I’m going to publically declare my idiocy regarding Israel. Out of 180+ countries in the world, the United States seems to spend an inordinate amount of time concerning ourselves with Israel (and Cuba, but that’s even yet another story).
I’m a bit embarrassed because I consider myself an intelligent person and *generally* well-informed on a number of topics, and typically a quick-study on topics I don’t know much about. But I just don’t get this one. Since I’ve been a child, Israel has always seemed to be a focal point of politics. And since a child I’ve never quite understood why. There’s conflict there, certainly, but there’s conflict all over the world.
So without putting out too many wild theories of my own, which are probably way off base, I’ll just any of you – why is Israel such a focal point in US politics?
Dude – quite frankly, coming from you, this post seems more than a little disingenuous.
I’m sure you’re well aware of the strategic importance of Israel as the only solid U.S. ally in the Middle East. But U.S. support for Israel goes way beyond that. Israel is in many ways an extension of American ideals. Israel is also a largely response to the Holocaust (and many other attempts to wipe out Jews throughout history), a powerful force that sustains Israel to this day.
If you haven’t seen these clips, watch them and you will better understand the strong relationship between U.S. and Israel:
http://www.pbs.org/jewishamericans/jewish_life/homeland.html
Of course there are lots of folks out there who will say that it’s BECAUSE of our support of Israel that we don’t have more allies in the Middle East. I disagree. Certainly many Islamic fundamentalist regimes hate us more because of it, but they would hate us anyway because we like to eat pork and let our women drive and run for president.
There are lots of folks who will say it’s because of the powerful pro-Israel lobby that the U.S. spends so much money on Israel. There’s certainly some truth to that, but there’s also a lot of anti-semitic people who don’t believe in the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the first place.
Now, one could argue (carefully avoiding anti-semitism) that the U.S. spends more than it really needs to on Israel since Israel’s economy is doing pretty well.
So why are you really asking this question?
No it really *wasn’t* meant to be disingenuous. It *was* written towards the end of the day when I was tired.
I was *really* asking the question because I’ve not ever really gotten a good explanation of this subject, ever, really. The few times I’ve heard the subject broached outside of political campaigns it’s been either in church or with extremely opinionated people who’ve just spouted stuff off with an assumption that I already understood the history and significance of the area.
I’m a product of public education, and the modern middle east region was *never* discussed in any class I ever took. I didn’t take any classes in college that discussed the modern issues. Any issue regarding the middle east always had to do with historic (read: thousands of years ago) events, nothing current.
“But U.S. support for Israel goes way beyond that. Israel is in many ways an extension of American ideals. Israel is also a largely response to the Holocaust (and many other attempts to wipe out Jews throughout history), a powerful force that sustains Israel to this day.” You said more in those few sentences then I think we’ve gotten in the past 2 or 3 presidential campaigns, when it comes to Israel. We get “I support Israel” and “Israel will have a friend in the White House if I’m elected” type comments, and then the issue is pretty much dropped.
One of the few things that has stuck with me through the years is that there’s some religious significance to that region (to many religions), and frankly that something that scares me a bit. We have large factions of people here who want to see more violence over there, because they see that as leading up to the ‘return of Jesus’. To that end, I’m not sure that US involvement, when it’s directed by fundamentalist Christians, will be able to bring peace to the region.
Following up, it was largely the debate last night with “I SUPPORT ISRAEL” statements which pushed me over the edge in posting the question. There’s just this expectation that everyone should understand *why* the US “supports” Israel. Again, when our ‘support’ is influenced by the religious right, I’m not sure things can end in peace.
I’m truly sorry to hear that your education was so lacking in info about Israel. I’m sure it’s pretty common, and it’s very unfortunate.
The “Rapture” stuff is truly scary. Be afraid! (And vote for Obama!)
BTW – let’s go see Bill Maher’s “Religilous” soon!
At least in my schooling, we usually never *ever* got past WWII, and I suspect that tackling issues after that might have been politically touchy, even in the late 70s and early 80s) (yes, I’m dating myself here).