What's Good For Israel is Good For America?

Why does America have to care? Why can't we contend with all the bad things that we have going on at home before we rush off to play Mighty Morphin Power Ranger in every situation around the globe? Why do we have to keep getting dragged into the middle of something that's none of our business anyway? Why does America always have to have all the answers for these "sovereign nations" when we still have unanswered questions at home?

Sean-Paul,
Great questions. Thomas Friedman was on Meet the Press today. He has almost 30 years of relationships in the Middle East. He understands the details of the culture where as most Americans we only see Jews against Towel Heads. Not to be cold or rude but I have heard it referred to as that simple.
Thomas Friedman understands the path that could be walked thru the dessert to finding a lasting peace. I think he would make a perfect choice for Special Envoy to the MidEast.

We used the logic "what is good for Iraq is good for the US" and look how well that worked.

I think Israel has made a huge mistake in attacking Lebanon - it should learn to work with the democracies around it as the first line of "attack" instead of just attacking.

Ruining Lebanon's infrastructure is only destabilizing the region more and hurting American interests there in the long run - not that it should be about American interests - I think we generally ought to stay the hell out of there and let people in the Middle East run their own countries.

The US is clearly a partner in evil. But what I can't understand is why that would be good for America or American interests in the region.

Safi, Americans tend to believe muslims in the Middle East hate them. They fear that these people have no heart.

well you did open a can of worm..
stephanie know it all israel was attacked first..
israel is very important to the us as the other democracies in the area do not exist or are pseudo..
that is the number one reason..
not everything has to make someone look good !
no everything is about how you appear, somethings are about what kind of society you want to see,
fanatic extreme moslems that kill eachother by the dozen (see iraq) send safi to iraq since she feels evil is done by the us, i don't see why she is wasting her time here..
israel is the only sane society around there adn yes it is sane to destroy rocket launching pads.
war looks bad and is bad but sometimes you have no other choice, and i think the us would prefer to see a middle east with a democracy , one at least, then all extreme moslem, israel is on the edge of the abyss, between the modern world and going back to the days of the prophet Mouhamad..so you make your choice, it is you funeral or your party, whatever..america has a choice at least

Very good questions here.....and I have the answer for none of them. Confused, saddened, and angry is all I'm feeling these days about the whole situation.

Israel committed a massive error attacking lebanon. It was on it's way to becoming the most pro-western democracy in the region and would have possible ended up being Israel's best ally. That is highly unlikely now. This will breed more hatred of the Israelis.
As for it benefiting america quite the opposite. Even Egypt refused to host the US Secretary of State for fear of reprisals but the population that is why they all met in Rome. The US interests in the region are now in total danger... They US is now the last person anyone there would trust. The US helped France set up this new democracy in Lebanon and when Lebanon asked for help the US said no and put Israel above the newly formed arab democracy. The Lebanese govt was very good about not attacking Israel outright and it would not have inflicted all that much damage. Now the new govt is crippled and anti-US sentiment is at an all time high in Lebanon and the region and the hatred of Israel is growing faster than is known with the recent israeli agression against civilians. NOT One govt would have had a problem with israel going after Hizbollah but destroying Lebanon's infrastructure, civlian lives and the crippling of the new govt... well that the world is outraged and Israel will be held accountable for it and they may not even be aware yet.
As for the US ... the present govt bears much responsibility in the situation and is actually hurting Israel more by not stopping the country.. the US is no longer any type of broker for peace and the middle east will not trust the US for a long time to come....

"stephanie know it all israel was attacked first.."

CHILDISH is how I would respond to this line of reasoning.

"MAAAA!!! He hit me first!!!!"

Well, you know what? Even if your brother hit you first, your mother would still ground you if you retaliated against him, especially if the retaliation was way out of proportion to the original smack.

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Well said Sean Paul!

'How has the current war/conflict between Hezbollah and Israel benefit our interests in Lebanon and in Lebanon's fragile democracy? How have the actions of Israel made us look better and stonger in the region? How has Israel's actions served our stated aim towards transforming the region into stable democracies, a region of peace and stability?

