Why is ISRAEL a strategic burden to the United States?

Question

http://www.alternet.org/story/65271

Israel is not the strategic asset to the United States that many claim. Israel may have been a strategic asset during the Cold War, but it has become a growing liability now that the Cold War is over. Unconditional support for Israel has reinforced anti-Americanism around the world, helped fuel America's terrorism problem, and strained relations with other key allies in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The United States derives some tangible strategic benefits from its close security partnership with Israel, but it pays a high price for them. On balance, it is more of a liability than an asset.

Answer 1

The second paragraph you posted answers your question quite well.

However, support for Israel is a double edged sword. On one hand, it is easy to make the argument that they are the most 'free' country in the Middle East, and thus should garner support from the US.

At the same time, their under-handed and heavy-handed policies toward muslim people living in the region, is rather distateful.

The US should be dictating the terms of our support for Israel and not the other way around, which is the situation right now. If we don't like the actions that the Israeli govt. is taking, we should withhold economic aid until they do what we want.

But instead it seems like we follow their lead every time and it makes the US look bad and support unbalanced in the region.

Perception is everything and the perception of the muslim leaders/people is that the US is owned by the Israeli lobby.

If we go to war with Iran, that perception will be more apparent than ever.

Answer 2

The U.S wouldn't be supporting Israel’s terrorism unless the U.S benefited from it.
Quote:
Debate on the motivation for the Iraq War is shepherded into two camps: securing oil or securing Israel. In reality, the war is being fought to secure oil through Israel. US foreign policy is geared to make Israel its primary transport route for Middle Eastern and Central Asian oil. This also accomplishes two Israeli aims: ending dependence on US aid and toppling uncooperative neighbors.
Source: Andrea Crandall.

But people would prefer to believe the U.S is some kind of hero saving the *chosen people* from those suicide bombers
Yes planes were flown through two buildings and that is an act of terrorism, no mistake.
But those who paint a picture of Israel standing side by side with the U.S against terrorists won’t look at the terrorist attacks Israel has carried out against not only Palestinians but the Lebanese. Carpet bombing anyone?

Answer 3

The reason is religious connections. There's this mythological folklore old wives tale about Israel and god and some land and then the new testament, America, the spiritual connection between the two. It is, of course, a non-existent, a non-reality-based strategic burden based on nothing real at all. Just a lot of superstition that has gone on so long without being challenged that generation after generation just accepts it as true. If we continue this way, we'll nuke the world over defending a little piece of Jewish desolated desert that there wont be anybody left to care about the myth.

Answer 4

American bias toward Israel instigates hatred toward USA in Arab countries, and around the world. Israel, although not a poor country, is receiving a lot of economic support and military technology, which it then, when in need, sells away. Israel is the main reason for the attack on Iraq, and possibly in the future, Iran and Syria, and therefore, a lot of money spent and a lot of young American widows.
BTW, for the "religious" John Hagee types here, just an information that the Talmud sees all non Jews as subhuman, and their only purpose is to serve the chosen people. The Talmud brags that Jews killed Christ, and that he is in hell boiling in excrement for all eternity. They call you women "shiksa", and here's why: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiksa

P.S. If Christians and Jews are so close, try going to Israel and offering a Jew the Bible. It's a criminal offense.

Answer 5

Yes, Israel is a strategic burden. No question. They recieve a great deal of aid and it annoys arab nations. Arab countries have the oil and oil is the lifeblood of modern civilizations. Without it, the power goes out and we starve, freezing in the cold. So logically we should support the Arabs who have oil, against Israel who has none.

We don't. Israel more or less shares our values. The Arab states largely have values deeply antithetical to our own. Yes there is an important, well funded Jewish Lobby in the US. But that would be meaningless if the legislators weren't already in support of Israel.

Some things are more important than logic and common sense.

Answer 6

Because Israel is an illegitimate child of United States.

Answer 7

My lady we don't have a great military presence in Israel. It's probably more political than a strategic asset.

Answer 8

You know I get that you hate Jews, hate the idea that Jews beat Arabs in many wars, dearly wish Americans would stop giving money to the Jewish state, but tell me this?
What would America get if it stopped?
It would lose the only true ally it has, and replace it with countries that at best lie to all and sundry about alliances and they all lack stability, both mental and political.
It would lose a country that actually fights its own battles and replace it with countries that ask for American men to fight its battles with other Arab countries like Kuwait did in the First Gulf War. Israelis put their own lives on the line.
No Israelis came into our country and flew planes into our buildings, no Israelis were dancing in the streets afterwards.
It may come that we have a group of people who withdraw support for Israel due to people like you and cowards who believe that if Israel were gone life would be peaceful, but its such a big lie, such a huge lie, we know all it would do is convince the Arab world that the US can be manipulated and that it is weak to give in.
I wonder what the Arabic term for a Tokyo Rose is, because you fit the bill.

Shiksa is Yiddish, an unofficial language that made its first appearance in Eastern Europe, many thousands of years after the Talmud is written. As to your other reference, I would appreciate a more exact quotation given that your first was so obviously flawed.

Answer 9

Well, they have managed to do something that we have long feared - cause the Arab nations to put up a more united front. i suspect part of our original support for Israel was to help keep the Arab nations somewhat fractured. However, whether or not they truly believe in the Palestinian cause, most of the Muslim nations have been able to use this as a rallying call, and put aside ethnic and ideological differences that normally have kept them apart. Combined with the rapid wealth they attain from the ever-rising oil prices, this becomes a deeper concern for the US and the West.

US support of Israel is also used to to further radicalize many Muslim elements that are not part of any autonomous government

Answer 10

Supporting that country is a pennance I think its been paid. It reminds me of a poem:
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

We ignored the genocide:

"God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--
Why look'st thou so?"--With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.

Our life today:

Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
Had I from old and young!
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.

When we as a country finally realize the millstone about our necks we get to this verse:

The self same moment I could pray;
And from my neck so free
The Albatross fell off, and sank
Like lead into the sea.