The article says that Israel is of strategic value to the U.S. Why? The U.S. wants the unimpeded flow of oil. To assist that, political stability is required. Israel rocks the boat. Israel is of no strategic value to the U.S. The U.S. supports Israel because of moneyed interests: Congressmen know their donors and their interests...perhaps I should add that the bulk are Christian Evangelicals.

Would Israel sacrifice it's population to destroy Iran? What's the difference between 'a direct threat and an existential threat'? TATA

Right Wing Jews by abandoning traditional Jewish values has divided the American Jewish community in a way that it has lost it's political significance. It will in a backwards logic, prove the importance of Israel to Jews the world over. The crazy lies of the right wingnuts that many American Jews have taken hook line and sinker will hurt all of us. Stop relying one one news source and do some reading before falling for all of the very well financed lies.

The US military "aid" constitutes roughly 1% of Israel's expanding GDP and with the looming Israeli gas revenues Israel can and should waiver the US "aid" which is in fact a US investment in a valuable US ally and has secured thousands of jobs in the US military industry.

First of all, Israel's roots in the Middle East are far deeper and more authentic than any of the surrounding 20th century Arab-state constructs. Secondly, Israel has always favored regional cooperation which has been mostly rejected by the Arab side who still dreams about wiping Israel off the map. Israel is a permanent reality so give up your desire to destroy the Jewish state and the rest will solve itself andyou will actually benefit from a peaceful coexistence with Israel.

Converting Israel into a third world Arab-Moslem economic basket case dictatorship which oppresses women and ethnic and religious minorities? No thanks. Israel will remain a Jewish nation-state and thriving first world democracy. YOU should integrate into the 21st century and realize that the Middle East is no more exclusively Arab-Moslem than Europe is exclusively German.

Israel is not the largest recipient of American aid. It just seems so as aid to Israel is under the Foreign Aid budget. Other countries get more money than Israel, but it is under the Defense budget. The US gives Israel as much aid as they spend in defense of South Korea.

I’m not sure if I agree with you, but your thoughts are very well put.

How can Israel “integrate itself into the region” when no arab country wants them there and most are ready to kill all the Jews? The hardcore rightists are the arabs. You have it backwards. Read some current events, then post.

love your comments...some of them though like this one disrespecting goyim...i'd love to meet you and just give you 1 slap in the face for your ignorance...do not label all goyim because of the ones with the power, many a goy travels to israel n joins the idf AFTER converting...wow sounds like we don't care much now do we

...China is no friend and Israel has few allies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. And needless to say, Israel is thoroughly hated in the Mid East. And now another Israeli is whining about how America might "sacrifice Isarel." If a person has no friends, that peson should probably look to himself for the reason. As the article states, the US has been extremely generous to Israel. This has cost the US deeply in money, lives, and political capital. While there is certainly SOME benefit for the US in this relationship, there are many, many more costs associated with it. The US/Israeli relationship is hardly like other, mutually beneficial relationships the US has with Canada, the UK, Japan, etc. One of these days Israelis might come to appreciate the massive sacrfice the US has made for it. Then again, one day Israel's selfishness might cause it's destruction. And if this happens, it will probably only be in America that people mourn. Articles like this don't help your situation.

I cannot and will not pretend to speak for "America," but I can say with assurance that there are many Americans that are sympathetic and "friendly" toward Israel. It seems that the writer's definition of friend parallels the question, "What have you done for me LATELY?" I have no desire to foster or advocate a dependency relationship with ANY sovereign state, nor am I in a position to do "big things" for Israel (although most certainly you get a portion of my tax dollars, and that is more than fine with me--money well spent). But, I think it more than likely that we will fight shoulder-to-shoulder one of these days against a common enemy. In the American political system, as in the Israeli system, the President's attitude is not synonymous with the entire national sentiment. I am not responsible for Obama's coolness any more than many of you would accept responsibility for Netanyahu. I agree Israel should not be "...the 51st state;" it would be nice, though, if some of you would be a little more judicious in your response, temper your bitterness, and not insult the friends you do have.

