funkymonkey Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Why is the US in bed with Israel? Quote
Palerider Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 To stay warm at night? Ditto...........LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote
NeuroTypical Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 1. Because we're good guys, and they need an ally to keep all of their neighbors from destroying them. 2. Because they're just about the only stable democracy in the region, and stable democracies are good things. 3. Because allying with Israel allows the US to increase their leverage on various geopolitical arenas. 4. Because it ticks off evil men and vile corrupt governments, and both are things good govts should do at every opportunity. 5. To give people an opportunity to speak out based on ignorance (willing or otherwise), incorrectness (willing or otherwise), or moral relativism. Just off the top of my head. LM Quote
Wingnut Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 2. Because they're just about the only stable democracy in the region, and stable democracies are good things.I agree that stable democracies are a good thing, but whether Israel is one is debatable. Quote
funkymonkey Posted October 3, 2008 Author Report Posted October 3, 2008 I agree that stable democracies are a good thing, but whether Israel is one is debatable.Agreed. :) Quote
myway Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Israel are the chosen people of God. Quote
funkymonkey Posted October 3, 2008 Author Report Posted October 3, 2008 Has the US support of Israel made us more of a terrorist target? Quote
Wingnut Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Israel are the chosen people of God.That may be, but it has nothing to do with the political affiliations and alliances between the US and any country. Quote
Wingnut Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Has the US support of Israel made us more of a terrorist target?Hard to say. We've supported the Israeli state since its inception after WW2. We helped create it. Was there much terrorism prior to that? If yes, were we victims of it prior to that?(I realize not everyone here is from the US, but I am, hence the "we." No intent to offend or exclude, it just comes out that way.) Quote
SMG Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 I have to echo LM's reasons. Plus, in my opinion, since "we" helped create it, "we" feel protective of it. More stable democracies are a good thing. Also, I think it is the "underdog factor." It is one tiny country, surrounded by many others who are much more populous and many of them wouldn't mind seeing it be wiped off the map. Quote
WANDERER Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 (edited) International promiscuity is sometimes referred to as global politics...LOL. What would happen if Israel was left to deal with things and sort it's own problems out...has a certain *oops* factor to it. Edited October 3, 2008 by WANDERER Quote
Moksha Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Has the US support of Israel made us more of a terrorist target? Absolutely. Quote
MarginOfError Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Israel are the chosen people of God.Israel, when meant to denote the descendants of Jacob, son of Abraham, are the chosen people of God.Israel the nation is a strip of land on the East end of the Mediterranean Sea that was given to displaced Jews after WWII. How were we able to give them this land? Simple, displace the Arabs/Palestinians living there already and make room for the new tenants. The US is in bed with Israel, not because God's chosen people live there, but because we put a whole race of people in a vulnerable position and it would be too big a political embarrassment to allow it to fail. Quote
a-train Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Israel's support from the U.S. is largely do to Jewish lobbyists and neo-conservatism. Israel is by far the most powerful military force in the middle east. While we give them billions in aid, we also give aid to their enemies. In fact, the collective foreign aid that goes to their enemies is more than what they receive from us. If we ended all that aid, we would be more prosperous and so would Israel. -a-train Quote
BenRaines Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 I agree with LoudMouth. I think we would be the same kind of ally to any freely elected government. Not one with rigged elections but freely elected. Would we provide the same support to Italy, Germany, Australia or any other freely elected government? Why would we not be an ally to Israel might be a better question. I can't think of why we would not be an ally. Ben Raines Quote
