US Defense Secretary James Mattis has spent time in a lot of Middle East “garden spots.” The former chief of the US Central Command and retired four-star general who served in Iraq knows the region well and has no illusions about the challenges it presents for US interests. But his first official visit to Israel, set for April 21, will expose him to the Middle East partner with whom the United States enjoys perhaps its closest partnership.

Under President Barack Obama, US-Israeli security cooperation reached unprecedented heights, despite the sometimes prickly relationship between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The extensive joint training between US and Israeli military forces, counterterrorism units and missile defense operators is at its apex. Intelligence cooperation, across every discipline of collection and analysis, is more constant, more sophisticated and more mutually beneficial than ever before. Joint technology programs have led to major advances in missile defense capabilities and are countering new threats, such as is occurring with tunnel detection technology. US assistance is rising to its highest levels ever with the $38 billion memorandum of understanding signed last year, which will enable Israel to fill out two full squadrons of F-35 aircraft and continue to upgrade other capabilities.

Against this backdrop, Mattis will receive an extremely warm reception, and much of the visit will represent continuity in the partnership. He will have opportunities to underscore the common American and Israeli approach on many issues. But no two countries have identical interests, or see even common challenges in precisely the same way. Clarity will be called for, at least in private, on other matters where Israeli expectations of the United States may exceed what Mattis can promise, and where he can offer useful reality checks.

Convergence issues