What does the U.S Get from its support of Israel?

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what does the US gets out of its support for its zealous support of Israel? Bad publicity worldwide. :p

The threats are real.

Because the US and Israel helped to foster them.

The only real reason for supporting Israel in 2011 is because the USA as a whole sees itself as a Christian nation, if secular; yes it is a contradiction, but so is much thought in the USA (where I was born, raised and dwell.) The Jews are the Christians' imaginary god's chosen people and thus we, as a Christian nation, must be allied with them. This means supporting Israel unfairly in many circumstances: Israel is basically a colonial empire, its 3 colonies being the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the West Bank as they are not in a balanced relationship in any form: They are not fully independent yet their citizens do not have full nor equivalent rights or special privileges nor as Israelis, whatever their ethnicity, in Israel proper. The Gaza strip is most like a South African bantustan in lacking full rights, full independence as well as special privileges, not very much like the French Overseas Departments, which have rights full rights, lack much independence and have few special privileges, making them very close to full members of France in reality. At about the same level of mutualism as the French Overseas Departments, but for quite different reasons, are the Autonomous Regions of the PRC, which have a bit of autonomy, full rights and some special privileges.

We let Israel get away with many things that we do not let other countries get away with: For example, India has been embargoed in arms trade since it gained nuclear weapons but Israel, though not officially nuclear, obviously has nukes yet we still trade with them extensively. Nor do we trade military supplies with nuclear-armed Pakistan, which is supposed to be our ally. And if Saudi Arabia tried to go nuclear, I am sure we would try to overthrow King Abdullah. In addition, the USA is extremely lenient with Israel with regards to its breaching other states' sovereignty: When Israel invaded Idi Amin's Uganda to capture hostages in 1976, we did nothing at the very least while when Julius Nyerere liberated Uganda from Amin's rule but a few years latter, we were openly hostile to Tanzania for overthrowing the megalomaniac.

In short, we give Israel way too much slack for all the asinine things it does while when other countries, often our allies, do equivalent things or do things that are indeed more upright and benevolent, as with Nyerere's Liberation of Uganda, we scold, harass and/or otherwise take punitive measures against them.

Really, Turkey would make much more sense as our key ally in the Middle East, it is even more secular than we are, it is more stable, has far more resources and far more people, but the Turks are not the Christian god's chosen people, so they get no special treatment over other allies.

If the US did call out Israel on their action, Ben Stein might have called them antisemitic, the father of all sins!

Although I've heard that there's been recent changes in that department, one reason the USA wouldn't ally with Turkey is the denial of the Armenian genocide, which are christians. <.<

(which I'm currently researching btw, feel free to send me any information you might think would be relevant, but be warned i'm mostly looking at it from three different aspects : the Armenian's view, the Turk's, if there's any, and the foreign outsiders's)

And because Turkey is apparently becoming increasingly Islamist and intolerant of Christianity. Not a good mix.

I'd imagine the secular version of Turkey can be quite nice (though Efes is awful and should be consigned to the dustbin) but the Islamised version, not so much.

I remember being in 'Northern Cyprus' and a tear coming to my eye watching a Turkish military band parade in Kyrenia though.

It is the stated goal (right from the Q'ran and the Hadith) of the Islamic extremists to conquer the dar al Harb and bring them under the domination of Islam. The U.S. and Israel did not make up the Q'ran and the Hadith.

ruveyn

Is that why Hamas became such a thorn in Israel's side? Muslims aren't taking over the world anytime soon.

Speaking of that though I can think of many people who owe Israel a lot for their success - particularly major papers who would have been starving for filler otherwise. That and, without much of our involvement, I wonder how much women's rights in Islamic countries would be discussed...

Lately the U.S. is getting damned little from its support of Israel.

ruveyn

“Israel is to become the watchdog. There is no fear that Israel will undertake any aggressive Policy towards the Arab states when this would explicitly contradict the wishes of the US and Britain. But if for any reasons the Western powers should sometimes prefer to close their eyes, Israel could be relied upon to punish one or several neighbouring states whose discourtesy to the West went beyond the bounds of the permissible.”

The Israeli paper Ha’aretz, 30 September 1951

its probably been said before but oil. it's (almost) always about the oil. in the middle east anyway. america needs israel, the last bastion of "democracy" in the middle east, a stable country, armed to the teeth to mind that the surrounding arab states do not become volatile or otherwise out of western control and ruin the ability of western powers to access resources in the middle eastern states or for those states to be able to mine the oil in the first place. it's a forcible enabling of trade in the middle eastern states. this chapter from john rose's israel: the hijak state explains things pretty well:

http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/do ... /1-oil.htm

sigh. linking to articles. im getting lazy.

and for those arguing that supporting israel is earning america the ire of other nations i can only disagree with you. among western countries there is no ill will from government anyway. the people are a different story. here the government is supportive of israel and it must seem to them that israel is the only really friendly country in the area. not surprising since theyre helping bomb the freedom into a lot of them right now. they have publically denounced bds activists and the whole movement. except marrickville council which openly supports it but that has been slammed by the right. in the arab states and middle east in general, well that depends on who america is currently occupying. no arab state is really friendly towards israel. not the people, not the government. egypt used to be luke warm to israel but that was the old dictator and he's gone now. that relationship hasnt really changed their view of america. america is still a major player in the world economy with lots of weapons of mass destruction they will not be hesitant to use if a country denies trade or provision of resources or doesnt allow strategic military bases on their land. other countries can't not like america. or at least they cant say it to their face.

I believe it’s more to do with the influence pro-Israeli groups have over a candidate’s chance of getting elected than what the USA itself gets in return.