Israel in NATO?

The Jerusalem Post has an article up claiming that Israel is going to try and push for entry into NATO. Intriguing prospect, to be sure, albeit one I highly doubt will go anywhere. But assuming it's viable, what is the upshot?

From the perspective of my own political commitments, it's certainly tempting at first glance. Putting Israel in NATO would tighten its links to the western security establishment considerably. And the Israeli military would add a surprising amount of punch to NATO forces. It has more tanks than France or Germany, a lot of on the ground experience (obviously), probably the most experience in what basically amounts to counter-insurgency warfare in the world, and all-in-all has a unique background regarding terrorism that stacks quite well given that anti-terrorism operations likely is where NATO will evolve in the near future (along with peacekeeping).

Meanwhile Monday, in an exclusive interview, former Spanish prime minister Jos Mar a Aznar told the Post that "Israel needs to join NATO as soon as possible."

According to Aznar, the Iranian threat serves as "an excellent occasion to enforce [Israeli] deterrence by making Israel a member of NATO."

The former Spanish leader and current president of the FAES Spanish think tank said that if Israel became a member of NATO, "the perception in Iran would change, knowing that it's not only Israel [they are dealing with], but all of NATO."

Aznar said that NATO needed to change its focus to counter the growing threat of global terrorism.

"The threat today is terror and we need to restructure NATO to deal with this threat," he said.

That being said, there are serious problems. For one, as the article notes, most NATO countries do not want to be locked into a strategic alliance with a country embroiled in so many tense (to say the least) situations with its neighbors. For two, it would obviously strain relations between the NATO bloc and the Islamic world. Unfortunate, and possibly worth biting, but still a real concern. The third issue, however, which I think might be overlooked, is how Israel's contribution to NATO might be severely circumscribed by geopolitical realities. The article questions whether Israel will want to contribute troops to foreign peacekeeping operations. That, by which I mean Israeli willingness, I don't see as a major problem. The issue is that many of the locations for peacekeeping won't be willing to accept Israeli contributions. Putting Israeli troops in a peacekeeping force in Darfur, for example, would be a colossal PR disaster and would immediately be seized upon by the government (who, if you recall, already blames the Jews) and would make the job that much tougher. There are plenty of areas in which an Israeli contribution, though materially useful, would be diplomatically suicidal, and that I feel would create a serious strain on the alliance.

So in all, I lean against formally inducting Israel into NATO (obviously, I feel that NATO bloc countries should defend Israel against Iranian and other aggression). What do y'all think?

UPDATE: IR Prof. Seth Weinburger's post raises some interesting points as well, and offers a solid response to at least one of the points I made (that Israel won't be able to effectively participate in peacekeeping operations). He notes that, by and large, the US doesn't either, and that doesn't appear to be problematic. Point well taken, although Israel's mere presence in the alliance offers opportunities for folks like the Sudanese government to tar the whole endeavor as a Zionist Plot (not that much is stopping them anyway).