Anti-Zionists on both the left and right seem to have almost universally accepted the bizarre notion that Israel is a dominant force over America. This claim flies against the evidence but nevertheless has considerable influence among Israel’s enemies.
The headline of a recent article in the Nation, a venerable American leftist publication, summed up the argument: “How the Israeli tail wags the American dog”. Many other leftist sources have supported the sentiment.
Joe Kent (pictured above), a supporter of the American right, took a similar view in his recent resignation letter as the director of America’s National Counterterrorism Center. In his view America started the war with Iran “due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”.
Yet few who make such claims bother to make rational comparisons between metrics of the relative strength of America and Israel. Let’s take a few examples.
The economy. America’s GDP, that is the value of the amount it produces in one year, is forecast to be about $31.8 trillion in 2026 according to the International Monetary Fund. In contrast, the corresponding IMF figure for Israel is $666 billion. That means the American economy is about 48 times the size of that of Israel.
Population. America’s population is estimated at a about 342m compared with about 10.2m for Israel. That means the American population is about 34 times greater. In that context it should also be noted that only about three-quarters of Israel’s population are Jewish.
Land area. America’s land area is about 9.8m square kilometres compared with about 22,000 square kilometres for Israel. That means America is about 44 times bigger by this metric. Israel is about the same size as the state of New Jersey and of Wales. That also means America has considerably more access to natural resources than Israel.
Military. It is in the military arena that Israel has a disproportionately large and powerful army compared with most other nations. That of course is because of the existential threats it faces from an alliance of Islamist forces. Nevertheless it is still only ranked 15th in the world according to the 2026 Global Firepower Index. This is punching enormously above its weight but way behind America which ranks number one by a large margin. Israel also ranks below many other countries in military terms including Russia, China and France. Indeed it is does not even have the most powerful military in the Middle East with Turkey ranking at number nine in the global league table.
It is worth remembering that the idea of Israel as dominating America has not always had near-universal support on the anti-Israel side. Noam Chomsky, once a darling of the anti-Israel movement, argued that America supported Israel because it saw the Jewish state as a strategic asset. In other words he saw America as by far the stronger partner in the relationship. For all of Chomsky’s numerous faults he had a relatively balanced view on this particular point.
As for the supposed power of the American Jewish lobby it is also worth considering a few basic facts. There are roughly 7.5m Jews in America so about 2.2% of the total population. However, it should be noted that although the vast majority support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish Democratic state many are sharply critical. In that context it is notable that about 33% of Jews who voted in the recent New York mayoral elections supported Zohran Mamdani. That does not necessarily mean they all endorsed his anti-Israel stance nevertheless it did not put them off.
It is undoubtedly true that anyone, on the left or the right, firmly in the anti-Israel camp is unlikely to be swayed by objective facts about Israel’s relative strength. For them Israel is such a perniciously evil power their prejudices trump any serious weighing up of the evidence.
However, for those wanting to win the argument with the public at large it is important to be aware of the objective facts about Israeli influence. America is still on balance, by most reasonable criteria, the world’s most powerful country (although China produces more in absolute terms). In contrast Israel, which it is vital to defend and punches well above its weight, is not by any criterion a global superpower.
Israel does not survive through its supposed huge influence over American politics. It does so because of the immense resilience and determination of its citizens against those who have frequently attempted to destroy it.
Note: All statistics quoted above are estimates but nevertheless they are accurate enough to give a reasonable comparison of the enormous disparity between America and Israel by these metrics.
PHOTO: "JoeKent" by Jameson Sharp is licensed under CC BY 3.0.