Senator Jim Inhofe understands it’s hard to wrap your mind around why we in Oklahoma should be concerned about what happens in the Gaza strip. “To the average person we should be very sensitive to the fact that the major role of government is defending America.”

That seems simple but the Senator told KRMG news that often extends beyond our own borders. “We have a responsibility to defend America but also to help and defend our allies.”

Oklahoma’s senior Senator told KRMG news it’s as simple as helping out a buddy “in the case of the Middle East, the only friend we’ve got over there, consistent friend is Israel.”

Inhofe has seen what the Israel-U.S. partnership means and he pointed out it goes deeper than many know. “It’s not a one way street, they’re brilliant people in Israel” he noted. Inhofe continued “They’ve helped us with technology on systems that we have in this country.”

Listen to the entire interview with Senator Inhofe here.

Many of those are all about national defense. “The Iron Dome, that’s a defense system, so is the FAB system, Arrow one and patriot missiles.”  

Inhofe also believes that the U.S. would end up stretched thin without help in the region “keep in mind that if Israel should go down it would leave us carrying a lot of the load for our own security.”

That could mean more Oklahoma sons and daughters sent into harm’s way to defend an area currently being taken care of by Israel.

Inhofe is also a bit put out by the President’s attitude toward that part of the world. “He made a decision that not many people are aware of, he said we don’t have problems in the Middle East anymore.” The Senator finds that laughable “I guess he assumes he’s spent a lot of time over there and he’s got all the problems solved over there where they’re killing everybody.”

As part of that, he says Obama has turned away from Israel “he made the decision that things in the Middle East are not bad, we had better concentrate on the Far East and there he is over there right now ignoring pretty much what’s going on in the Middle East.

Inhofe hopes to be able to stem that tide more in January when he is set to become the ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.  KRMG will have more on that with the Senator as we move closer to January.