Let Israel Fight ISIS

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/11/opinion/let-israel-fight-isis.html

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TEL AVIV — In 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, he provided President George H. W. Bush his finest hour as a leader, a diplomat and a commander in chief. Among Mr. Bush’s accomplishments was bringing together more than 30 countries to oppose Iraq’s aggression. But the United States president knew what he’d have to do to build the kind of broad international coalition that he wanted: Keep Israel out of it.

Even as Mr. Hussein pointed Scud missiles at Haifa and Tel Aviv, Israel was not invited to join the force that would push Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. (In fact, top Bush administration officials were dispatched to Jerusalem to calm down Israel lest it decided to act unilaterally.) Twelve years later, something similar played out when President George W. Bush assembled another coalition of the willing to fight against Iraq, this time of nearly 50 countries from Britain to Azerbaijan. Once again, Israel was kept off the list.

So no eyebrows were raised last year when the Obama administration began collecting names for its halfhearted coalition against the Islamic State, and Israel was, once again, not publicly asked to contribute. Australia and Belgium, Jordan and Qatar, Turkey and Britain were all expected to help with the fight. Israel — much closer to the action geographically than Denmark, better equipped than the Netherlands, on higher moral ground than Saudi Arabia — was once again left out.

Israel obviously supports the effort to stop the Islamic State. Clandestine cooperation has been welcomed, and Israeli intelligence sharing is, of course, appreciated. But as was the case in previous engagements in the region, including the two Iraq wars, Israel is wanted as a coalition member as long as it’s under the radar.

Israel’s habitual exclusion is ostensibly based on sound logic. It is meant to deny Arab countries an excuse not to join in the fight and deny the target, whether it’s Mr. Hussein or the Islamic State, a propaganda card that it would surely use if the coalition forces included an airplane or a Humvee decorated with a Star of David.

But insistence on keeping Israel isolated is a relic. It may have made sense when the Middle East was still preoccupied with the Arab-Israeli conflict. It makes less sense today, as that conflict becomes marginal compared with more pressing issues in the region, like the wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen, the rise of Islamic extremism and the Sunni-Shiite battle for supremacy.

At this point, Saudi Arabia and Israel have similar interests in keeping the Middle East stable. Israel and Egypt agree that no compromise is possible with Islamic State extremists. Israel and the United Arab Emirates both worry about Iran. If Arab countries are serious about wanting moderation and stability, they should no longer ask that Israel be excluded from the fight for a better Middle East. In fact, they should embrace Israeli participation and publicly acknowledge a fact that many of them privately admit: Israel is an ally — not an enemy.

Western leaders should also pause to reconsider the old habit of keeping Israel on the sidelines. Excluding a country for no other reason than the reluctance of others to fight alongside it undermines the very premise of the anti-Islamic State coalition, which claims the radical jihadists are a menace against which everybody should rally regardless of petty interests and selfish calculations.

Of course, there are still many strong practical arguments against inviting Israeli participation. The jihadists would surely use an Israeli contribution as a rallying cry. Arab states could find domestic public opinion a challenge if their bombers were to fly alongside Israel’s. Western leaders would be right to reason that the participation of Muslim Arab states in this battle against an extremist force that claims to be fighting in the name of Islam takes precedence over Israeli contribution.

It’s not even clear that Israel wants to be invited to join, anyway. Iran’s nuclear threat remains the top security priority for Israel, and Iran benefits when the Islamic State becomes the international community’s urgent crisis. Israel, which has more than enough enemies already, has no reason to try to make itself the Islamic State’s next target.

And yet, the question of Israeli participation deserves a hearing. It deserves it first and foremost because Israel, like all other countries in the region, has a stake in fighting against evildoers. It cannot urge France or the United States or Russia to fight a battle that it would not be willing to join.

There are more selfish reasons for Israel to at least ponder the possibility of participation. An invitation to join this coalition would demonstrate to the world that Israel is not a pariah state. It would be an acknowledgment — albeit a late one — that the Middle East is no longer preoccupied with the straw man that is the Israeli-Arab conflict. There would be a cost for Israel — but there would also be real benefit.

Israel would most likely have no choice but to accept an invitation to join a coalition against the Islamic State. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or his generals shouldn’t expect one to arrive any time soon. Fighting the Islamic State is tough, but getting rid of old habits seems to be tougher.