USA
Isolationist Pentagon appointee Colby provokes mixed views among Zionists
The career civil servant, who will oversee US defence policy, has split Zionist opinion with his unusual stance on the Middle East
April 9, 2025 12:35
The career civil servant, who will oversee US defence policy, has split Zionist opinion with his unusual stance on the Middle East
April 9, 2025 12:35The US Senate voted last night to confirm Elbridge Colby as Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, installing in the Pentagon a man who has called for a sharp reduction in America’s foreign defence commitments but who, nonetheless, supports Israel.
Colby, 45, who has worked in policy development for his entire career, has faced opposition from within the Republican Party, including some pro-Israel figures, thanks to his outspoken advocacy for a more isolationist approach to foreign policy.
Other Zionist organisations have welcomed his nomination, noting that he has consistently backed US moral and material support to Israel, even while opposing direct military intervention.
In February, ahead of Colby’s confirmation hearings, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations wrote to senators expressing concern over whether he took seriously the threat to Israel posed by Iran.
But the Zionist Organization of America objected to its inclusion in that letter, saying it had not been consulted and that it supported Colby’s nomination. “Mr. Colby expressed his view that the United States should continue to provide Israel with US financial aid and everything, any military equipment and ammunition and armamentarium that Israel needs to deal with the Iranian threat or any threat,” ZOA President Morton Klein wrote.
The son of an investment banker, Colby grew up in Tokyo before returning to the US as a teen, going on to graduate from both Harvard and Yale Law School. Since graduation he has worked across the State Department, Defence Department and even in the transitional government of Iraq following the US invasion in 2003.
Throughout his career, he has been regarded as one of the most prominent voices in the foreign policy establishment pushing against the increasingly hawkish tide that swelled under the Bush administration.
Yet he is not a traditional dove in the sense of opposing US intervention on moral grounds – instead he seems to more closely fit President Donald Trump’s mould of “America First” isolationism that sees the US as being unfairly burdened with its role as the upholder of the global security order.
On the Middle East, Colby has advocated to reduce the US military presence in the region, including a complete withdrawal from the Persian Gulf, in favour of “bolstering” the capabilities of its regional allies like Israel.
In an article written just prior to the October 7 attacks, he said that America “cannot afford to be enmeshed in another Middle Eastern war” and should “defer more to Israel's judgement about how to best manage its security challenges".
He has also previously criticised US strikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, despite the group’s direct attacks launched at Israel.
This stance aligns with Trump’s “America First” platform, which holds that allied nations should take full responsibility for their own defence and advocates for minimal involvement of the American military in “foreign wars”.
It is this platform which apparently informs the Trump administration’s approach to international relations, including its determination to reduce the cost of its Nato contributions and avoid US involvement in a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
However, it has attracted concern from members of Congress, including those of a pro-Israel and interventionist disposition.
Mitch McConnell, a senator from Kentucky who is strongly supportive of Israel and the lone Republican to break the party line and vote against Colby’s confirmation, claimed that Colby would be willing to “discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy”.
He added: “The prioritisation that Mr. Colby argues is fresh, new, and urgently needed is, in fact, a return to an Obama-era conception of à la carte geostrategy.
"Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritise the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move. It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit,” McConnell continued.
"Colby’s confirmation leaves open the door for the less-polished standard-bearers of restraint and retrenchment at the Pentagon to do irreparable damage to the system of alliances and partnerships which serve as force multipliers to US leadership.”
The 54-45 vote also saw some Democrats unexpectedly give the nominee their backing, with Senators Jack Reed, Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly all voting in his favour despite his previous advocacy for the US to withdraw its support for Ukraine.
Reed told Jewish Insider that Colby had “corrected” his remarks regarding Eastern Europe, adding: “I’ve been following his career. He’s testified several times before the committee. He’s very thoughtful.
"I don’t agree with all of his policy positions, but I think he’s somebody that you could have a very constructive dialogue with.”