U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander General Michael Kurilla is in Israel Monday on a pre-planned visit that would not have happened had President Donald Trump not made the decision to include Israel in CENTCOM.
The U.S. divides military policy geographically, with different countries assigned to different areas based on their location. But Israel, while in the Middle East, had long been included in U.S. European Command (EUCOM), in deference to Arab hostility towards the Jewish state.
Pro-Israel groups had argued that being in EUCOM put Israel at a disadvantage, because U.S. military officials in the Middle East had closer ties with Arab states than with Israel.
The Abraham Accords opened up new possibilities — and Iran’s aggression encouraged its targets to unite.
In January 2021, before leaving office, Trump moved Israel from EUCOM to CENTCOM. The Wall Street Journal reported:
President Trump has ordered that the major U.S. military command for the Middle East be expanded to include Israel, in a last-minute reorganization of the American defense structure that pro-Israel groups have long advocated to encourage cooperation against Iran, U.S. officials said Thursday.
The move means that the U.S. Central Command would oversee American military policy involving both Israel and Arab nations, a departure from decades of U.S. military command structure put in place because of acrimony between Israel and some of the Pentagon’s Arab allies.
It is the latest in a series of Trump administration policy moves to shape the national security agenda President-elect Joe Biden will inherit. The change was recently ordered by Mr. Trump but hasn’t yet been made public. A Biden transition official declined to comment on the move.
Biden reversed some of Trump’s last-minute changes, such as the decision to put the Iran-backed Houthis on a list of terrorist organizations. That reversal has come back to haunt Biden, as the Houthis have menaced Red Sea shipping.
But Biden did not reverse the decision to move Israel to CENTCOM. Like Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, it was a change that many administrations realized was necessary, but that only Trump actually made.
Kurilla will reportedly meet with Israeli military officials to discuss preparations for an expected Iranian attack. In April, the U.S. and other nations, including Arab states, helped intercept Iranian missiles and drones fired at Israel.
Without Trump, that alliance would never have existed, and General Kurilla would not be in Israel, coordinating a second effort at a joint defense. It is a reminder why Israelis, while officially neutral, strongly prefer Trump in 2024.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
