When you look at Israel's relationship with the US in this light, the US really is getting a bargain. The quote is fromRob Satloff, from his debate withChas Freeman.Bottom line: do a cost-benefit analysis of the U.S. relationship with Israel over the past thirty-plus years and the U.S. relationship with its Arab friends in the Gulf. What do you find? To secure its interests in the Arab-Israeli arena, the United States has spent about $100 billion in military and economic assistance to Israel, plus another $30 billion to Egypt and relatively small change to others. Our losses: a total of 258 Americans in the Beirut embassy and barracks bombings and a few other American victims of terrorism in that part of the Middle East. On a state-to-state basis, as I have argued, that investment has paid off handsomely in terms of regional stability. Compare that with the Gulf. Look at the massive costs we have endured to ensure our interests there, the principal one being to secure access to the region's energy resources at reasonable prices. The United States has spent more than $1 trillion- $700 billion on the Iraq war alone, according to the Congressional Budget Office - lost more than 4,400 U.S. servicemen, fought two wars, endured thirty years of conflict with the Islamic Republic of Iran and a global al-Qaeda insurgency fed originally by our deployment of troops in Saudi Arabia. After all that, the Gulf region is still anything but secure. It's when you boil it down to this very simple arithmetic that I can say that our relationship with Israel helped produce a strategic bonanza for the United States at bargain prices.Indeed.
Here's another Satloff quote.
It is to America’s advantage to have a nation of friends, whose people and government are firm supporters of and advocates for American interests in the broader Middle East. There is no country in the Middle East whose people and government are so closely aligned with the U.S.No wonder Chas Freeman got all choked up (second picture). Heh.
A commonality of culture and values manifests itself in many ways, from how Israel votes at the UN to how its people view their role as being on the front line against many of the same threats we face.
It is to America’s advantage to have in Israel an economy that is so closely associated with ours and that is such an innovator in the IT field, in high-tech medicine, and in green technologies, like the electric car. The Obama administration made the economic health and well-being of the U.S. the pillar of its National Security Strategy.
Israel – through its intelligence, its technology, and the lessons learned from its own experience in counterterrorism and asymmetric warfare – has saved American lives. And when you add to this Israel’s unique counterproliferation efforts – destroying nuclear reactors in Iraq (1981) and Syria (2007) – Israel’s contribution to our security is even greater.
What we really need in the Middle East are more “Israels” – more strong, reliable, democratic, pro-American allies. It would certainly be nice to have one or two in the Gulf. What we should really want as allies are countries that, with a strong America behind them, can take care of themselves and project our basic values in the process.