Do you remember what happened to the full faith and credit of the United States Armed Forces in Somalia? You were beaten back by a handful of barefoot warlords using World War II vintage Garand rifles and one or two rusty RPG launchers. The U.S. turned and ran like stripe-assed baboons. Israel isn't Somalia, sweetheart. Get in our way -- you will pay a price. Rather a severe one, I'm afraid. Do you remember what Israel did to the USS LIBERTY during the Six-Day War, when it eavesdropped on Israeli military communications -- the contents of which the U.S. promptly relayed to the Jordanian and Syrian military commands? Israel blew your sad-assed state of the art surveillance vessel right out of the water. It would be a VERY bad idea for the U.S. to get in our way. No one wants to see anything come to a confrontation, but we are not afraid of you, and you need to be VERY afraid of us. We take existential threats very seriously, we are determined to continue and we do not trust you at all. For good reason, I might add. Spite that, you silly little boy.

mr moetti is addressing the strategic implications of american policy, but he is perhaps not as conscious of the reality of american politics. president obama's middle east policy, for the balance of 2012, will be dictated by the needs of candidate obama's re-election campaign. no matter what his own personal prejudices might be, or what the national interests are, he will do whatever is necessary to get himself re-elected. this means that he will not act on his own pro-arab agenda, for fear of antagonizing the majority of americans who support israel, and it means that he must make pro-israel statements, even if he hates netanyahu, and would rather bully israel into capitulating to abu mazzen's every demand. but it also means that he will not allow an attack on iran, which could make him look bad. if the israelis successfully destroy iran's nuclear threat, he risks being upstaged, and if they fail, he could be dragged into the middle of an unwelcome war. so it is safer, for his re-election, to just "manage" the situation. and there is no chance that he will risk a repeat of carter's raid on tehran, which cost carter any chance he might have had for a second term. in the context of this editorial, the actions of the united states depend far more on domestic political considerations than strategic or moral ones. if re-elected, obama will throw israel under the bus, but not before.

Most of the funds Israel receives must be, and is, spent in America. Israel also trains our soldiers to fight in built up areas of the ME. Israel also installs armor on American vehicles, eg trucks, humvees. Israel also supplies needed intelligence of the ME that we can't easily get. (They also can't get it easily, but they manage.) It is two way street; both countries benefit. In short; Israel saves American lives. If you consider this only "some" benefit, then you should begin to deal with reality. And what is the "massive sacrifice" the US has made on Israel’s behalf? Other nations get more funds from us, and none is returned. American soldiers have fought the wars of other nations; Israel has always fought its own wars. Your nemesis isn't Israel; it's reality. Deal with it.

Thank you for showing your ‘superior intelligenc’ in thinking that the small amount of Jews in the US control our government. Why stop there? Why not ‘the world’!? And where do you see political stability in the countries of the ME? Only in Israel.

3/50 is SIX percent, not twenty. The truth is that Israel could easily replace the American aid. The even darker truth is that without American aid, Israel would beat the living daylights out of the Arabs.

The Israeli budget is 75 billion. American aid is 3 billion. Israel needs to wake up, reject the American aid, and then just do what it needs to do to secure itself.

many talk-backers have strayed far from topic. the topic is: will america betray israel? ask the people of the former sout h viet nam. oops, THEY were all murdered or imprisoned by the communists to whom america betrayed them. my response is, that the leaders of israel KNOW these things. IOsrael has a , Plan-B, Plan-C, Plan-D, & Plan-E. I doubt that America is the only "Big-Brother with whom Israel can have a mutually beneficial relationship. China, India, and even Russia come to mind. Do you think Netanyahu is STUPID? I believe he'll run CIRCLES around Obama, any day of the year! America needs Israel every bit as much as Israel needs America. Friends, indeed!

When has the US thrown its ally the UK under the bus???

