Israel doesn't need friends

The classic definition of a Great Power is a country that can wage war without allies. Unbeknownst even to its own leaders, Israel must have been a Great Power from the very day of its birth, when it had absolutely no allies and was invaded by Egypt, Transjordan, Syria and the volunteer Arab Liberation Army. Worse still, the new Jewish statelet had to face the very active hostility of the British and US governments, which used their then-pervasive influence to close every Mediterranean port to shipments of weapons and ammunition. For the roughly 650,000 Jews of the new mini-state, who sang and danced that day in May 1948, the very strict embargo was much more than an inconvenience. The British had already supplied their best fighter aircraft and tanks to the Egyptians, and armored cars wit