lilered Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 FYI: The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000 > > >> ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's > > >> population. > > >> > > >> > > >> They have received the following Nobel Prizes: > > >> > > >> Literature: > > >> > > >> 1988 - Najib Mahfooz > > >> > > >> Peace: > > >> > > >> 1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat > > >> 1994 - Ya ser Arafat: > > >> 1990 - Elias James Corey > > >> 1999 - Ahmed Zewai > > >> > > >> Economics: (zero) > > >> > > >> Physics: (zero) > > >> > > >> Medicine: > > >> 1960 - Peter Brian Medawar > > >> 1998 - Ferid Mourad > > >> > > >> > > >> TOTAL: 7 SEVEN > > >> > > >> > > >> > > ____________________________________________________________________________ > > >> __ > > >> > > >> The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000 > > >> Only FOURTEEN MILLION > > >> > > >> or about 0.02% of the world's population. > > >> > > >> > > >> They have received the following Nobel Prizes: > > >>> > >> Literature: > > >> > > >> 1910 - Paul Heyse > > >> 1927 - Henri Bergson > > >> 1958 - Boris Pa sternak > > >> 1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon > > >> 1966 - Nelly Sachs > > >> 1976 - Saul Bellow > > >> 1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer > > >> 1981 - Elias Canetti > > >> 1987 - Joseph Brodsky > > >> 1991 - Nadine Gordimer World > > >> > > >> Peace: > > >> > > >> 1911 - Alfred Fried > > >> 1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser > > >> 1968 - Rene Cassin > > >> 1973 - Henry Kissinger > > >> 1978 - Menachem Begin > > >> 1986 - Elie Wiesel > > >> 1994 - Shimon Peres > > >> 1994 - Yitzhak Rabin > > >> > > >> > > >> Physics: > > >> > > >> 1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer > > >> 1906 - Henri Moissan > > >> 1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson > > >> 1908 - Gabriel Lippmann > > >> 1910 - Otto Wallach > > >> 1915 - Richard Willstaetter > > >> 1918 - Fritz Haber > > >> 1921 - Albert Einstein > > >> 1922 - Niels Bohr > > >> 1925 - James Franck > > >> 1925 - Gustav Hertz > > >> 1943 - Gustav Stern > > >> 1943 - George Charles de Hevesy > > >> 1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi > > >> 1952 - Felix Bloch > > >> 1954 - Max Born > > >> 1958 - Igor Tamm > > >> 1959 - Emilio Segre > > >> 1960 - Don ald A. Glaser > > >> 1961 - Robert Hofstadter > > >> 1961 - Melvin Calvin > > >> 1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau > > >> 1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz > > >> 1965 - Richard Phil lips Feynman > > >> 1965 - Julian Schwinger > > >> 1969 - Murray Gell-Mann > > >> 1971 - Dennis Gabor > > >> 1972 - William Howard Stein > > >> 1973 - Brian David Joseph son > > >> 1975 - Benjamin Mottleson > > >> 1976 - Burton Richter > > >> 1977 - Ilya Prigogine > > >> 1978 - Arno Allan Penzias > > >> 1978 - Peter L Kapitza > > >> 1979 - Stephen Weinberg > > >> 1979 - Sheldon Glashow > > >> 1979 - Herbert Charles Brown > > >> 1980 - Paul Berg > > >> 1980 - Walter Gilbert > > >> 1981 - Roald Hoffmann > > >> 1982 - Aaron Klug > > >> 1985 - Albert A. Hauptman > > >> 1985 - Jerome Karle > & gt; >> 1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach > > >> 1988 - Robert Huber > > >> 1988 - Leon Lederman > > >> 1988 - Melvin Schwartz > > >> 1988 - Jack Steinberger > > >> 1989 - Sidney Altman > > >> 1990 - Jerome Friedman > > >> 1992 - Rudolph Marcus > > >> 1995 - Martin Perl > > >> 2000 - Alan J. Heeger > > >> > > >> Economics: > > >> > > >> 1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson > > >> 1971 - Simon Kuznets > > >> 1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow > > >> 1975 - Leonid Kantorovich > > >> 1976 - Mil ton Friedman > > >> 1978 - Herb ert A. Simon > > >> 1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein > > >> 1985 - Franco Modigliani > > >> 1987 - Robert M. Solow > > >> 1990 - Harry Markowitz > > ; >> 1 990 - Merton Miller > > >> 1992 - Gary Becker > > >> 1993 - Robert Fogel > > >> > > >> Medicine: > > >> > > >> 1908 - Elie Metchnikoff > > >> 1908 - Paul Erlich > > >> 1914 - Robert Barany > > >> 1922 - Otto Meyerhof > > >> 1930 - Karl Landsteiner > > >> 1931 - Otto Warburg > > >> 1936 - Otto Loewi > > >> 1944 - Joseph Erlanger > > >> 1944 - Herb ert Spencer Gasser > > >> 1945 - Ernst Boris Chain > > >> 1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller > > >> 1950 - Tadeus Reichstein > > >> 1952 - Selman Abra ham Waksman > > >> 1953 - Hans Krebs > > >> 1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann > > >> 1958 - Joshua Lederberg > > >> 1959 - Arthur Kornberg > > >> 1964 - Konrad Bloch > > >> 1965 - Francois Jacob > > >> 1965 - Andre Lwoff > > >> 1967 - George Wald > > >> 1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg > > >> 1969 - Salvador Luria > > >> 1970 - Julius Axelrod > > >> 1970 - Sir Bernard Katz > > >> 1972 - Gerald Maurice Ed elman > > >> 1975 - Howard