German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this week that Israel “would no longer exist” without German military support. President Donald Trump has made a similar claim about American backing.
Neither man is questioning Israel’s right to exist. Both affirm it. Their claim is different: that Israel could not exercise that right—could not survive in practice—without the backing of their nations.
Does that claim hold up to historical scrutiny?
Germany began selling Israel significant quantities of weapons in 1962. The United States recognized Israel in 1948 and provided economic assistance in the years that followed, but Washington’s own historical record explicitly states that the United States had “resisted” supplying Israel with sophisticated weapons.
By the time America, Germany and other Western powers decided on a course correction, Israel had already survived its War of Independence and a subsequent decade-long Palestinian guerrilla campaign. It had fought for its life while under an arms embargo, with no Western arsenal opened to it. Jewish fighters secured crucial weapons from elsewhere, and when that failed, they fought with what they had.
And during that time, while surrounded by hostile armies, the new state was absorbing hundreds of thousands of refugees, with no Western assistance.
Before the contracts
The Jewish state was not assembled in a Western conference room and then kept alive by periodic deliveries of hardware.
It was built by Jews returning from exile, persecution and the ashes of Europe’s death camps. They revived Hebrew. They founded farms, cities, schools and industries. They formed an army. They buried their dead and kept building.
Germany’s responsibility toward Israel is real, and recognition of that responsibility is appreciated. But responsibility does not make Berlin the guarantor of Israel’s survival.
Nor does American support turn Washington into Israel’s indispensable protector.
There is a difference between a friend who helps defend a house and a friend who claims the house would collapse without him.
The Guardian of Israel
A scattered people returned to their ancestral land. An ancient tongue long thought dead again became the language of streets, homes and military commands. Jerusalem was restored as the capital of the Jewish nation.
The hands that built Israel were Jewish hands. They carried rifles, planted fields, raised families and refused to surrender when everyone else expected them to.
Israel should not downplay that resilience when answering Merz and Trump. It is part of the truth.
But it is not the whole truth.
The psalmist wrote: “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” That is not an argument against vigilance, military strength or good allies. Israel has never treated faith as a substitute for duty.
It is a reminder that no arms contract sits above The Covenant, and no foreign leader gets to present himself as Israel’s essential guardian.
Israel welcomes friends. But it already has a Guardian—far above America, Germany and every other worldly power.
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