US establishes first permanent military base in Israel

The United States is establishing its first ever official, permanent military base in Israel: an air defense base in the heart of the Negev desert, Brig. Gen. Tzvika Haimovitch, head of the IAF’s Aerial Defense Command, announces.

Dozens of US Air Force soldiers will be based at the new site, located inside the Israeli Air Force’s Mashabim Air Base, west of the towns of Dimona and Yerucham.

“It’s nothing less than historic,” Haimovitch says. It demonstrates the “years-old alliance between the United States and the State of Israel.”

The Israeli brigadier general tells reporters that the establishment of a permanent US base in Israel “allows us to improve our defense, in discovery and in interception and in preparedness.”

Haimovitch denies that the timing of the base opening was tied to any specific current event, and noted that the process of establishing it had been in the works for some two years.