Lives in Israel (1981–present) 6y
A few reasons.
- Six million Jews live in the United States. That’s the largest Jewish community outside Israel and they pack a wallop in financial, professional and political power in the USA.
- Christian Evangelicals. Even when the American Jews are pissed off at Israel, it’s “my country right or wrong” for Christian Evangelicals, and the USA has even more of them than it has Jews.
- Strategic. Israel is a land based carrier as far as the US is concerned. It is strategically located to provide logistic support to protect US oil interests in the Middle East AND shipping in the Suez Canal.
- Scientific exchange, information exchange - Israel is a hotbed of innovative ideas and the US benefits from that. Also Shin Bet and Mossad provide better intelligence than the CIA does.
- Cultural. Israel is seen as “us” compared to the Muslims of “them” in the Middle East. If the ME is cowboys and Indians, then Israelis are the cowboys and Muslims are the Indians. There is a gut level identification - which may be diminishing but is still strong and healthy in conservative circles.
- The sheer fricking ROMANCE of it all. Adventure, excitement, beating the odds, vicarious thrills as yet again Israel pulls off another stunt. It’s just plain fun to watch. You could watch Lebanon or Jordan for 50 years and not have as many stories to tell around the campfire as you get out of Israel in just one. The American Frontier is over. Israel provides a kind of vicarious frontier and many Americans just kinda dream about defending the settlement on camelback with an Uzi over one shoulder. Combination Indiana Jones and The Sheikh and Leon Uris’s “Exodus”.
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