Israel isn’t my favorite nation state by a long way. I probably, at this point, don’t have one. But this I do know. Antisemitism has no place in the world, nor does anti-palestinianism (to coin a word) but that is an idealistic stance. In reality the Jews have been at war with various other religious and cultural forces since the second millennia BC and I don’t foresee a time when they will not be included in the list of peoples who are routinely blamed for the ills that befall groups of people and other nations. From the Canaanites through the Romans, the Mohammedans, the Russians, the NAZIs, all of Europe, to particular groups of people in the United States, they are routinely blamed for the ills of the world and as such are always seen as an outright enemy or an acquaintance not necessarily to be trusted. We shouldn’t forget that elements of the Israeli government stole top secret documents concerning our knowledge of Soviet intentions and traded those documents to the Soviet Union for the release of refugees. Nor should we put aside the Israeli air force and navy attack on the U.S.S. Liberty in 1967. These were acts taken not as a state that has the largest (39%) of the world’s Jewish population but a secular state looking to grow its overall sympathetic population and assert its independence. Not happy times for government to government relations but they would recover because of the need for an Israel in the Middle East. Read on:
The United Kingdom’s Lord Palmerston, Henry Temple at the time, made it clear that England had no permanent allies and no permanent enemies. What England had, he said were “interests” and the government would act on behalf of those interests changing allies as needed to accomplish goals. This is true for any country. No permanent “Friends” and no permanent “enemies,” only interests. For many years the public in the U.S. has believed that we have unchanging allies forgetting that not so very long ago the Germans, Japanese and Italians were our sworn enemies, Iran was a friendly country under the Shah and China (prior to 1949) was an ally fighting Japanese imperialism. Times change and so do interests. What may have been a Chinese government with its overlapping interests with the U.S. has moved on. Now those interests are in conflict. On the other hand a mutual desire to have democracy and peace in Europe and the Pacific has led to intersecting interests on the part of Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States and thus our enemies have now become our allies.
Israel is our ally because it represents the only democracy in the Middle East and a bulwark against the creation of a theocratic dictatorship like Iran. It is also our friend because of demographic common interests: the U.S. is home to 35% of the world’s Jewish population. Next down would be France with 2.7% of the world’s Jewish population. You can see then the inexorable ties that exist between the U.S. and Israel. Thus, the state of Israel has not only secular interests that overlap with the U.S. but ties of blood. It is not the intention of Iran to allow Israel to continue to exist as either a secular state or the Homeland for the Jewish people. The theocrats in Tehran and Qom want Israel wiped from history along with the Jews who live there and anywhere else. Their vendetta isn’t against Israel it’s against Jews.
Yemen is threatened by the same theocratic eventuality although the tribal conflict in Yemen continues to pose a problem for the consolidation of Houthis tribal power. Also the Saudis continued resistance of a Houthi controlled state is slowing Iran’s progress of surrounding Saudi Arabia. Iran is attempting to encircle Saudi Arabia by creating enemy regimes to it’s North, East, South and West. Although Sudan severed official ties with Iran in 2016 Bloomberg reported as late as yesterday that Iran is in talks with elements on both sides of the civil war in Sudan.There is the fear of renewed supplies of weaponry making its way from Iran and into the hands of anti-Saudi forces in Sudan. That this latest trouble in Gaza comes on the heels of an announcement of closer ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel is no surprise. It is but the creation of a crack into which Iran hopes to drive a wedge by forcing the Saudis to support the Sunni Hamas group.
It is not religion, for Sunni and Shia are fearsome foes. It is the power of politics that is uniting these otherwise religiously opposed frenemies.
Thus, Hamas and the poor people of Gaza are merely a human weapon Iran is using in an attempt to force a split in the Saudi-Israeli efforts to establish a security pact for the Peninsula and Southwestern Fertile Crescent.
Such a security pact is in the interest of the United States, especially since Turkey under Erdogan is making dictatorship like noises and threatening the solidarity of NATO. With only Saudi Arabia and Israel as allies in the region, it does not behoove the U.S. to act in any manner that allows Iran to advance as a regional power. You might be surprised at this conclusion since many actions taken by subordinates in the current and past plus one administration might be construed as being pro-Iranian. This is certainly something Congress should investigate because Iran is becoming an equal threat to world peace as either Russia or China.
Security in the Middle East and a bulwark against Iranian influence is why you should support Israel over Hamas. Religion has nothing to do with it. Perhaps we should be asking more questions about how Hamas has acted since it established its dictatorship of Gaza. Hamas won the elections over the Palestinian Authority in 2006 and then, through a set of bloody battles with Fatah, became the government in Gaza. There have been no elections since that time with Hamas exerting dictatorial control over the region. What exactly have they done for the people other than train them in terrorist tactics, preach hatred of Jews, and use money provided for humanitarian relief to purchase military equipment. The Vice President says the U.S. remains committed to a two-state solution but Iran, Hezbollah, Hama and apparently the Secretary General of the United Nations sees only a one state solution and that state would be an Islamic theocracy.