Reply #29: Ironically, should we attack and Israel have the good sense to keep [View All]

[RaleighNCDUer]

out of it, it could be the saving of Israel. To much of the Arab world, Israel is not hated for being Jewish nearly so much as for being a proxy American colony. For all the undue influence of AIPAC on American politics, there is an equally undue influence by radical Americans on Israeli politics. A huge proportion of the illegal settlers are American emigrants. If Israel should put the brakes on the radicals and prove that they are not just an American colony it could change the entire conversation.

I've sometimes wondered if that was a motivation for the attack on the US spy ship in '67 - to show the Arab nations they were in conflict with that they were not fighting at the behest of the US. Realpolitik at its worst, yes, but it was only a few years later that the lasting peace between Egypt and Israel was brokered, and the US was seen as an impartial agent, and I think the Liberty incident had a lot to do with it.

So maybe they will keep out of it. We can hope.