The USA's Support for Israel, History and Controversies

When I started blogging again, I promised my readers that, one day, I would write something about the relationship between the USA and Israel. This post might not be a perfectly analyzed one, but I strongly suggest my readers not to give comments with profound hatred of zionism or Arab or whatsoever. I would not appreciate that kind of comments. I do not support neither Israel and the USA nor Arab countries, I am just trying to be objective. In the USA, there has been a widespread criticism of the government's action to continuously support Israel, because: * It costs huge amount of money, which actually can be used in other areas of the world. * It is a hypocritical foreign policy, looking at the facts that Israel ignored the United Nations concerning the solution of Palestinian matters and Israel has questionable records of human rights. Before going further, we have to understand the background of this issue. The USA's support for Israel is consistent and historical. Geopolitically speaking, it is important for the USA to maintain a good relationship with Israel. Israel is an isolated country in Middle East and surrounded by hostile Arab states, thus it relies on the USA for survival. This made it easier for the USA to further its interest in Middle East; the USA could use Israel to prevent another country in Middle East from gaining too much power. Basically, Israel is important because it can be used to maintain status quo in the region. The USA's support for Israel is also connected with oil issue and its foreign policy. It is unarguably true that the USA's domestic policy depends heavily on the ability of the government to maintain the stable oil supply with depressed prices. Some Presidents of the USA were forced to withdraw due to their inability to maintain the prices of gasoline. Fearing of losing control of oil supply, the USA established US-British alliance against Iran when Iran wanted to nationalize oil industries in 1953. This was, indeed, a selfish issue. Let's continue reading this post!! The USA was also concerned about a challenge to Western hegemony possessed by countries in Middle East. That was why the USA provided Israel with sophisticated weapons, which cost lot of money, in order to return the balance of power to Israel, whom it can trust. For instance, in 1981, when there was a suspicion that Iran clandestinely built nuclear weapons, the USA and the UK backed Israel to attack the oil refineries and nuclear reactors of Iran. Even until today, Iran has always been seen as an imminent danger. Iran has a potential to become a regional power in Middle East. Iran is a large semi-industrialized nations of educated populations. Iran has vast oil resources, and it is located in the borders of Kaspian Sea and side by side with Azerbaijan. As we know, Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan is one of the centers of oil distribution to central Asia and Europe. Basically, having an influence in Caucasus is important and Iran has it. Iran is also be friendly with and aided by Russia, which wants to kick the USA out from central Asia, in order to further its nuclear research. On the other hand, even with helps from the USA, it is still difficult for Israel to become a regional power. Iran's nuclear projects would dwarf the power of Israel to a certain extent that Israel could not be used anymore as a foreign policy mechanism by the USA. In addition, Syria and Hezbollah as a non state actor consistently contested Israel. All of these things would lead or, probably, have led to regional instability and arms race. Please read my post about Prisoner's Dillema Theory to understand more about the danger of arms race. Therefore, despite a storm of protests inside the USA, it is not very likely for the USA to stop supporting Israel; instead, the USA and Israel would probably strengthen their symbiotic relationship. Israel could not form alliances with neighboring states to relax dependence with the USA because, as I have mentioned before, Israel is geopolitically and culturally isolated from other Middle East countries. Israel does not have its own vast resources. Moreover, there is a facade of Israeli independence. Therefore, Israel had no choice but to allow the USA to use Jerusallem as the USA's battleships to launch "an attack" to Arab countries. The USA closes its eyes of Israeli internationally wrongful acts and ignores settlements of Israel-Palestinian matters instead because it wants to further its interest in Middle East. What would you do if you were an Israeli leader? Then, why is the USA concerned about the oil? I think the answer is very obvious. Besides oil issue is closely connected to its domestic policies, the USA has passed the era of Peak Oil,which will be covered in my following posts. What do you think?