Israel Q & A

Former Member

CptCoatHanger wrote:

What is the relationship between America and Israel? America, when mentioned, seem to be on the side of the Israelis in the current conflict. Is it ostensibly because of both countires facing terrorist threats?

Again depends who you ask:

1) Until relatively recently Israel was the only democratic state in the Middle East

2) After the Pogroms of Jews in the late nineteenth century a lot fled to the US, Western Europe and Israel - after 1945 the main concentrations were in the US and Israel, many of whom were related to each other or to people who died in the holocaust.

3) Legacy of the cold war - the US supported Israel and the USSR supported Syria and Egypt (Jordan was probably the most pro-West of the border Arab states and there is some evidence that it was a pretty reluctant partner in the Arab-Israeli wars and only did so because if it didn't show unity with its Arab brothers it risked domestic unrest)

4) Oil - never actually been convinced by this one as the states next to Israel aren't big oil producers, but I throw it anyway.

Its probably not because they both face a terrorist threat as a lot of the historical terrorist threat the US faced was due to its support for Israel.

Former Member

Has anyone got an answer for my question on the roots of hezbollah?

Former Member

turlough wrote:

Nope, they've been bum chums since the creation of Israel. America was a leading player in it's creation.

I think it's because there's an incredibly powerful Jewish Lobby in the Whitehouse, there are quite a few Jews high up in the current administration. Wolfowitz being the main one.

Actually America's involvement has been pretty restricted up until '73, and can't be said to have been a significntly important factor when talking about the creation of the state.

Main reasons for the link between Israel and America is due to the American christian movement and their hebraic link, high electoral participation in the states by the Jews, America being part of the allied forces under ww2 and the Jews being a main target of the nazis which the allied forces fought created a connection, as well as stately features which the US could relate to as "defenders of democracy".
Furthermore, the support increased under the Cold War (as said, post '73 is when proper support can be traced back to) when America and Russia tried to top each other in their support for the the Israelis and Arabs respectively.

Former Member

Again, i really appreciate the time everyone has taken to explain things. I think with everyone's suggestions it's fairly clear to see why America has taken its current stance.

Former Member

I just wanted to clear up the "arab israeli" thing - basically there are both Jews and Arabs living within what is defined as Israel (excluding the occupied territories). Whilst Israel is a Jewish state it does not necessarily have a hemogeonous Jewish population there are towns and area's of towns where arabs are the majority population. Some of these Arabs identify themselves as palestinan but others do not. There are also beduine populations these are people who have traditionally lead a nomatic lifestyle and do not necessarily consider themselves to be either palistinian or in some case's arab and are not always necessarily sympathtic to the palestinan cause and many serve alongside the IDF. Also not all arabs living within israel/palestine are Muslim there is a significanly large majority who are Christian or similar (I'm thinking the Druze and Samaritans).

For palestinian arab's living with Israel their movements are very restricted - they have to apply for permission to do loads of normal thingst that a jewish israeli would be allowed to do freely - such as move around the country or I think buy property - I cant' exctly remember what they all are but there is one building in Jerusalem where they have to go to apply for permission and its a complete mad house of a place.

Lastly the israeli government is facing a bit of a problem because the population increase amongst non-jews is much higher than it is amongst the Jewish population (who tend to have fewer children). That means in the not tooo distant future Jewish people could well a minority within Israel.