As President Biden delays arms transfers and tensions between Washington and Jerusalem reach new heights, the key question of the U.S.-Israel relationship is coming into focus: Why does either side need the other?The reasons behind Israel’s desire to maintain the relationship is more intuitive than the opposite. Nothing beats the military, economic and diplomatic support that the world’s sole superpower can provide to its junior allies. Israel is seeing this quite clearly in the ongoing war. America has provided Israel with weaponry worth billions of dollars to fight Hamas and to prepare for a war with Hezbollah. It did this while defending Israel’s skies from an unprecedented Iranian attack and providing diplomatic cover for Israel through much of the war.The reasons behind America’s desire to maintain a strong alliance seems less obvious to the passive eye. After all, can’t a superpower like America go it alone, and demand that its junior partners toe the line? This seems to be the approach of the Biden Administration in holding up arms shipments to Israel, a move designed to discourage the latter from expanding military operations to Rafah in southern Gaza.I argue that this approach is mistaken and neglects the 3 core reasons why America needs Israel as a strong and stable ally.