Why is Israel so central to US foreign policy and to Americans all the time? (correct me if i am wrong)?

Question

It just stirrs up more Anti-Americanism, especially among Muslims and in the Middle East [it also gives ground in a way for extremists to stirr up hatred towards the US, with Palestine being so sensitive to Muslims]...And it's not like Israel is the beacon of light in the region, its human rights' violations are publicised to Arabs and the world on a daily basis...is it all about the Jewish lobby?...if not why? It is not like Israel is too weak to protect itself, is it?

PS. I have nothing against Jews whatsoever...I am not Muslim; Palestine to me does not have the same sentinmental value it does for Muslims. I am only wondering why do the American people choose to bear the consequences of that support...

Answer 1

Why get Americans killed when you can get Jews killed instead

Answer 2

History. All wars lead to Meggido. Jerusalem is not only religiously significant, it was proven to be militarily so as well.
Think of a railroad station. All tracks lead from Europe, Asia and Africa. If Europe wished to control the rich minerals of Africa, they must have Palestine. If Asia wanted to attack Europe they must have Palestine.
You can basically reach anywhere in the 'old' world by way of the area, without the need of costly aircraft fuels. (the saying is, 'all roads lead to Dammascus' but literally, with Israel owning the air space in the area, a hostile militairy unit would be hard pressed to maneuver through the area)
Also, when Jerusalem's serenity is disturbed, there are great multitudes of people in every country of the world that get upset, even moved to action. America's interest is stabilization.
The facts of the matter are simple. The history of modern day Israel is an honest one. Jewish peoples imigrated legally and purchased a large abundance of land. It was untended land, and really a desert waste. They built pipelines and tended to the soil. They planted fruit trees and the land became beautiful and rich. Perhaps out of greed, jealousy and regret, the former landowners declared some mystical wrong doing the Jews had perpetrated against them by making good that which had been neglected. Thus began mutual militarization and by blood the modern state was declared.
If they aren't rightful owners of the land and undeserving. Then every country that opposes the state aren't rightful owners or deserving of the lands they posess. Every country in the world is a country by the same rule of war and occupation of the land, if we allowed the ousting of Jew's from Israel by hostile forces, we can only deduce those forces would soon be at our steps.
For peace sake, we have to be willing to defend Israel.

Answer 3

1. Muslims do not worship the same God as Jews and Christians. The God of the Judeo-Christian Bible is God. The god the Muslims worship was the chief god of a pantheon of gods in Mecca. Mohammed followed that diety and he and his followers killed-off the followers of the other gods in the pantheon. Mohammed's diety is the god of the moon, hence Islam's use of the moon and star in its national flags.

2. Muslims do not accept the right of Christians or Jews to exist, unless they are willing to become Muslims or submit to Muslim domination. Muslims do not believe that any government other than government under their Sharia laws is legitimate.

3. Since there can be no acceptance of people who do not accept the rule of Sharia law and worship of Mohammed's god, they cannot make peace with "non-believers." If Muslims cannot defeat an enemy, Sharia law only allows Muslims to have "Hudnas," temporary truces while the Muslims build sufficient strength to go back to war with the non-believers.

4. Since the US and Israel represent a firm rejection of the Muslim's way of life, we have become the enemy.

5. Muslims have many more children than Christians and Jews in the modern world. They are overtaking the native populations in many European countries, and thus are impacting those governments. Current news articles from England show that they are no longer teaching about the Holocaust and the Crusades in public schools for fear of offending Muslims.

6. There is no country called "Palestine."

7. When was the last time you talked to an Arab who was comfortable with Israel being allowed to exist at all? Hamas, which is running the government of the Palestinian Authority does not accept the right of Israel to exist and won't honor agreements previous "terrorist governments" made with Israel.

Did you read the Saudi "peace plan?" It calls for Israel to be reduced in size to pre-1967 borders. Then the Jews have to allow all the arabs who abandoned their homes in 1948 to come back. Then the Jews have to give Jerusalem back to the arabs. If Israel gives them everything the Saudis demand, then the arabs will give them "peace." Of course, if Israel gives the Arabs everything they demand, there will be no Israel with which they can be peaceful. Oh, maybe that's the basic idea!!! Duh.

Maybe the US should give New York back to the Indians. And perhaps we should give the SW back to Mexico, too. You think?

Answer 4

Much, but not all, of the land that is now Israel was bought by Jews before from absent land owners before Israel was created. The Muslim/Jewish conflict is sibling rivalry from the days of Abraham. They worship the same God. They maybe jealous of the fact that the Jews were able to change the wasteland into a land that flows with milk & honey.

Answer 5

At the risk of sounding simplistic, it's location, location, location. Without Israel's availability as a safe haven for anti-Arab activity, the US would have to rely on accommodating a lot more countries, in order to do its protection job of the Middle East,... er, oil.

Secondarily, though many laugh at the premise, many American Jews are more-loyal to Israel than to the US, and it is true about Jewish influence in American politics, media, and banking.

Israel, without the US, would collapse overnight. The UN made Israel out of many lands (mostly Palestinian), and forced Israel on the region. The UN, however, is useless to defend it (or anything else, for that matter). The natural order of nation-forming (take the land, kill the original residents) was mercifully not followed in that formation, so the "enemies in the rear" were never eliminated. Israel is thus doomed to constant strife, until (as the Palestinians often say) one side or the other wins, for good.

As for "a nation's right to exist," a nation has that right only as long as it can defend it. People have "a right to exist." A country has no such right; that's why people have to fight for their countries. It never happens the other way around, except in the rhetoric of politicians.

