Why do we Support Israel?

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How about if the U.S withdraws support from Israel they would have to resort to using nuclear weapons on the Arabs and their oil fields.

[Mickey Brausch]

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How about if the U.S withdraws support from Israel they would have to resort to using nuclear weapons on the Arabs and their oil fields.

[/ QUOTE ]Sorry but the Arab regimes are much more pro-American than the "man in the street", ie the population at large. I'm pretty sure that if truly free elections were to be held in places like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or Syria, they would return strongly anti-American governments.

The sole beef the Arab regimes have is with Israel and not with the United States. This is even more pronounced now, that the Cold War is over.

There are a number of arguments for the continued support of the U.S. to Israel but keeping the Arabs and their oil under control is not one of them. (I don't think Israel has any intention either to start a campaign tomorrow against Saudi Arabia, for example, if Riyadh decides to stop production. Israel would rightly consider this to be a futile and useless proposition for its interests.)

Mickey Brausch

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How about if the U.S withdraws support from Israel they would have to resort to using nuclear weapons on the Arabs and their oil fields.

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Why nuclear? If nuclear weapons weren't necessary in 1967 or 1973, why would they be necessary today?

[nicky g]

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Morality - Yes, Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East,

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Technically speaking, the following countries are also democratic, although some aren't seen as it:

Turkey
Lebanon
Jordan
Egypt

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I'm not sure what "technically-speaking" means. Egypt and Jordan hold parliamentary and (in Egypt's case) presidential elections. So do most Middle Eastern countries, so if that's your criteria most Middle Eastern countries are "technically" democracies. However their societies and the elections themselves are totally under the control of the authoritarian regimes. Also Jordan's king holds the bulk of political power and isn't removable through elections. Turkey and Lebanon are slightly better examples, although Lebanon's democracy is pretty unrecongnisable to most Westerners in that it largely consists of electing sectrarian representatives to dispense patronage, adn until recently the choice of President was pretty much in Syria's hands.

I think it's unhelpful to see democracy as an either or proposition; rather there are varying degrees of democracy. In the Middle East, Morocco, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan are more democratic than most, but far from fully democratic. Turkey even more so (although the army has a large amount of influence and has stepped in or used its pressure on numerous occasions in past decades). Israel the most so within its pre-67 borders. Egypt is pretty far down the scale.

[Blizzardbaum]

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geopolitics

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This is obviously wrong. Supporting Israel is about the worst geopolitical maneuver in the history of geopolitical maneuvers, as it does nothing but furiously piss off the countries we depend on for our energy needs and enable Islamist propaganda machines. In return, we get absolutely nothing.

As one poster already noted, we support Israel because of AIPAC and domestic political considerations.

[irvman21]

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How about if the U.S withdraws support from Israel they would have to resort to using nuclear weapons on the Arabs and their oil fields.

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Why nuclear? If nuclear weapons weren't necessary in 1967 or 1973, why would they be necessary today?

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They won't be necessary as long as Israel remains strong enough to convince their neighbors invading is not a positive course of action. An Israeli loss would mean nuclear war.

[Blizzardbaum]

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Israel is also surrounded by neighbors who want them destroyed. How would you handle the situation if you were Israel?

Regards,
G.I.

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I would build a fence around my own land and stop taking the land of my "enemies." That way I wouldn't have to continue with an oppressive check-point policy that chokes any potential out of the Palestinian economy. It took them almost 60 years to figure it out, but they might be starting to get it.

[irvman21]

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Israel is also surrounded by neighbors who want them destroyed. How would you handle the situation if you were Israel?

Regards,
G.I.

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I would build a fence around my own land and stop taking the land of my "enemies." That way I wouldn't have to continue with an oppressive check-point policy that chokes any potential out of the Palestinian economy. It took them almost 60 years to figure it out, but they might be starting to get it.

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And when you enemies invade, you beat them back and gain defensible positions in land that they lost, you would just give it back to them immediately so they can invade again?

[LinusKS]

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We support each other.

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It's pretty clear what Israel gets out of the deal (money, military technology, diplomatic support), but how does the US benefit?

[Blizzardbaum]

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Israel is also surrounded by neighbors who want them destroyed. How would you handle the situation if you were Israel?

Regards,
G.I.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would build a fence around my own land and stop taking the land of my "enemies." That way I wouldn't have to continue with an oppressive check-point policy that chokes any potential out of the Palestinian economy. It took them almost 60 years to figure it out, but they might be starting to get it.

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And when you enemies invade, you beat them back and gain defensible positions in land that they lost, you would just give it back to them immediately so they can invade again?

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Are you talking about any number of military incidents between Israel and Arab state armies like Egypt (in some cases provoked by Israel) where Israel retaliated by taking Palestinian land? Or am I thinking of a different 58 years of modern history?

And what about the policy of allowing settlers to blatantly steal land without even the pretext of a military provocation?