# Why/what is the relationship between Israel and the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 17, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201 "2008-11-17T23:19:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/21 "2008-11-18T12:28:40Z")
I remember during the 1973 oil embargo, when given the choice of oil or Israel, many European countries chose oil. The USA was not so heavily dependent on Arab oil at the time. The USA did not provide a large amount of aid to Israel before 1974. The Arabs have also waged an effective public relations campaign on the plight of Palestinian refugees, while the world has largely forgotten the similar number of Jews that were expelled from Arab lands after 1948. After World War II, antisemitism became increasingly socially unacceptable in the USA. Israel was also widely admired for their performance in the 1967 war. > **[History & Overview of U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-u-s-foreign-aid-to-israel)** > > Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism. > **[Total U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel (1949-Present)](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/total-u-s-foreign-aid-to-israel-1949-present)** > > Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/22 "2008-11-18T13:29:49Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Flip the question around. Why is your country’s attitude toward Israel more critical than the general US attitude? [broad brush] This is mostly a feeling - I haven’t looked closely into the history of the Dutch or the US politics regarding Israel - but IMHO quite a lot of Dutch politicians aren’t hesitant to condemn actions that they see as disproportionate or destabalizing and that doing so is much more acceptable over here than in the US. It could just be because we’ve got a wider spectrum of political parties while it seems that the big two US parties have about the same message wrt Israel. Another reason may be that over here anything that looks like military action is regarded with a lot of suspicion (regardless of who’s doing it, and even though we’ve got troops in Afghanistan). Americans appear to be more accepting of the use of military force. Maybe Americans are just realists and we’re a small well-protected country that can afford to be naive, or maybe we’re justifiably cautious and the Americans are trigger-happy cowboys. I’m sure I can find people to defend either interpretation and quite a few somewhere in between 😃 [/broad brush] ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/23 "2008-11-18T14:15:13Z")
> [@mks57](#): > > I remember during the 1973 oil embargo, when given the choice of oil or Israel, many European countries chose oil. The USA was not so heavily dependent on Arab oil at the time. The USA did not provide a large amount of aid to Israel before 1974. > > The Arabs have also waged an effective public relations campaign on the plight of Palestinian refugees, while the world has largely forgotten the similar number of Jews that were expelled from Arab lands after 1948. > > After World War II, antisemitism became increasingly socially unacceptable in the USA. Israel was also widely admired for their performance in the 1967 war. > > [History & Overview of U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel | Jewish Virtual Library](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/foreign_aid.html) > > [Total U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel (1949-Present) | Jewish Virtual Library](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/U.S._Assistance_to_Israel1.html) Arabphobia is alive and well in the US I see. I also take the admiration also tried to remember that most of the Egyptian Army and Airfoce was in Yemen in 1967? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/24 "2008-11-18T15:34:08Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Arabphobia is alive and well in the US I see. I also take the admiration also tried to remember that most of the Egyptian Army and Airfoce was in Yemen in 1967? I’d like a cite for that, please. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/25 "2008-11-18T15:35:18Z")
I see some general discussion of lobbying, but no specific mention of the powerful lobbying group [AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIPAC) , which targets politicians who vote against Israel’s interests. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/26 "2008-11-18T15:48:59Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Israeli culture is far more similar and familiar to Americans than that of most Arab nations. Certainly, Israel falls short of its ideals in any number of ways, but its aspirations to constitutional democracy, equality of the sexes, and freedom of the press are notions to which Americans tend to be very responsive. > \ > Flip the question around. Why is your country’s attitude toward Israel more critical than the general US attitude? Equality of the sexes is not viewed quite the same way in Israel as it is here; women earn even less relative to men than they do in the US, and the orthodox element of the Israeli government ensures that marriage (and divorce) laws are significantly more restrictive, though generally only toward women. Obviously, Israel is about a million miles ahead of most of the Arab states in this regard, though. It would be fair to say that the press in almost every other developed nation tends to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian side than the US media… which suggests that if a bias exists, it exists here rather than elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/27 "2008-11-18T16:10:18Z")
