by Taylor Huffman

Created on: December 30, 2006   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

The nature of our relationship with Israel is convoluted at best. Theories fly like mad in relation to this alliance, with many holding the belief that the Jewish lobbying force in the United States is responsible for our strong tie to the Israeli state.

The pros and cons of this alliance are of equal weight. It is, therefore, difficult to pinpoint a particular base reason as to why we continue to back Israel. Unless we were to invite an earnest member of the government into our forum of discussion, it is rather impossible to get an inside scoop, and regardless of the opinions we would like to send floating around, it is nearly impossible to fully grasp and accurately locate the reasoning behind our steadfast support.

What we can do, however, is examine the history of our connection with Israel, and attempt to understand the possible benefits that could stem from our governments continued zeal for Israeli friendship.

Our ties with Israel begin with our sympathetic attitude toward the creation of the Israeli state following the Jewish genocide in the early to mid 1940's. As a matter of fact, our nation, under Truman, was the first to officially announce recognition of the Israeli nation.

In addition, the Israeli state has since been seen as advantageous in our struggle to befriend the Middle East. While many argue that our presence in the Middle East is harmed by Jewish-American relations, the government has constantly cited "improving Middle Eastern conditions" as a reason for their support of the nation. The theory behind this is that by befriending a militarily strong democracy in the region (Israel) we stand to gain a large amount of stability in a topsy-turvy realm.

The premise of Middle Eastern benefit is quite debatable, and has been proved and disproved by those who seek to further their agendas time and time again. While it is quite clear that our ties with the Israelis have angered the majority Muslim public of the Middle East, it is also quite arguable that the Middle Eastern nations would display hostility toward us even without our support of the Jews, and thus it is favorable to have a strong military ally in the region.

Whatever your opinion may be, it is quite hard to fathom an end to Israeli support, as it has been an American governmental tradition since Truman's era.

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