President Trump has ordered the U.S.’s top military command for the Middle East to be expanded to include Israel, in a last-minute reorganization of the American defense structure that pro-Israel groups have long championed, American officials said on Thursday.
The move means that the U.S. Central Command would oversee US military policy involving Israel and the Arab nations, a decades-long departure from the US military command structure implemented because of the acrimony between Israel and some of the Pentagon’s Arab allies.
It is the latest in a series of political measures by the Trump administration to shape the national security agenda that President-elect Joe Biden will inherit. The change was recently ordered by Mr. Trump, but has not yet been made public. A Biden transition officer declined to comment on the change.
US military responsibility for Israel had long since been attributed to its European command. This arrangement allowed US generals in the Middle East to interact with Arab states without having a close association with Israel, which at the time was seen as an adversary in the Arab world.
Following the Abraham Accords that led to the normalization of Israel’s relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, pro-Israel groups intensified their pressure for Central Command to take responsibility for military operations and planning involving Israel to promote greater cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors.