The more their governing coalition disintegrates, the more Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid are accelerating the regional alliance and understandings vis-a-vis the growing Iranian threat.

Bennett flew to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) June 8 to meet with President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (for at least the third time in recent months). The joint official statement included mentions of economic and other cooperation, noting the two leaders also discussed “advancing the regional architecture” and regional issues.

The “regional architecture” is code for the anti-Iran alliance taking shape in recent months between Israel and Sunni states in the Middle East, referred to thus far in various statements but implemented largely away from the public eye. Even as Bennett and his Emirati host referred obliquely to this “architecture” in Abu Dhabi, in Washington, bipartisan groups of US lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced legislation June 9 authorizing the US administration to cooperate with Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, as well as Iraq, on developing and deploying an integrated air and missile defense against Iran. Iraq’s inclusion on the list surprised many observers.

The Deterring Enemy Forces and Enabling National Defenses (DEFEND) Act is apparently mostly declarative and diplomatic in nature, and is not budgeted. It is designed to bolster cooperation between Israel and its Arab neighbors based on the 2020 Abraham Accords, and enable the Pentagon to help these allies to the extent possible in locating, identifying and defending against any means Iran and its proxies might launch at them.