How do you account for the following: There was a book written some years ago entitled "Constantine's Sword." It examines the relationship between Jews and the Roman Catholic Church. The author concludes that had the Jewish population been left to the vagaries of natural increase and decrease, Jews would number approximately 330 million today. We don't. We number around 13 million. As to "mutually beneficial relationships" -- when the United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics, Canada, the U.K. and Japan all went. Israel did not. Tens of thousands of American servicemen died to save Britain, France and some other not-so-loyal allies -- what have they done for you lately, if ever? Drag the U.S. into war in Libya in order to preserve THEIR access to oil? Name ONE American (a non-dual citizen) who has died on behalf of Israel. There are at least 10,000 that have died on behalf of Arabs and Moslems in several theatres. There are 50,000 that died in a silly attempt to preserve totalitarian excess in South Vietnam. Then, there were those silly ventures in Grenada and Panama. So, please -- if you want to use Americans as cannon fodder, that's your business. Don't pin the onus for that stupidity upon Israel. All Israel wants is to live in peace and quiet in our tiny fraction of the Middle Eastern landmass. We have been driven into six wars (all started by the Arabs) and have had to endure seven decades of unremitting terror. Don't blame us for anything. Look to yourselves, and ask yourself why you have always hated the Jewish people -- and, since its re-establishment -- the State of Israel? It has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with you. By the way -- equating a desire to survive with "selfishness" is the epitome of imbecility. No one is going to destroy us, and if it ever looks as that might happen (unlikely), Israel will take as much of the world with us as we can, and render the rest of it uninhabitable for the next 100,000 years. We will NEVER AGAIN go gently into that good night.

Before Obama was elected president, his closest friend and advisor was the Rev, Wright, a racist and anti-Semite on a par with Hitler. Once elected, Obama knew him to be a liability and so distanced himself from the Reverend. But if you think Obama's views did a 180 because of this distancing, you are naive in the ways of human nature. One cannot have as a friend and close advisor for 25 years someone who's views are diametrically opposed to yours. If you want to know Obama's true feelings about Israel and the Jews, just read up on this Rev. Wright.

i agree with article. Look at recent release of info. by US president administration members blaming Iranian assasinations on Israel - this information was released directly from the president.

Israel would not exist as a country today without the passage of UNGAR 181 in Nov. 1947. Were it not for the US and its diplomatic efforts( including economic aid pressure on the last three holdouts) 181 would not have passed. That was Harry Truman's involvement which the State of Israel formally recognized. It is not 40 vetoes in the UNSC but 44 vetoes. Every one of the 14 other Security Council members voted for those resolutions condemning Israels illegal behavior. There are 9 approved Security Council resolutions since 1968 which label Israel's annexation of Jerusalem and its WB settlement policy as illegally violating the Geneva Convention. On 3 of the vetoed resolutions, the UNSC would have imposed world wide economic sanctions against Israel which the US veto prevented. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind said the sole reason he committed that act was because of his violent disagreement with US policy favoring Israel(see P147 of the 9/11 report). The 1973 Arab oil embargo and the 2 wars resulting from 9/11 cost the US thousands of lives and trillions of dollars. All was spent to support what the World Court and every country in the world including the US says is illegal Israeli behavior. This article is nothing more than a gross distortion of history and a whitewash of Israeli behavior. Israel does not know how to make peace but they are experts at distorting reality.

The gist of this article is sad but true. But the very fact that Israel is no more than a strategic asset makes it vital that Israel indeed act in accord with Menachem Begin's warning and that it act as an independent state to protect itself. As Arik Sharon once said, Israel is not Czechoslovakia. [!]

Rather obvious who is doing the begging in the alliance, Meotti.

Then by all means keep doing what you're doing. I'm afraid if all Americans were to read talkboards like this, support for Israel in the US would dry up over night. Although there is a different possibility: some of the supposedly "pro-Israel" supporters here could be Arab haters of Israel in disguise, that would at least make some sense. I also tend to doubt some of these "pro-Israeli" posts because many of the comments portray almost stereotypical traits of the "selfish, ungrateful, and bitter" Jew. I'd like to think these people are not actually Israelis/Jews but instead people trying to make Israelis/Jews look bad.

You're shooting yourselves in the foot! Or should that be "feet?" Regardless, it would help your nation ALOT if you began to police your own a little better.

This article is like Swiss cheese....full of holes. America and Israel only 2 nations in their constitutions that have a covenant with God. Israel is independent of America period. Historically we can see good and bad decisions by both countries. Nixon airlift during Yom Kippur war not mentioned. War with Iran is forgone. Sanctions are bull shit. I hate politics, and ultimately America will turn back to Israel. But not in this crisis. W/out Israel we wouldn't exist. Our tie is heart 2 heart. The American people love & support Israel esp. evangelical Christians..period!