The best, most concise statement of how people ought to think about Israel came from veteran national security reporter and analyst Eli Lake on Friday when he told me on my program that the world needs to understand the Jewish state as an “intelligence superpower.”

Lake is the equal of any American reporter assessing U.S.-Israel relations. Even as Europe gets dumber about and more hostile to Israel, the United States must get smarter about the equal of any of its allies.

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Along with the U.S., China, and Russia, Israel is in the genuine “superpower” quartet of nations that possess nuclear weapons, an extraordinary military, and first-tier intel capabilities paired with the ability and, crucially, the political will to project hard power abroad when it is threatened.

The U.S. has a first tier of allies that includes Japan, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Singapore, as well as our NATO allies, but among the latter’s member states, the countries that come from “Old Europe” rather than “New Europe,” as former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld branded the two camps in 2003, have been in the grip of decadeslong declines, driven by the economic ossification imposed by Brussels EU bureaucrats and wafer-thin militaries driven by these countries’ willingness to freeload on the U.S.-provided security shield.

Israel is in this “first tier,” and while not part of the Five Eyes that participate in intelligence sharing, the U.S.-Israel tie is as strategic as any other in the world because Israel conducts itself with clarity about the world’s bad actors and the serious threats to global stability they pose.

With President Donald Trump picking up on the NATO renovation project begun in his first term, some parts of NATO are on the mend, and the addition of Finland to the alliance has greatly strengthened it. But there are hardly three NATO allies that can punch above their weight. Germany may be trending back toward seriousness as a partner in the defense of the West, but it will take a few years to assess. We can be certain that France and the United Kingdom are headed in the opposite direction as political chaos has a firm grip on both counties.

The ally on which the U.S. can best rely is Israel.

The implications of this reality for domestic politics are significant. The “progressive” pacifist wing, almost co-located with the anti-Israel wing of the Democratic Party, is jointly obliging that party to lurch into de facto hostility to the Jewish state. Close to 80% of American Jews voted solidly Democratic in the past, but Jews make up the electoral demographic most likely to join black and Hispanic men, as well as young people generally, in their shift toward the GOP as the anti-Israel left takes over the vocal cords of the Democrats.

Clarity about our allies is the consequence of the general clarity that President Donald Trump has brought to the political debate. The voters who care about national security and the defense and, indeed, expansion of the West are moving toward the GOP.

This is the same path traveled by electoral groups concerned with economic growth and genuine opportunity. Support for Israel is a driver of division between the parties every bit as significant as the issues swirling around critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; gender; and higher education. The GOP is the serious, mainstream party now. Democrats have embraced leadership class figures and interest groups that are, simply put, “playing outside the 40s of American politics.”

Support for Israel is now one of those issues that clearly delineates the two major parties. Even supposed stalwart supporters of Israel, such as the ranking member of the Democratic minority of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), and former national security adviser Jake Sullivan, have in recent days publicly called for restrictions on military sales to Israel.

Even as former President Joe Biden’s physical infirmity increased during his term, support for Israel within his administration withered. At the recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Minneapolis, the party split on Israel. “Democratic Party Scraps Resolutions on Israel and Gaza After Fraught Debate,” a New York Times headline declared, continuing in its subhead, “The measures were almost entirely symbolic, yet laid bare the broader fault lines dividing and shaping the party nearly two years after the war began.”

BELGIUM TO RECOGNIZE A PALESTINIAN STATE IF CERTAIN CONDITIONS ARE MET

As with economic policy, Democrats have lurched left on national security seriousness under the influence of former President Barack Obama’s administration alumni in think tanks and in the world of media. American voters should understand that political support for or hostility toward Israel is a completely accurate indicator of a politician’s or a party’s seriousness about support for the basic structure of American government.

Nation-states committed to the incremental expansion of liberty and literacy in the world that are either a part of the West or adjacent to it and moving toward it are part of the global architecture of American security. Israel is in the vanguard of such states. American elected officials who are less than full-throated in their support for Israel cannot be trusted to guide the country in these perilous times.

Hugh Hewitt is a longtime conservative commentator and author. He hosts The Hugh Hewitt Show on Salem Radio every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m.