Israel and NATO

Israel will be pushing for stronger ties with NATO.

Israel and NATO pledged Thursday to deeper ties during the first visit by a NATO chief to the country, although a top Israeli official denied the Jewish state had any ambitions to join the military alliance.

Speaking at a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Israeli Foreign Minister Shalom said Israel was looking to upgrade its relationship with NATO.

"This is an historic visit because it is the first time that the head of NATO has visited our country. It reflects the mutual goals of deepening ongoing ties and realising the potential for cooperation," Shalom said.

"We want to move from a dialogue relationship to a partnership relationship," he said. "We think the time has come to have more cooperation in the security, political and military fields."

This makes perfect sense. There's been mention before of Israel being denied NATO membership until they follow some guidelines about demolishing terrorist homes or something (looking back, I don't think I posted the article). It's not hard to see, though, that the enemy of NATO (Islamofascist terrorists) has the same face as the enemy of Israel (Islamofascist terrorists). Even if Israel doesn't become a NATO member (which would make sense as it's not in the North Atlantic), a strategic partnership between the two makes sense.