Israel’s Global Reassessment

Last week, two defense trade shows took place thousands of miles apart. Land Forces 2026 was held in Perth, Australia, while the Marrakech Air Show took place in Morocco. On the surface, they were similar events: countries and companies displaying military technology to potential customers, partners, and suppliers. But for Israel, the two shows could not have been more different. And the difference tells us something important about Israel’s changing place in the world.

Israeli defense companies have traditionally exhibited at Land Forces. Marrakech was different. This year marked the first time Israeli defense companies, including RAFAEL, Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems, participated in the Moroccan air show. That would have been almost unimaginable not long ago.

The Abraham Accords changed the equation. Morocco and Israel established a relationship based not on romantic notions of peace but on something much more durable: common interests. Both countries understand that cooperation can strengthen their security and advance their strategic interests. Morocco does not have to agree with every Israeli policy to recognize that working with Israel can be useful. Morocco does not require Israel to become Switzerland-on-the-Mediterranean before cooperating with Jerusalem.

There is a word for this: pragmatism.

And then there was Perth.

According to media reports, some 400 protesters gathered outside Land Forces, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and connecting Israeli weapons displayed at the exhibition with the death of an Australian aid worker in 2024. An Australian Member of Parliament went so far as to say that seeing Israeli weapons displayed at the show made her physically sick.

I was at Land Forces. Before leaving the venue, organizers told us to remove our identification badges for our own safety. The instruction applied to everybody, regardless of nationality. Think about that for a moment. A major defense exhibition, whose entire purpose is to facilitate international military cooperation, was operating in an atmosphere in which attendees were advised not to identify themselves outside.

Meanwhile, in Morocco, Israel’s participation generated no comparable fanfare. The show proceeded quietly.

There is an irony here that should make Western leaders profoundly uncomfortable. Morocco, an Arab and Muslim country, was able to host Israeli defense companies without hysteria. Australia, a Western democracy and longtime friend of Israel, could not.

Something has gone badly wrong in parts of the West. Anti-Israel activism increasingly resembles less a political movement than an article of faith. Israel is presumed guilty. Facts that complicate the indictment are discarded. Context becomes an excuse. Israeli self-defense becomes “aggression,” while the threats that make that self-defense necessary fade quietly into the background.

We see it in London. We see it in Paris. We see it on American college campuses. Criticism of an Israeli government is entirely legitimate. The obsessive delegitimization of the Jewish state is something else entirely. When every Israeli action is uniquely sinister, every Israeli explanation inherently suspect, and even the display of an Israeli-made weapon becomes morally contaminating, we are no longer having a serious argument about policy. We are witnessing prejudice dressed up as principle.

Israel should take notice. For decades, Israelis have instinctively divided the world into familiar categories: allies, adversaries and everyone in between. Those categories are becoming less useful. A country that looks like a natural friend may prove increasingly uncomfortable standing beside Israel. A country once considered an unlikely partner may discover that cooperation with Israel serves its national interest. Israel therefore has to continually reassess who its friends actually are, rather than who it assumes they ought to be.

Perth and Marrakech are separated by nearly 9,000 miles. Last week, the distance between them seemed considerably greater.

Good Things,

Ari Sacher