pbel
Gold Member
- Feb 26, 2012
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- #41
lol Neither Russia nor China nor Pakistan was ever a close US ally. The Shah's Iran was an US ally but the Ayatollahs' never was. What if, you might suggest, religious extremists in Israel were to stage a revolution and turn Israel into a theocracy hostile to the US as the ayatollahs have turned Iran into a US enemy. A bizarre notion, but no more so than your other ideas, but if it did happen, Jewish Americans would view this new Israeli government with horror since it would be so alien to their values, just as Iranian Americans view the current Iranian regime with horror.
Besides laughing the usual Israeli propaganda commentary, can you provide any proof that Israel is any better ally...especially considering today's policy differences, the Pollard spying case, the Liberty and Lavon Affair...clearly Israel is a fluid ally, causing America huge headaches world-wide.
Israel has long been America's most important strategic ally, and America's perceived influence over Israeli policy provides the foundation of America's influence and prestige among Arab countries. At a time when the US seemed to be losing the Cold War almost everywhere, the Israeli victories in 1967 and 1973 without any US help or support over Soviet proxies, Egypt and Syria, drove the Soviets out of the ME and the US brokered peace treaty between Egypt and Israel has kept them out.
That the US has long considered its alliance with Israel to be essential to its ME interests can be seen from the events that followed the Israeli request for the US to replace losses it was suffering during the 1973 war. Initially, the US decided not to grant the request because it was confident Israel would win the war without any US assistance and resupplying Israel might offend the Arab states, but the cabinet was persuaded to grant the request by the argument that if the US refused, it would have less influence over Israel after the war and if it had less influence over Israel, already the dominant power in the ME, it would have less influence over the Arab states.
America's influence and prestige in the ME, even after the war in Iraq, still depends to a large extent on the perception of US influence over Israeli policy.
You should read the Walt/Mearsheimer study...We only import 18% of ME oil....Israel's strategic importance has become a US liability. Our two war front clearly shows that our own military does not need Israel's.