There has been no shortage of critical
articles and blog posts from the Right, condemning the Obama administration’s shameful betrayal of Israel at the United Nations—followed by John Kerry’s equally shameful farewell speech. And I agree with all of them. But I think it
important to briefly lay out why it is so important for America to stand
strongly with Israel, from both a strategic and idealistic viewpoint.
From a strategic (or realist) point of
view, the arguments are simple. The simple fact is that Israel is the only
stable democracy in the Middle East, which makes it the only country in the
region generally favorable to American interests. The importance of such an
alliance cannot be overstated. One hardly needs to be reminded about the number
of threats to American interests currently lurking in the region, from Iran to
ISIS to al-Qaeda and a variety of other groups dedicated to radical Islamic
terrorism. (And, Israel is one of only a few world powers to—allegedly—possess
nuclear weapons.)
Israel is the only nation in the region
that shares the same goals as the United States, primarily because all of those
actors hate Israel almost as much as they hate us. A relatively stable island
of democracy and Western values in what for centuries has been a sea of wars,
coups, and general turmoil, Israel serves as a beacon of peace and promise for
the Middle East.
Which leads to the idealist’s reasons
for steadfast support of Israel. Having a stable democratic partner in the
Middle East is not only good for American interests, it is good for humanity’s
interests. Just as America has become, as Ronald Reagan famously put it, “a
shining city on a hill”, so too Israel has the potential to become, and indeed
is already becoming, a shining city and a model for the rest of the Middle
East.
Most of the Middle East would vehemently
deny that, of course. But over the past several years, as the rise of ISIS and
the prospect of a nuclear Iran has rattled Israeli and Muslim governments
alike, nations that once refused to recognize Israel’s very right to exist have
begun reaching out—most notably Saudi Arabia. Israel’s willingness to engage
with former adversaries has won it points with many of those same countries,
and its political stability has likewise earned respect from those who assumed
the tiny state would be quickly swallowed up by its many Arab neighbors soon
after its founding.
At the heart of the matter is the fact
that for many Americans, the story of Israel is also the story of the United
States. We may have played no formal role in the founding of Israel as a
nation, but many American Jews did—and they brought with them the ideals of
freedom and democracy that have made this country so great. We inherited many
ideas from Great Britain, our parent country, and adapted them. Through some of
the many people who made the modern state of Israel a reality, we passed on
those same ideas.
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