Suggests, not proves, and even that barely. If by develped nations you mean the EU, I don’t see why 500 million people have a much greater probability of being right than 300 million. Not to mention that Europeans have their own, personal reasons for preferring the Arab side of the conflict ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/28 "2008-11-18T16:19:24Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Not to mention that Europeans have their own, personal reasons for preferring the Arab side of the conflict Don’t leave us hanging… 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/29 "2008-11-18T16:52:51Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Suggests, not proves, and even that barely. If by develped nations you mean the EU, I don’t see why 500 million people have a much greater probability of being right than 300 million. Not to mention that Europeans have their own, personal reasons for preferring the Arab side of the conflict Also Japan, China, Russia and so on. I’m not saying that the Palestinians are right, just that US media coverage skews toward Israel much more than anyone else’s. > [@](#): > > Don’t leave us hanging… Oil. For all the blather about US dependence on foreign oil, we import a lot less Arab oil than the EU. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/30 "2008-11-18T17:10:04Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’d like a cite for that, please. For starters > **[Intelligence During the Six-Day War (1967) | Jewish Virtual Library](https://jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/intel67.html)** > [@](#): > > The Egyptians had large numbers of forces tied down in Yemen backing the anti-Saudi, anti-royalist forces there I have a lot of materials on the Arab-israeli wars, unfortunatly its back home at the moment. Suffice to say, Israels victory was due to superior strategic thinking, using the weakness of the Egyptian military at that time to davestating advantage, Unfortunate part for Israel was that they began to believe their own propaganda, and that led to the near disaster of '73, the one man who _did’nt_ beleive was Sharon, and he was ridiculed. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/31 "2008-11-18T17:20:43Z")
I would add that Israel is a Western country-in outlook, custom, and has a legal system similar to the USA/Western Europe. In contrast, the arab world has a theocratic outlook on government-and in most arab countries, the role of islam is very central to the government. take Egypt-it has a constitution that guarantees freedom of religion-but Christians and Jjews in Egypt must be very careful-Christian churches are regularly attacked, and Christians and Jews face all kinds of persecutions. Israel has come to serve as a l “lightning rod” for arab politicians-with so much corruption and inequity at home, it is tempting to blame it all on “the Zionist entity”. If israel didn’t exist, the arab world would have to invent it! ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/32 "2008-11-18T17:49:49Z")
^ And two of Egypts three army commanders in the '73 war were Christian. While for most of their history Israel’s Arab and muslim communities have been living under martial law. And in the west you have had a presidential candidate having to vehemently deny that he is muslim, like he has to deny he has leprosy. Pakistan has had two non-muslims as its Chief Justice.Iran has had an air force chief. Name one western country, never mind Israel who has had anything similar. Obama is half white last I checked. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/33 "2008-11-18T17:52:38Z")
And while we are at it, Egypts legal system is based mostly on the French code (as is Syrias) and Iraqs and Jordans. Pakistan is a common law country as is Bangladesh and Malaysia. Israel has way more religious law than the others, though I would find it hard to describe the system as anything, being a confusing salad of English Common law, Jewish law and civil code thrown in. Perhaps people should read more before they make ignorant comments. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/34 "2008-11-18T17:55:04Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > For starters > [Intelligence During the Six-Day War (1967) | Jewish Virtual Library](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/intel67.html) > > I have a lot of materials on the Arab-israeli wars, unfortunatly its back home at the moment. Suffice to say, Israels victory was due to superior strategic thinking, using the weakness of the Egyptian military at that time to davestating advantage, Unfortunate part for Israel was that they began to believe their own propaganda, and that led to the near disaster of '73, the one man who _did’nt_ beleive was Sharon, and he was ridiculed. From your own quote: > [@](#): > > By May 19 the Egyptians had deployed six divisions in the Sinai. Israeli Intelligence chief Meir Amit “proposed that Israel publish abroad aerial reconnaissance photographs of the massive Egyptian deployment…” with the idea of justifying Israel’s mobilization of her reserves, which had begun on May 16. However, the Israeli leadership rejected the suggestion. > > On May 20 Israeli Intelligence learned that Nasser had recalled three Egyptian brigades from Yemen. This was ominous. The same day Egyptian forces took over Sharm El-Sheik, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. At midnight on May 22 Nasser announced the closure of the Straits of Tiran, at the entrance of the Gulf of Aqaba, thus closing off Israel’s only shipping route through the Red Sea. This was a clear causus belli, which had been understood since 1956 - Israel’s shipping routes through the Red Sea would not be impeded. Basically, Israel was surprised that several weeks before the war, Egypt had large numbers of forces (although I don’t know how much “large numbers” means - 50% of their armed forces? 25%? 10%?) in Yemen, although that doesn’t tell us much - Egypt, a country with ten times Israel’s population, had a pretty massive military. And your cite says nothing about its air force, which would have had no reason to be stationed in Yemen, right across the Red Sea - what would have been the point of that. I’ll admit, though, that the Arab armies were not as tough as they thought they were (with the exception of the Jordanians, who kicked ass), and that Israel took an excellent plan and executed it perfectly. That’s why I think 1973 was a much greater Israeli victory - Egypt and Syria were much better trained and equipped and had the initiative, and yet we \*still \*won. