Why is it that the proponents of this argument never substantiate it with numbers?
How many troops are deployed to combat from Israel versus other bases in the region? What percentage of our supplies are stored in Israeli bases or pass through Israeli ports on their way to combat forces? Hell, how many airstrikes against Iran departed from Israel versus other locations (like literal aircraft carriers)?
I have a funny feeling that Israel’s military value to America is “impossible to quantify” because all efforts to do so have made it obvious that this relationship is a massive net loss for America.
Abourezk once traveled through the Middle East with a reporter who wrote honestly about what he saw. As a result, newspaper executives received threats from several of their large advertisers that their advertising would be terminated if they continued publishing the journalist’s articles.
“I can tell you from personal experience that, at least in the Congress, the support Israel has in that body is based completely on political fear — fear of defeat by anyone who does not do what Israel wants done. I can also tell you that very few members of Congress — at least when I served there — have any affection for Israel or for its Lobby. What they have is contempt, but it is silenced by fear of being found out exactly how they feel.
I’ve heard too many cloakroom conversations in which members of the Senate will voice their bitter feelings about how they’re pushed around by the Lobby to think otherwise. In private one hears the dislike of Israel and the tactics of the Lobby, but not one of them is willing to risk the Lobby’s animosity by making their feelings public.
Thus, I see no desire on the part of Members of Congress to further any U.S. imperial dreams by using Israel as their pit bull. The only exceptions to that rule are the feelings of Jewish members, who, I believe, are sincere in their efforts to keep U.S. money flowing to Israel.”
AIPAC Suppression Abourezk added that the Lobby made every effort to suppress even a single voice of congressional dissent – as his own – that might question annual appropriations to Israel, so that
“if Congress is completely silent on the issue, the press will have no one to quote, which effectively silences the press as well. Any journalists or editors who step out of line are quickly brought under control by well organized economic pressure against the newspaper caught sinning.”
Abourezk once traveled through the Middle East with a reporter who wrote honestly about what he saw. As a result, newspaper executives received threats from several of their large advertisers that their advertising would be terminated if they continued publishing the journalist’s articles.
I mean, there was the Levon Affair, where in the 1950s Israel planned to blow up British and American civilians in a false flag… Then there was the Numec Affair… Where they stole Uranium from America to start their weapons nuclear program, and the USS Liberty incident, where they killed 34 Americans and wounded 170 others… That’s not even getting into their infiltration of the American governments (to the point of getting in reach of most politicians and Presidents)… And operations on American soil.
Anyone thinking Israel is some defensive tool for America has things backwards. Israel is a foreign state actor who has taken influence over large parts of American policies and regional power… And if China becomes the world’s super power, Israel will try the same moves there.
This is the “anyone but us” mentality they’re now known for… And they think it’s great, which is why the country is mostly right wing. That and conspiracy theories about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. (carried out by rightists, but conspiracy theories largely blame the left).