Why does america care about israel

My own investment in the conflict derives from such concerns. How to reconcile such information with the idea that life can be meaningful — and human existence worthwhile — has been one of my preoccupations ever since.

Like many descendants of survivors, I was raised on a Zionism informed by persecutory delusions: The mainstream media was biased against Israel; Hillary Clinton was an anti-Semitic apologist for terrorism.

The reality of the Palestinian plight hit me with the force of revelation. And neither were the Jews. Even the best humans on planet Earth, my parents, were susceptible to tribalistic propaganda that abetted the oppression of the vulnerable. This is why Israel-Palestine looms larger in my consciousness than other distant conflicts. Jews who take a different interpretation of their inheritances and obligations appear to feel similarly when they encounter sentiments like mine.

And such emotions are the stuff of which engagement and virality are made. Israel is a rich country and does not need our aid. This is a reasonable hypothesis. If Uncle Sam gave Israel the Iran treatment — and cut off its access to the American financial system, while placing secondary sanctions on its trading partners — it would surely have greater incentive to make concessions.

And were Israel to start treating Palestinians within the green line as full citizens, and adopting a conciliatory posture toward the West Bank and Gaza, it seems likely that Hamas or at least, its most militant elements would be weakened.

Such a U. But the U. Regardless, whatever U. So when Israel starts dropping bombs, it makes sense that we talk about it.

Few if any forms of political expression are more aggressively suppressed in the U. Seventeen U. Academics are routinely fired for pointed criticisms of Israeli violence. Meanwhile, for the bulk of my lifetime, the discrepancy between mainstream coverage of Israel and Palestine in the U.

For these reasons, Israel-Palestine is a radicalizing subject for many leftists who have no ethnic or religious tie to the region. Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Reagan administration dispatched U. And U. But these costs should not be overstated. Beyond leading to largely symbolic UN votes against U. Standing with Israel certainly has not hobbled U. Meanwhile, no Arab ally of the United States has ever, as a result of its pro-Israel posture, refused to cooperate with Washington on counterterrorism or denied its requests for access, basing, or overflight rights.

In fact, the U. And even during the past decade of close U. Defense cooperation is as close as ever, indicated by the several multi-billion-dollar arms deals that Washington has struck with Gulf allies in recent years. Moreover, several states, including Egypt and Jordan, along with the Palestinian Authority, share intelligence with Israel and at various times have worked behind the scenes to enlist Israel as an intermediary with Washington.

This has been the case even with Egypt's post-revolutionary government. All this underscores the fact that self-interest, not ideology, is the primary driver of the Arab states' relations with Washington. Despite the ties that continue to bind the United States and some Arab countries, the last two years of upheaval have brought turmoil to many of Washington's traditional allies in the region. At a time of great uncertainty, particularly as tensions with Iran mount, the United States is even more likely to depend on its somewhat stable nondemocratic allies, such as Saudi Arabia, and its stable democratic allies, such as Israel and Turkey, to secure its interests in the region.

If anything, recent events have reinforced the logic underpinning U. The benefits to the United States of its relationship with Israel belie the argument that the alliance is based solely on the two countries' shared democratic values, on the popularity of Israel in American politics, or on the elusive pursuit of progress in the peace process.

It is a relationship based on tangible interests -- and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It isn't always easy being Israel's ally and Israeli actions don't always make it easier. The country faces many challenges, including the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians, internal socioeconomic gaps, voices around the world that deny its right to exist, and now Iran's nuclear program. Israel has made uneven progress toward addressing these issues and needs to do more to remain an attractive partner for the United States.

But its past successes in incorporating huge numbers of immigrants, bridging deep social divides, and showing remarkable resilience in the face of war and terrorism provide reason to believe that Washington can continue to count on its closest partner in the Middle East, and will continue to benefit from its alliance with the Jewish state.

Instead, the trend has been in just the opposite direction: major U. Similarly, U. Also in the mids, Jordan still claimed the West Bank and stationed large numbers of troops along its lengthy border and the demarcation line with Israel; today, Jordan has signed a peace treaty and has established fully normalized relations.

At that time, Iraq was embarking upon its vast program of militarization. This raises serious questions as to why U. In the hypothetical event that all U.

Israel has both a major domestic arms industry and an existing military force far more capable and powerful than any conceivable combination of opposing forces.

When Israel was less dominant militarily, there was no such consensus for U. Though the recent escalation of terrorist attacks inside Israel has raised widespread concerns about the safety of the Israeli public, the vast majority of U. In short, the growing U. Rather, as elsewhere, U. There is a broad bipartisan consensus among policymakers that Israel has advanced U.

The pattern of U. After attacking Arab armies in the war were successfully countered by the largest U. Aid quadrupled again in soon after the fall of the Shah, the election of the right-wing Likud government, and the ratification of the Camp David Treaty, which included provisions for increased military assistance that made it more of a tripartite military pact than a traditional peace agreement.

Aid increased yet again soon after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It also received another half million dollars for the development of a new jet fighter.

During and immediately after the Gulf War, U. When Israel dramatically increased its repression in the occupied territories—including incursions into autonomous Palestinian territories provided in treaties guaranteed by the U. The correlation is clear: the stronger and more willing to cooperate with U.

Therefore, the continued high levels of U. Indeed, leaders of both American political parties have called not for the U. Since the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, there has again been some internal debate regarding how far the United States should back Israeli policies, now under the control of right-wing political leader Ariel Sharon. Some of the more right-wing elements, such as Paul Wolfowitz of the Defense Department, have been arguing that Sharon was an indispensable ally in the war against terrorism and that the Palestinian resistance was essentially part of an international terrorist conspiracy against democratic societies.