Does US support for Israel outweigh the Cost?

[Landis]

Israel was carved out of Palestine in 1948 with little regard for the indigenous people who were already living there. I suppose there was a debate in the US at that time but it was before I was alive (and I'm not a young man). I do not quite understand why the US is such a diehard supporter of Israel. The usual arguments run along the lines of "Israel is the only democratic nation in the Mideast" or "Israel is our staunchest ally in the Mideast". But what do we really get for our Billions of Dollars in financial aid? Most of the Arab nations hate us, there appears to be no strategic benefit to Israel's location for the US. I even wonder that if the US were not such a diehard supporter for Israel, maybe 9/11 might not have even happened.

I don't mean to sound like an anti-semite but I don't buy a 2000+ year old claim based on the Bible as the right of Israeli's to claim Palestinian land. If that is the basis then the majority of Americans should start packing, because only the native American Indians were here 2000 years ago!

I would like to find out how people feel about "whether the US support for Israel is worth the cost?"

[Jon_in_london]

Originally posted by Landis
Israel was carved out of Palestine in 1948 with little regard for the indigenous people who were already living there. I suppose there was a debate in the US at that time but it was before I was alive (and I'm not a young man). I do not quite understand why the US is such a diehard supporter of Israel. The usual arguments run along the lines of "Israel is the only democratic nation in the Mideast" or "Israel is our staunchest ally in the Mideast". But what do we really get for our Billions of Dollars in financial aid? Most of the Arab nations hate us, there appears to be no strategic benefit to Israel's location for the US. I even wonder that if the US were not such a diehard supporter for Israel, maybe 9/11 might not have even happened.

I don't mean to sound like an anti-semite but I don't buy a 2000+ year old claim based on the Bible as the right of Israeli's to claim Palestinian land. If that is the basis then the majority of Americans should start packing, because only the native American Indians were here 2000 years ago!

I would like to find out how people feel about "whether the US support for Israel is worth the cost?"

Welcome landis!

You ask what do 'we' (the US) get from the billions of $ of aid? Nothing really, but there is a very strong pro-Isreali lobby in the US so your Pres. gets votes and money in return.

Its strange that on a discussion board filled with athiests and sckeptics, so many are ready to accept a biblical claim to the land than 2000+ years of continuous habitation.

You will hear all sorts of crap to counter this though- like the Palestinians arent really 'a people' so therefore they must live in ghettos and be oppressed for the rest of forever etc.... :rolleyes:

It probably made sense for the US to support Isreal as a proxy against the soviet backed Arabs during the cold war but now US politicans are too cowed by the pro-Isreali lobby in the US to change anything.

By the logic of the pro-Isrealis, if native Americans started killing non-native Americans, then they would be absolutely justified.