Why do we Support Israel?

[rsliu]

I've read in several places that the US gives more of its foreign aid budget, not to mention diplomatic and military support, to Israel than it does to any other country. My question is, why is this good US policy? I've thought of three reasons, but they all seem bad:

Morality - Yes, Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East, and yes, it would be morally wrong to abandon an ally. But if you look at the history of US foreign policy, morality has never been a prime concern for American decision makers. We supported a corrupt, dictatorial regime in South Vietnam and needlessly wasted thousands of lives in order to further our anti communist agenda. We overthrew popularly elected leaders in several Latin American countries because they were too far to the left. We deposed a popular and democratically elected prime minister in Iran (in the 50's, and now it's coming back to bite us in the ass) because he had the temerity to nationalize Iran's oil production in order to prevent Britain and the US from stealing Iran's oil. The list goes on and on. Clearly US foreign policy is guided by American interests first, and morality second. This is exactly as it should be.

Strategic Benefits - Yes, Israel and the US share much of the same intelligence, and many of Israel's enemies are the same as the US's enemies. But if you take a step back, you begin to realize that many of these enemies hate us precisely because of our support for Israel. If you read bin Laden's speeches after 9/11, it's clear that al Queda attacked the US for two primary reasons: our military bases in Saudi Arabia, and our alliance with Israel. The leader of Hezbollah stated that he had no quarrel with the US but for it's partnership with Israel. What worth are having these strategic benefits if they are the root cause of, and not the solution to, our current problems in the middle east?

Israel needs the US - Some argue that Israel will be destroyed without American help, which as the current conflict shows is a patently ridiculous argument. Even if we cut off all aid to Israel today, it's current armed forces are more than a match for all the surrounding Arab countries for decades to come. Furthermore, it's not exactly a secret that they possess nuclear weapons. In fact, it may be because Israel is so grossly overpowered from decades of US aid that believes it can act with arrogant impunity instead of working to build better relations with its Arab neighbors.

Those are my points, I'm curious to hear what others think on this subject. FWIW I do not deny Israel's right to exist, nor do I hate Jews. I'm simply questioning the alliance from a pragmatic standpoint.