Ex-US official mentions absurdity of Israel’s attempts to extend QME
“Turkey is a NATO member, and actually, it's in the context of NATO that the term qualitative military edge was first used by the US with respect to NATO's positions vis-a-vis Russia. The purpose of NATO is to provide the US and its allies with a qualitative military edge over Russia,” Josh Paul told Anadolu.
Paul added, “The notion that Israel's qualitative military edge would trump America's military edge, and NATO's qualitative military edge, is just absolutely absurd, and should be deeply concerning… to all NATO members.”
Co-founder of advocacy group A New Policy, Paul served more than 11 years as a director at the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which manages US security assistance and arms transfers. He resigned in October 2023 to protest the Biden administration’s expedited arms shipments to Israel amid its war in Gaza, which has caused over 71,000 deaths and 171,000 injuries despite a fragile ceasefire.
Under US law, QME guarantees Israel the ability to defeat any country in the Middle East. Paul explained that this applies only to nations under the State Department’s Near East Bureau—essentially Arab states and Iran—and has never extended to a NATO member such as Türkiye.
Israel has lobbied to block the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Türkiye. Over the past year, some pro-Israel Congress members also unsuccessfully sought to expand QME to Türkiye or place it under the Near East Bureau. Paul argued that these efforts aim to increase Israel’s influence over the US rather than serve genuine US national interests.
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