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Notes -
He did proffer some extremely-subversive-by-republican-standards ideas that aid to Israel should be mildly reduced, that the US shouldn't provide billions of dollars to a rich country, that the US should pursue its own national interests: https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-755250
I expect the powers that be frightened the hell out of him for that one, compelled him to change course. In terms of sycophancy to Israel, he's nowhere near the heavyweights like 'Grand Marshal of the Salute to Israel' Trump and 'we're gonna go after anti-semitic countries' DeSantis.
I was always under the impression that the aid to Israel was mostly about them not shutting down the Suez again.
Pretty sure it's Egypt that makes that decision not Israel. Aside from the occasional boat oopsie.
Egypt is also the second largest recipient of military aid, and they're much larger a nation than their adversary in Israel.
Aid to Egypt increased enormously after they signed a peace treaty with Israel, as a sweetener. Likewise with Jordan IIRC. Keeping Suez open certainly had something to do with it, yet the primary factor in US ME policy seems to be whatever is most advantageous for Israel. If US just wanted to be friends with Arabs, secure Suez and secure oil, they wouldn't support Israel at all.
What would it take to convince you otherwise?
Obviously if we hung Israel out to dry on anything important. But since that seems pretty unlikely, is there any way you might be convinced that Israel really is the most practical ally in the region?
They’re relatively westernized. They aren’t Islamic fundamentalists, which has made Americans nervous since at least the Iranian Revolution. (Though we put up with the Saudis, so it can’t be too much of a dealbreaker…) Most importantly, they owe their security to us in a way that none of the other ME states can match.
I also wouldn’t underestimate the wedge that is Palestine, at least on the left. While my understanding is that the neoliberal, pro-Israel wing still dominates foreign policy, there’s at least some tension going on. If there’s a point where we really break with Israel, that’ll probably be it.
Practical ally? In strategic terms, there are two groups.
The Arabs/Islamic world, with population about 600 million in MENA alone. They have a lot of oil. They have a lot of useful bases. They have Suez. They have the power to create all kinds of problems for the US, by allying with US enemies like the Soviet Union, Russia and China.
Israel, population 10 million. No oil. Barely any useful bases, at least compared to the rest of MENA. They're better at fighting and high technology, yet the only people they fight are the Arabs (and usually do so with US equipment). They're hated by about a third of the world, see pic related (https://mapsontheweb.zoom-maps.com/post/693544044241076224/most-disliked-country-in-each-nation-2022).
Why on earth would any sane, unbiased strategic thinker choose to ally with Israel over the Arabs? The US wouldn't have any enemies in the Arab world if it weren't for Israel, that's by far the biggest problem with US-MENA relations.
Israel is the absolute worst ally the US could possibly have. And the alliance is the most one-sided alliance you could possibly imagine. On no occasion has Israel actually contributed troops to a US war. They soak up huge amounts of resources (consider the economic impacts of the Arab Oil Embargo caused by Arab hatred of the US-Israeli alliance), incite enormous amounts of anti-US sentiment, get free US equipment, billions of dollars in aid. They sell loads of US technology to China, they lure the US into stupid wars like Iraq with false intelligence and their political influence.
That wasn’t the question…
I’d like to hear your reasoning on that. It doesn’t seem to apply to Iran, which manufactured quite the list of complaints about Western culture. Nor is it necessary to explain al-Qaeda and other fundamentalist groups. The “American-Israeli alliance” is a footnote in bin Laden’s motives. But then, I expect the Christians were enough to get us (via the UN) intervening in Lebanon.
Not so. Per your own link:
The other guy who bombed the World Trade Center back in 1993, Ramzi Yousef, was primarily motivated by hatred of Israel and sought to bomb American targets to bring about change. Key Islamist leaders like Sayyid Fadlallah or Sayyid Qutb hated America for its support of Israel.
As for Iran, while the US has non-Israel related incentives to prevent Iran dominating the region, Israel makes things much harder harder. Israel has constantly been pushing for the US to invade Iran, constantly trying to prevent a diplomatic solution. Even in the 1990s, the Israelis lobbied for the US to adopt dual containment of Iraq and Iran, bringing in a large number of troops to contain Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (thus creating another of bin Laden's agreements). AIPAC has undermined US relations with Iran, mobilized to strengthen anti-Iran sanctions. For example, when Iran chose an American oil company, Conoco, to develop the Sirri oil fields as an overture, Clinton killed the deal. Clinton later said that Edgar Bronfman, former head of the World Jewish Congress was one of the deal's most effective opponents. AIPAC was also involved. There are many such examples.
If Israel didn't exist, there would probably have been US-Iranian rapprochement.
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