There is so much wrong with Timex’s posts and premise that it’s a daunting task to tackle head-on, but I’ll give it a feeble shot.
Despite all of the conspiracy theory crap, the reality of the situation is that Israel provides the US with a solid ally in an area of the world which is exceptionally important due to its oil reserves.
I’ll just take the GCC because I’m more familiar with the status of US military cooperation there.
Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, the hub for naval operations in the Gulf.
Dubai’s ports are the largest port of call for American Navy ships in the entire world outside of the US, 2,000 US forces are stationed in the UAE, Al Dhafrah air base provides the US with logistical support and facilities, the UAE has actually taken part directly in some way in US-led peace-keeping operations like in Kosovo, Somalia and has a small number of troops in Afghanistan as part of ISAF, and has the Joint Warfare Centre which allows the US to train regional allies to fly fighter jets.
Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar hosts 2,000 US military personnel in addition to another 1,500 elsewhere in Qatar, and the base is equipped to handle 200 warplanes. It is the main hub for all the US air operations in the region. They moved there after leaving the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia in 2003.
Saudi Arabia provided the US with overflight rights for the Iraq War.
Not to mention the fact that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are consistently in the top 5 countries for arms purchases in the developing world, with most of these procurements from the US. And they actually pay for most of these, they’re not under the auspices of free “military aid” that goes to Israel and Egypt.
Israel’s also the only democratic nation in the region. (one of two, if you count Turkey)
So are Kuwait and Lebanon (despite its faults). Bahrain is developing democratic institutions as well. Also since when is American support contingent on governance? You are overlooking decades of American intervention and support for dictatorial regimes, including going to war for them, and I don’t think I need to actually list that as part of the debate. Read a history book.
Not to mention as well America’s history in delegitimising the results of democratic elections as recently as 2005 after the Palestinian Authority’s legislative elections, without having to go back to the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in the 1950s. This democracy as a prerequisite thing is a total red herring.
I’d definitely prefer living there over living in most of the other nations in the region.
I’m not sure what metric you’re basing this on, which makes it harder to argue against. The UAE and Kuwait rank a little above Israel in this prosperity index based on economic, social, health, security and economic indicators:
http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx
Their lack of barbaric practices like stoning wins them some points in my book.
Stoning is not an Islamic practice, is not mentioned in the Qur’an, and virtually no Arab or Muslim country actually practices it, even if some countries still have it on their books as a relic. The exception is Saudi Arabia and possibly Iran (although they didn’t even have stoning as a punishment until 1983). Unless you’re lumping the Taliban and al Shabab in Somalia’s practices in with officially sanctioned stoning by Muslim countries.
Ultimately though, Israel provides the US with a presence in the region, and the importance of the region makes that valuable.
If that’s your metric for how valuable an ally is, the Gulf countries combined exceed whatever logistical support Israel gives the US without stonewalling the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, whose consistent failure is, by US acknowledgment, a threat to the national security of the United States. I’ve already outlined some of the support they provide to the US.
And this is without going into other things like intelligence cooperation provided directly by countries like Saudi Arabia that have prevented terrorist attacks (you have a case in point from three weeks ago with the cargo bomb plots), intelligence, economic and logistics cooperation that are allowing the latest round of UN and unilateral sanctions against Iran to actually have an effect. The UAE for instance is going to lose $4 billion in trade annually because of its compliance with sanctions against Iran, despite previously being one of Iran’s largest trading partners and having the second largest Iranian population outside the Islamic Republic after the US.
No it’s not. It’s a theocracy.
Having pretend elections doesn’t make you a democratic government.
Again, this is a red herring because the US doesn’t care what your form of government is.
Ignoring everything else, do you believe that if the US just turned its back on Israel, that any of the Islamic countries in the region would then look favorably upon the US? Because they wouldn’t. The US, totally aside from Israel, is the great Satan. Those people who hate you are going to hate you regardless of what you do. You can’t win them over. In all likelihood, they’d just see your actions as a sign of weakness, and hate you more.
I’m not sure where you’re getting this imaginary demand that Arab countries want the US to completely abandon Israel. First of all yes, American handling of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is the primary reason for negative sentiment towards the US, because it is seen as partial and unfair. I am pretty confident that most negative sentiments towards the US would disappear if it arbitrates a just solution to Israel-Palestine. But you also picture an Arab world that is decidedly anti-American and would throw tomatoes at you in the street if they find out you’re American, which is pathetically stupid.
But the Arab countries don’t even need that cooperation between America and Israel to end. Egypt and Jordan already have peace treaties with Israel and the Arab countries have offered normalisation and recognition of Israel if it returns to the 1967 borders. And in any case Israel maintains military superiority over Arab countries.
