American support of Israel and Arab allies

Why doesn’t America pressure Israel to settle the conflict with Palestinians? American influence on Israel is as limited as its support: Israel won her wars without the U.S. assistance. America does not pressure Palestinians into the settlement with Israel, either. America is not bound with Israel by a special relationship and is as indecisive as any democracy. America twisted Israel’s arms and stopped Israeli war successes in 1956, 1967, and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, even forced from Israel a partial retreat never demanded from Arabs—yet shrieks when Israel overextends its influence.

American support of Israel is not exceptional. The United States gave France a billion dollars annually for the colonial conflict in Vietnam before getting directly involved there at much greater cost.[1] American stakes in the Middle East conflict are much higher, well hedged by supporting both Israel and various Arab states, particularly, Egypt, which receives only a little less aid than Israel, though no country threatens Egypt. Comparing the aid per head is wrong, since America pays for regional influence, irrelevant to Arab or Israeli population. The cost of weapons increases faster than the amount of aid to Israel, diminishing its importance. America even supports the Palestinian Liberation Organization, openly and vehemently anti-American and anti-Israeli, instead of suffocating it. Palestine gets $2 billion annually, 120% of its GDP. Israel’s special relationship with America is a delusion.

American military support to Israel is modest compared to what America gives Islamic countries—which received even more from the Soviet Union. The aid to Muslims should be counted combined, because their power is combined in conflicts with Israel. Saudi Arabia and Egypt routinely buy more American weapons than Israel, and China becomes an important and uncontrollable supplier of inexpensive arms to Islamic countries. Kuwait buys almost as much as Israel, and tiny Qatar sometimes even more. The United Arab Emirates, a country never threatened, bought a large number of F-16 attack jets superior to those of the USAF and Israel, uniquely equipped with a software code that lets them target United States or Israeli planes, and several Arab countries are expected to buy next-generation Joint Strike Force jets. The United States fought for Kuwait, something it did not do for Israel in 1973. America cooperated with the Iraqi military during the Reagan—pro-Israeli—years and gave Saddam the green light to use chemical weapons, unthinkable for Israel. American support for another Muslim state, Indonesia, far exceeds what it offers Israel in terms of atrocities tolerated. After liberating Kuwait, America did not ask it to sign a peace treaty with Israel or sell Israel oil to break Arab boycott of Israel. The U.S. supports Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, both bastions of radical Islam threatening Israel.