Martin Temin > > >> 1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg > > >> 1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow > > >> 1978 - Daniel Nathans > > >> 1980 - Baruj Benacerraf > > >> 1984 - Cesar Milstein > > >> 1985 - Michael Stuart Brown > > >> 1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein > > >> 1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini] > > >> 1988 - Gertrude Elion > > >> 1989 - Harold Varmus > > >> 1991 - Erwin Neher > > >> 1991 - Bert S akmann > > >> 1993 - Richard J. Roberts > > >> 1993 - Phillip Sharp > > >> 1994 - Alfred Gilman > > >> 1995 - Ed ward B. Lewis > > >> > > >> > > >> TOTAL: 129 ONE HUNDRED TWENTY NINE! > > >> > > >> > > >> The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in > > >> military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause > > >> maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims! > > >> > > >> The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow > > >> themselves up in German restaurants. There is NOT one single Jew that has > > >> destroyed a church. There is NOT a single Jew that protests by killing > > >> people. > > >> > > >> The Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death > > >> to all the Infidels. > > >> > > >> Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard > > >> education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems. > > >> > > >> Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that > > >> humankind respects them!! > > >> > > >> Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the > > >> Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more > > >> culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it > > >> all: > > >> > > >> 'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would > > >> be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no > > >> more Israel' > > >> -Benjamin Netanyahu > > > Foot note: Golda Meir said "[The Arabs] will stop fighting us when they love their children more than they hate [Jews]." She also said: "When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons." (Press conference after the Six-Day War, 1967) Quote
bytor2112 Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 I agree that stable democracies are a good thing, but whether Israel is one is debatable.How so? Compared to who...? Quote
Wingnut Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 How so? Compared to who...?A country that requires outside security to keep itself from being obliterated is not, in my opinion, stable. Quote
BenRaines Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 We provide military security for Japan. Required since WWII. Ben Raines Quote
BenRaines Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 I don't know that it is required by Israel. If turned lose I think they would turn most of the middle east to a nice glass mirror. Ben Raines Quote
checkerboy Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 A country that requires outside security to keep itself from being obliterated is not, in my opinion, stable. I agree with Ben. The only thing holding Israel back from nuking the middle is IS the United States. I am of the mind though to let go of the reins and see what happens. Quote
Wingnut Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 I agree with Ben. The only thing holding Israel back from nuking the middle is IS the United States. I am of the mind though to let go of the reins and see what happens.It still makes debatable whether Israel is stable or not. Quote
NeuroTypical Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 (edited) While we give them [israel] billions in aid...]Call for references. I was under the impression that our yearly military aid is substantially less than a billion bucks a year. (We might provide a ton more than military aid, but I'd like to see the references.)LM Edited October 3, 2008 by Loudmouth_Mormon Quote
Rize Posted October 3, 2008 Report Posted October 3, 2008 Call for references. I was under the impression that our yearly military aid is substantially less than a billion bucks a year. (We might provide a ton more than military aid, but I'd like to see the references.)LMThe US provides Israel with approximately 3 billion dollars annually. LINKIsrael is not a democracy, if anything it is an ethnocracy where Jews were preferred over members of the country's ethnic and religious minorities. A substantive democracy must be a country for all its citizens and must ensure full equality for all of them. However, Israel's definition as a Jewish, democratic state implies that Israeli democracy applies only to the country's Jewish citizens. Saying the US supports democracies in the Middle East is a pretty ignorant statement. Why do we support Saudi Arabia, but overthrew Mosadeq in Iran? Quote
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