There is no doubt that the single most important country to the United States in the Middle East is Israel. Without Israel we have no country in the region that we can truly rely on. Yes we have other "friends" in the region, those that we have "bought" with military assistance and favorable trade agreements, those that supply us with oil to supplement our own domestic production. But these are "fair weather" friends. I hate to say this, but they would turn on us on a dime. Despite our "friendly" relations with these countries now, we do have some major philosophical differences, namely in religion and our differing views on life in general! However, as long as they supply us with oil and buy our military equipment, we remain "friends."
That is not the case with Israel. Israel is much closer to us than we would like to admit. Yes, we are predominantly a Christian nation (for now!) and Israel's national religion is Judaism. But, we seem to possess many of the same beliefs and be in tune for most things in life. In short, we are a lot like the Israelis and they are like us in many ways as well! However, there are some major differences, mainly due to the different situations that we live under. Israel is under constant state of war. Even if there isn't an actual war taking place, there are terror attacks and killings taking place constantly. They live in a state of war and they, of all people, know their neighbors (Islamic nations) better than anyone else! They have to, because all of those countries surrounding Israel have openly sworn to destroy Israel, wipe it off the face of the earth!
Of course, there is no denying that Israel receives a huge amount of assistance, both economic and military, from us and it is arguable whether they could survive as a country without our help. But it works both ways. We are not giving Israel all that help just out of the goodness of our hearts, out of Christian charity, we give them aide in return for having their staunch support in the region.
The Israeli intelligence is vital to us. They have better access and better knowledge of their Arab neighbors than we could ever hope to have. It is because of Israel's superior intelligence and better disciplined military force that Israel is able to repeatedly defeat much larger Arab enemies time and time again. We have much to learn from Israel if we are to navigate successfully through Middle Eastern intrigues and politics and hope to be a major player in the region. We sought Israeli advice before the first Gulf War, but recently appear to have been ignoring their advice.
Our relationship with Israel have soured considerably in the last several years. Even prior to our recent nuclear deal with Iran, things were beginning to get very strained. It appeared to Israel (rightly or not) that we were favoring Arab nations on several issues that involved Arab-Israeli relations. There were even some murmurings from some that this administration was a sympathizer of Islam, especially after the first Iftar dinner at the White House! The Israelis questioned, "why is there now an annual Iftar dinner?" A good question. In case you are unfamiliar, Iftar is a dinner celebration that is held at the end of Ramadan, the Islamic fasting period. Whatever the case, Iftar or no Iftar, the Iran Nuclear Deal really caused some major cracks to appear.
Israel's eloquent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed before our congress and before his own nation, arguing against the Iran Nuclear Deal. He called it "the worst deal in history!" Our liberal media "poo-pooed" his words, called him a "hawk," a paranoid anti-Arab, and that he was only looking out for Israel. Some even said that it was nothing but a re-election ploy, that once he was re-elected, he would back off and agree with the nuclear deal. Well, he was re-elected and he hasn't backed-off. He has toned down his rhetoric somewhat, because things were getting too heated, but he is every bit against it as he was before. Naturally, he has the best interest of Israel, after all he is the Prime Minister of Israel! I would be very suspicious of a U.S President who does not have the interest of the U.S. first! But just because he is a patriot doesn't mean what he says does not make sense or does not apply to us. He is, by far, the most experienced of all the players involved in international affairs if you compare him with Obama, Biden, Kerry, and any of the others involved in pushing and negotiating the Iran Nuclear Deal.
Benjamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv of intellectual parents. His father was a history professor and his mother a scientist. He had three brothers, one older (Jonathan) and two younger. All brothers served in the Israeli Defense Force, all in the famous Sayaret Matkal, the Israeli Special Forces. Jonathan, the oldest, was a commander of Sayaret Matkal and died a hero in the famous Raid on Entebbe to rescue Israeli hostages from Arab terrorists. All brothers were highly educated. Benjamin received a Bachelors in Architecture and a Masters in Management from MIT. He went on to work on his Ph.D. in Political Science at Harvard, but his studies were interrupted when his older brother Jonathan was killed in Entebbe, so he returned to Israel.
He, like all his brothers served with Israeli Special Forces, in two wars, the 1967-70 War of Attrition and the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He was wounded several times and received medals for heroism. He knows what war is all about. This is what he said recently about his time with Sayaret Matkal: "I have great respect for the unit. This is a unit that changes the reality of our lives even though its actions are a secret. Although it is a small unit, it influences all branches of the military...My service in the unit strengthened my understanding of the risks involved behind approving operations and the risks that the fighters are taking on. It is tangible, not theoretical for me." The key is the last sentence. War and its effects are tangible to him, not theoretical! It seems to many of our leaders, war is theoretical, like some computer game!
Netanyahu's political experience in international relations are equally impressive. He served as Israel's Foreign Minister from 2002 to 2003 and again from 2012 to 2013. He was Israel's Prime Minister the first time from 1996 to 1999, then 2009 to 2015, re-elected in 2015 to present. He also served in a myriad of ministerial positions in Israeli government and was Israel's Deputy Chief of Mission to their embassy in Washington and later Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations. So, this is a man who has intimate knowledge of world politics, especially when it comes to dealing with his Arab neighbors. Of course he is disliked by the Arabs, that is because he knows them so well! Yet, our leaders, who have miniscule experience compared to his when dealing with Arabs, ignore his words and proceed full steam ahead like bulls in a china shop! Now, if that isn't arrogance, I guess it is just plain stupidity! None of our leaders have even a smidgen of knowledge of how the Islamic mind works. We have never been able to decipher the Middle Eastern mind, especially that of Iran with whom we have had problems since 1979! Israel, on the other hand, has intimate knowledge of Iranian psyche, their way of thinking and doing things. That is because before the fall of Shah in 1979, Israel was heavily involved in Iran in various industrial and military projects and many Israelis spent years living and working with Iranians!
So now we have become somewhat estranged with Israel. It is quite apparent by facial expressions and body languages of both Obama and Netanyahu that neither one cares for the other, only Putin possibly can generate a more negative reaction from Obama and visa versa! It is a pity, because at this time we desperately need all the help we can get in dealing with our problems in the Middle East. Yes, Israel is hated by all the Arabs, therefore, we need to walk a fine line if we want the Arab oil! But we've done it before, without causing a rift, why can't we do it now? Unless the current leadership does not want to, and thinks it knows all there is to know about the Middle East. Israel is still our best source of information and intelligence on Middle East, we can't afford to break that tie if we want to remain a major player in the region.
Benjamin Netanyahu, like many other Israelis, is unique in his knowledge of the Arabs. He has fought them in wars and he deals with them daily on the political scene. He knows Arabs like no one in our administration could possibly know. It is mind boggling to me why we don't take advantage of this resource and mine the knowledge that he has. We don't need to agree with him, but we sure could use his knowledge!
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