, systematic starvation, and the razing of hospitals and schools?

Nowhere is this hypocrisy more visible than in Washington’s handling of the International Criminal Court. When the ICC sought arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes, the U.S. didn’t simply reject the ruling—it threatened the court. Biden called the ICC action “outrageous,” and Congress introduced bipartisan bills to sanction ICC judges. In short, the U.S. declared war on international law to shield its regional proxy from justice.

This pattern is not new. From the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses to drone strikes in Yemen and extrajudicial killings in Pakistan and Afghanistan, America’s history in the Middle East is soaked in blood. But what makes the Gaza war different is that the mask has finally slipped. The world sees that the genocide is not just Israel’s—it is America’s. The billions in aid, the vetoes at the UN, the logistical coordination, and the political cover: all roads lead to Washington.

It is time for the world—and especially for Americans—to recalibrate their outrage. The protests outside Israeli embassies must now extend to the steps of the White House and Capitol Hill. The real accountability must be demanded not just of those dropping bombs, but of those writing the checks, scripting the strategy, and supplying the impunity.

Joe Biden’s old confession was prophetic. Israel was created, nurtured, and empowered not for its own sake but to serve U.S. hegemony. The tragedy is that this alliance has now birthed one of the gravest humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st century.

And if the world fails to confront the root of this horror, it won’t just be Gaza that burns. It will be the last embers of global justice itself.

By Qamar Bashir

Press Secretary to the President (Rtd)

Former Press Minister, Embassy of Pakistan to France

Former MD, SRBC | Macomb, Michigan, USA