Answer 6

Israel was central to our Middle East policies back when we started it and equiped it and trained their soldiers. The idea was to disrupt and destabilize the Middle East because that's how we did business. Destablize, create chaos and then re-stablinze with our leader in place. That's what happened in Iran (The Shah was our Saddam Hussien in Iran but the Iranians wouldn't put up with it so they threw him out and put Humani in. )

The problem is this policy which worked in Latin America through to the 70's was short sighted in the Middle East. These counties have cultures that go back thousands of years. They have had to fight for resources, to keep their lands from invaders most of that time. They have a cohesive religion and contrary to the popular propaganda, they are a very intelligent people with strong family ties and deep sense of loyalty. You don't just go tramping on these folks, but we did and got a few good results culminating with the "Iraqi double cross" Bush the 1st pulled off with perfection. We were supporting Iraq. Saddam asked us if it was cool to put his troops into Kuwait and we told him, "The USA doesn't meddle in other country's beeswax" He attacks and we come to poor little Kuwait's, that just so happens to be filthy in oil, rescue. Beat up on Boogyman Hussien, thump our chest a little and everybody but the Iraqi's feels like a hero. Had the biggest victory parade in American history. (Bigger than WWII)
Anyway - now our policies have been realized and the people of the Middle East resist them. Now it is time to change policies. Even President Carter said that Israel is an Aparteid country. We are in a position to bring real peace to the Middle East and maybe even gain back the respect we lost. We do this by pulling all aid from Israel, keeping half and splitting the rest (Along with all resources, lands and seaports etc) between Israel and Palistine 50/50. We make the city Palistine a UN protectorate belonging to neither side.
Israel would scream bloody murder, but after a decade of peace, most would come to accept it and the radical zionists would die off, the radical factions of Palistine to Afghanistan would loose their ability to recruit and there would be real peace. The USA would gain a measure of respect and we would do business with the Middle East as partners like we do in China and we could visit and enjoy the famous Middle Eastern hospitality.
Amen

Answer 7

Israel doesn't blatantly attack people. People attack Israel, and Israel fights back and wins, generally speaking. The problem is that no one feels sorry for someone who wins a war, so the humanitarian action against Israel is ignored by most countries. So Israel is so central to US foreign policy and to Americans because we know what it's like to have other nations hate you because of your wealth, success, and power.

Answer 8

HIS let me convert you from your position. Here are the facts:

Among almost all the countries in their sphere, Israel is both the most Democratic and honorable. Surrounding Israel is countries that treat their people poorly, disallow Democracy, and hate Israel simply because it is populated by Jews.

Historically Isreal sits on the land of it's ancestors. The Romans purged them from that land, and it was vacant up until the reformation of Israel in the 1940's, save for a few wandering nomads.
The "Palestinian homeland" is a term which is historically inaccurate. The name "Palestinian" is actually derived from "Philistine" and the Philistines were more related to the Greeks, and were NOT Arabs.
Prior to Israel being formed, the land was held by the Ottoman Turks, and later the British. Neither were Arab.
The land held by the British was parcelled out as Trans-Jordan, and a much tinier section, as Israel. TransJordan was given to the Arabs, Israel to the Jews.

War broke out against Israel for one reason alone, they held land and were Jewish. This was considered an affront to Islam. Israel won the war against much greater countries, and seized land in the process.

The "Palestinian" people actually flooded into Israel as they were ejected from Jordan. As I mentioned before, there never was a "Palestine" and this is a propaganda tool used by a long line of antisemites and people like Jimmy Carter.

Yassir Arafat, the leader of the "Palestine Liberation Organization" was Egyptian. You see my point.

Considering all this, can you doubt our support of Israel? To not support them would be silly, as Israel has more right to their existance than a false group based on the destruction of a "State of Jews".

Take care

Answer 9

The original League of Nations formed Israel so they didnt have to deal with the Jews. The US is the only country that still supports that unpopular decision. The cowards of the world built it and then ran.

Answer 10

It is not central at all. It is very controversial though.

Many countries have horrible human rights records, and the US is not exempt from that. Many arab nations don't even let their women drive...so I'd say Israel is something to look up to in that respect. I dont' know why so many arab nations hate israel (and the US because of it). People think Israel was formed for the Jews after WW2. Not true...Israel (and the middle east) was formed and carved up after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WW1, and it was divided mostly by britain and france....not America.

Israel would be too weak to protect itself without the aid of the US. We give them tons of weapons and money.

Maybe God has a hand in it, I don't know. It says in Revelation that God will save Israel and lift them up "on the wings of an eagle." Is America the eagle? Also, the temple has to be rebuilt before this age comes to a close.

Answer 11

The US needs to support the only democracy in the Middle East. Terrorism can not be justified by any rationale so stating that our support for Israel is the cause is completely unfounded. The US has not 'sided' with Israel--we give billions to Palestinians and repeatedly attempt to broker 'peace' deals to include provisions for a Palestinian state. Jihadists from the PLO and Hamas (among others) purposefully target civilians in their bombings--you cant equate Israel's right to protect themselves against terrorism to true terrorist acts. Arabs living in Israel are treated better and have more freedoms than most Arab citizens in any of the other 22 Arab states. Israel is the largest employer of Palestinians in the world. Our support is not the cause of terrorism--it is soley the HATRED of the Islamic terrorist which 'stirs up' Anti-Americanism --hate of liberal democracies, religious freedom and rule of law. Israel does not support, aid or promote terrorism- we need to continue to support democracy everywhere.