The UN endorsed Israel in 1947 for the same reasons it supports the Palestinians now: basic human decency and containment of the spiraling conflict (in 1947, of Israel with Britain). A body so unnatural and so impractical as the UN can legitimize itself only by moralistic notions. The UN could not explicitly disregard the Jews after the Holocaust and the Palestinians after decades of ostensible dispossession. Jewish fighters in 1930-40s and Palestinian fighters now make the status quo untenable for regional arbiters.

America could not treat the Jews worse than did the Soviet Union. Since the USSR accepted the establishment of Israel, the US could not refuse.

The American support for establishing Israel was rational, not in the narrow sense of serving immediate US interests but in the wider sense of conforming to the ideology which underpins America’s international position. America props its global role with credible claims of idealism, freedom, and national self-determination, and could not vote against establishing Israel. The US voted for the sovereignty of scores of other countries, even tribal entities, and its vote for Israel in 1947 proves no special relationship with Israel.

The US did not help Israel in the exhausting Independence War but rather embargoed arms shipments to Israel. When Israeli militia pushed the Arab troops out of Israel, the US forced a ceasefire which left Israel with indefensible borders. America wasn’t alone: Great Britain offered to “defend” Egypt against the newborn Israel.

In 1956, Israel moved against Egypt to halt incessant border provocations and a discriminatory ban on Israeli shipping through the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran. The US stopped Israel even though she acted in compliance with international practice. American support for Egypt was unrelated to colonialist issues: America supported colonialist France against nationalist Vietnam. Egypt, moreover, was a communist country. America had no interests in Egypt.

One reason for the US action in 1956 was insult: Israel, France and Britain moved without consulting the world’s hegemon. The other, fundamental in relations with Israel, is built-in anti-semitism. Jews must be content with a ghetto-sized country and ghetto “security.” To drive the lesson home, the US sent a warship with nuclear missiles to the Mediterranean. Truman balked at using nuclear weapons in Korea; to nuke Israeli troops in the Sinai was okay.

In 1967, America twisted Israel’s arms to keep her from preemption. And why not? Had the Muslims backed away, US restraint would be vindicated. Had they not, the mistake would affect only Jews.

After Israel proved herself strong in 1967, the US used her to counter Soviet expansion in the Middle East. The rapprochement was not exceptional. America supported scores of countries in peripheral wars against the Soviets. US support of Israel wasn’t significant. America guaranteed Japanese security, spent a fortune to protect Western Europe against the Soviet threat, fought a meaningless war in Vietnam, and liberated monarchist Kuwait. The Soviet Union provided its vassals with more funding, weapons, and political support than Israel received from the US.

Radical Americans decry the Jewish lobby which promotes American interests in Israel. We do not need the US aid-for-sovereignty program, and we do not need the lobby.