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/35 "2008-11-18T18:02:54Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Israel has way more religious law than the others, though I would find it hard to describe the system as anything, being a confusing salad of English Common law, Jewish law and civil code thrown in. Perhaps people should read more before they make ignorant comments. Israel’s legal system is effectively based on common law. Religious (ie., Jewish) law really only exists in a family law setting. If anything, Israel’s legal system is quite similar to Britain’s; rather than a codified Constitution, it is based on a few written documents (such as the declaration of independence, the Basic Laws of Human Dignity and Freedom of Occupation) and (unwritten) basic principles similar to those observed in the West- equality, liberty, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/36 "2008-11-18T18:12:21Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Don’t leave us hanging… 😕 Off the top of my head? 1. Post-Colonial Guilt - many Europeans feel a great deal of justified guilt for their nations’ actions overseas in the 19th and 20th Centuries. It’s natural for them to project this guilt on Israel, which they see - erroneously, IMHO, as its circumstances are considerably different - as either a colony or a colonial nation, or both. In other words, they think they see themselves when they look at Israel, and they don’t like what they see. 2. Marxism - Marxism and Communism have always had a much stronger presence in Europe than in the U.S. Their glory days are over, but they still permeate academia, the political establishment and the press. As Israel fell on the anti-Soviet side of the fence of the Cold war - and as Marxists tend to believe that the underdog is always in the right - European leftists tend to nudge their nations away from Israel. 3. Europe has always had much closes ties to the Muslim world than the U.S., both as a result of their colonial history, their trade relations with the Middle East, and the fact that Europe has a proportionally larger Muslim population. This tends to affect their viewpoint, much as America’s large and influential Jewish population influences its. 4. Anti-Americanism - for some reason, virtually every anti-American in the world is also anti-Israeli; it’s sort of a package deal. European attitudes toward the U.S. are mixed, to say the least, and have taken a tumble over the past decade or so. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/37 "2008-11-18T18:22:58Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Israel’s legal system is effectively based on common law. Religious (ie., Jewish) law really only exists in a family law setting. > > If anything, Israel’s legal system is quite similar to Britain’s; rather than a codified Constitution, it is based on a few written documents (such as the declaration of independence, the Basic Laws of Human Dignity and Freedom of Occupation) and (unwritten) basic principles similar to those observed in the West- equality, liberty, and so on. Until the 70’s or 80’s when the Israeli made several changes it was essentially a common law system, its now more akin to a civil law system than a common law one. And now its time for my rant “There is no such thing as the British Legal System, the UK has three different judistrictions, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, each are rather different from each other, Scottish law especially. And the UK dose have a written constitution; its called the Acts of Union 1707 and 1801 as amended by the Gov of Ireland Act 1921, the Northern Ireland Act 1998, the Scotland Act 1998 and the Wales Act 1998"” End of rant. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/38 "2008-11-18T19:17:20Z")
Israeli history also fits into the Horatio Alger mythos that has historically pushed Americans’ buttons (poor orphan succeeds through hard work). Additionally, America’s Jewish population has a much higher presence in our popular culture than does our Arab population, and has for decades. (I suspect that the reverse may be true in Western Europe). NYC-centric inustries like publishing, theater, and early TV have reflected a lot of Jewish culture. Jews have been sports heroes since the 1930s. The WWII-movie melting-pot cliche was an Army unit with an Italian guy, an Irish guy, a Jewish guy, and a midwestern farm boy. Frank Sinatra had a Jewish guy in the Rat Pack. Simply put, I think it’s common for Americans to feel like they know Jewish people, while Arabs are relative strangers. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2008, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/39 "2008-11-18T20:12:07Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > The fundamentalist church that I attended in my youth preached clearly that while Christ died for our sins, the Jews were \*still \*God’s _chosen people_, and they who opposed the Jews would be condemned by God. I cannot state as a fact that other churches teach this, but I would be surprised if many do not. > > If I am not mistaken, even Chick mentions this in one of his tracts. > > So I suspect that many Christians back the alliance. (I’m reluctant to research that last statement.) OK, I was bored so I did find a Chick tract: [God Loves The Jewish people](http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1000/1000_01.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201/40 "2008-11-19T01:45:23Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Egypt is the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid after Israel Isn’t this largely a result of the Camp David peace accord, and thus in effect a concession to Israel? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-what-is-the-relationship-between-israel-and-the-us/473201.md?page=3)