When one of us first argued in Foreign Policy in 2022 that Israel and the Gulf states should form a U.S.-backed multinational rapid-response force, the idea seemed ahead of its time. The Abraham Accords were still fresh, and the notion of Arab and Israeli troops training and operating side by side seemed politically remote.

Now, three years later, the logic has not only endured — it has been tested repeatedly in crisis after crisis.

The region has outgrown ad-hoc security

The merit for this concept, which we began developing in 2019 while leading Marines in the Middle East, has only strengthened. The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza war radiated far beyond the borders of that conflict. Iranian-aligned militias struck U.S. and coalition bases , and Houthi

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