I have been asking this question for months and each time I ask I get silence.

I thought I might try here and explain why I ask.

Why is so much of the US’s political, military and monetary capital expended on Israel? Why do people see it as such an important part of our foreign policy?

Our relationship with Israel has made us the target of constant Arabic hatred. As the sworn enemies of the Jews, the Arabic nations and peoples hate us. If you try to see if from their point of view it makes sense.

Some bad guy in Germany kills a whole bunch of Jews, so the victors of the war take a bunch of land that few Jews have lived on for 1,200 years or so and hand it over to the Jews. It wasn’t their land to give and they displaced hundreds of thousands of Arabic peoples in the process.

Then for the next 65 years, the US and its allies have turned a blind eye to everything Israel has done and stood behind it through violent occupations and forced relocations. 

Israel has nuclear weapons and has had them for years (they have never officially confirmed this, but they don’t deny it either). I wonder how they got that technology? And how would you feel if someone from another country gave nukes to your enemy but not to you? You would be really angry.

Israel will not sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, bringing it into company with India, Pakistan and North Korea. (They say it will be counter to their national interests.)

So… Why do we treat Israel so nicely? I think it simply because we see ourselves as a Christian country (or our leadership does) and they believe that this was foretold in the Bible. There is a certain amount of guilt for letting Hitler do what he did but that should be just about gone now. nope. I think it’s because American politicians, especially Evangelical Conservatives, believe that Israel’s existence is part of Biblical prophecy.

During the election, the Right gave Obama all kinds of crap about not visiting Israel. So what? It is a tiny country, with no natural resources, with a love-hate relationship with the US and that continually flips us off, making it clear they don’t care what we think.

If you want to see how much aid to Israel has cost us, here is a summary: http://hvrd.me/Spc1ZC

“The second most behind Afghanistan.” - We fought a war in Afghanistan.

They buy 3 billion dollars worth of jets from us (with our money) and we will buy $4 billion worth of defense stuff from them.

And on.

My point of view: No nation should be the focal point of our foreign policy but us. If it is going to cost us a lot of money and diplomatic capital to maintain our relationship with any nation, we had better be getting a lot out of it. Like access to easy oil or gold or platinum. We get none of that from Israel.

I affirm their right to exist. Frankly, to the Arabic nations, they’re there, deal with it. But I don’t think it is incumbent upon us to make sure they are treated and differently from any other ally.

If you think any differently, I would love to hear. I am willing to be swayed in my opinions and to look at new information.