Jerusalem Post urged not to call Israel a superpower or a pariah
In the Israeli outlet The Jerusalem Post, American media researcher Darcy Grunblatt stated that describing Israel as a global superpower on par with the United States and Russia is as inaccurate as calling it diplomatically isolated. In her view, such opposing characterizations oversimplify the country’s actual level of military, economic, and diplomatic influence.
Economy and military capabilities
Grunblatt drew attention to a Wall Street Journal article from August 29, in which Israel was mentioned among major powers alongside the United States and Russia in the context of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The columnist believes that classifying Israel among global powers of this level does not correspond to measurable indicators.
According to the data she cited, Israel’s nominal GDP in 2025 stood at $611 billion, while the economies of the United States and Russia were estimated at $32 trillion and $2.6 trillion, respectively. In the 2026 Global Firepower ranking, Israel placed 15th, while the United States and Russia ranked first and second.
In Grunblatt’s view, Israel has primarily regional capabilities for projecting conventional military force and does not have a network of overseas bases and alliances comparable to those of the United States or Russia. She also noted that Israel’s partnership with the United States does not mean equal status, since Washington has diplomatic and economic leverage through military aid and broader security relations.
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Diplomatic ties
At the same time, the author rejected the definition of Israel as a diplomatically isolated country. She referred to CAMERA researcher Tamar Sternthal, according to whom Israel maintains active diplomatic relations with more than 166 countries.
The column also mentions Israel’s agreements with Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Germany worth $35 billion, $2.3 billion, and $3.5 billion, respectively. In addition, as of August 31, Israel and Greece signed a defense export agreement worth nearly $3.5 billion.
Grunblatt called on the media to describe Israel without extreme labels—not as a global superpower, but also not as a helpless diplomatically isolated state.
