Why the hell does America always go to bat for Israel? This seems to be a fully bipartisan insanity, and one that makes little sense to me, other than in crude coalitional terms. You have the Jews for the Democrats and the apocalyptic Christian fundies for the Republicans. OK, I get it. But it seems to me that vast herds of voters for both parties accept this pap unquestioningly.
I'm happy that their is a relatively free democracy in the Middle East, and that the Jews have their homeland. After the Holocaust the West decided that they deserved it, and after some plucky guerrilla fighting against the Brits and Arabs they won it for themselves. I don't mind that we continue to send Israel arms and offer them good will. But the USA has spent the better part of two generations being militarily involved in the Middle East's business, and I fail to see how our unquestioning support of Israel's position has benefited us in any way over that term. From a Realpolitik perspective, it seems to make no sense at all. Comments? Please -- enlighten me!
Ouch.
8 hours ago
2 comments:
I suggest that it is a moral argument. The USA has allied itself with another democracy that has similar values to us and therefore, as a generous nation, we will support Israel. You can argue on both sides if supporting Israel is in our national interests, but I believe that supporting Israel is a morally just position.
The pure libertarian will doubtlessly say, if there is no national interest, then cut the support and let Israel go at it alone (and no doubt assert Israel’s ability for self-defense). One of the things that makes Americans and American foreign policy different from other nations, is our sense of what is right and wrong. We see ourselves on the side of right and not exclusively just in our self-interests. This is what drives our support of Israel.
Yes, the argument is that it is moral to back Israel regardless. But it seems that whenever our other moral imperatives are in conflict with Israeli policy, Israel wins out. this is how we turn into the world's inept policeman.
In your second paragraph, I think you mean Kissingerian realpolitik, not pure libertarian. The pure libertarian would say that any alliance of that type is wrong, interest or no.
The problems of Wilsonian moralism are so huge and insurrmountable I don't want to rehash them overly in the comments; you know what the arguments are -- read the GOP platform for any year up to 2004 for the cliff's notes.
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