If you look at the US policy toward Israel from the standpoint of our usual desire to control everything, particularly that region, you might see that there is a rationale for what we have always done. Israel is, after all, a democracy. More than that, as Dershowitz said, it's a rough and tumble self-critical democracy beyond how we even think of the UK version.
For a long time we supported Israel merely from a desire to foster their ability to defend themselves. Beyond that, they do maintain a balance of power in the region. When numerous corrupt and belligerent arab states use Israel as a whipping boy to keep their own populations under control and themselves in power, what are we to do? Allow them to overrun this small state? We have been motivated by guilt-as has Europe, for many years. Clinton pushed harder than Bush, but in the last 5 years Bush has pretty much had a hands-off attitude, in keeping with the neocon/evangelical notion that Israel is an ally before anything else.
Israel also has tremendous internal problems and faces a similar dilemma we have here: radical religious elements gaining influence in the government. If Bush/US were to withdraw aid in a simplistic desire to pressure withdrawal from the settlements, Israel could descend into civil war, what with well armed radicals entrenched in the occupied territories. So in a way, we are trapped with Israel at the moment in a similar way as we are trapped in Iraq-a bad policy has allowed circumstances to become increasingly dangerous and unpredictable with no good outcomes in sight. |