Anyone?'

Well first one must wait the three generations and the change of all the religions in the area then adress that question again.

The current administration seems to be interested in peace only after a mortal wound is inflicted to Hezbollah and they can live with all of the collateral damage. I bet Colin Powell is glad he is no longer associated with this administrations mess.

Wait. Wait. I know. I know. You see it be like this.

You see all the dust and debris from all the bombing???
It mixes in with the noise??? and that magic mahem dust in turn creates a kind of Arab mind numbing pixie dust that kinda acts like fire water did on the indians only it makes them L O V E E V E R Y B O D Y... to include the allies of the folks who just wholesale killed their Arab babies in self defense.

The only thing you have to do is really, really, really, believe in fairies, their dust, and Rupert Murdock. And abra cadabra please and thank you... dumb ass murderous foolishness benefits our efforts in The Middle East, improves our already demonized image, makes our homes safer (cuz now everybody loves us) and miraculously brings democracy, and secular values to a billion essentially theocratically set minds.

YOU DIG?

No one really has answered, other than to say things like "Israel has made a mistake" and "Hizbollah is in the wrong".

To anwer your question, let me first set up an analogous situation. We have a "special" relationship with the UK that goes beyond a common language. However, the UK is a sovereign nation and runs its foreign policy as it sees fit. When the UK entered into a conflict in the Falkland Islands, we didn't publicly castigate the British government, or have lots of hand-wringing about whether or not the UK should be our "friend" anymore. You can bet there was a lot of backchannel discussions between Washington and London just the same. But, as you do with "family" you don't air your dirty laundry in public.

Fast forward to here and now. Israel is a western-style democracy in an area controlled by totalitarian, autocratic or religio-fascist regimes. Israelis have a very high level of education, freedom, quality of life and the other benefits of this style of government.

We all know that there is strife in that region, and we all know that Israel was in the process of withdrawing to its pre-1967 borders to give a Palistinean state a chance.

Hizbollah took advantage of the lull in violence to forment another conflict. Why? Martinchill would say one thing, and Greg Shiller another.

Just the same, the fact that Israel is in a conflict with Hizbollah doesn't mean that they aren't the most US-like country in that region. Sean Paul's point about their fragile democracy is spot on. This is a tragedy for Lebanon. However, it wasn't Israel's responsibility to enforce UN Resolution 1559 getting Hizbollah and Syria out of Lebanon. It was the UN's responsibility. The World took its eye off the ball and Lebanon suffers as a result.

The real evil here is terrorism without political process. Don't you think that Israel would have like to have had normal relations with Lebanon? Don't you think that a country fighting an internal battle with Palistinians would have preferred to emerging peace to continue?

We have a US government that is hyper-focused on the problem of "terrorism" and that seems to be the driving force here. In addition to our "special" relationship with the only other Western democracy in the region, Israel is also hyper-focused on terrorism.

If we can figure out how to obtain peace in that region, our focus should be on providing education, heathcare and assistance with economic growth in that region. Whatever you think of Israel in this current conflict, Israel is ideally suited to helping jumpstart all three of these things.

So how is this good for America, Eric? Dig. I truly think that the Zionists are losing their minds. If they wanted to use negotiations they could have. They're holding 9000 folks without a trial. Two of their MASAD agents were recently busted inside Lebanon and convicted of murdering several Lebanese. Pride cometh before a fall. If you really love the Zionist state, the Jewish people should start calling a spade a spade and stop making up excuses for these crazy people. They could have defused this thing by setting free some of those thousands of folks they kidnapped. Instead they tried to cross over into Lebanon and fight heads up with the Lebanese resistance movement, and got gaffed. Then they went freaking crazy and declared war on Lebanon. It was a hysterical reaction done out of pure frustration. How can you keep making excuses for this crazy stupidity which is bad for we the people of Israel and America.

Abu, you make so many factual errors in your one paragraph, I don't even know where to start. Rather than argue with you, which I'd like to do, I'll answer your first question, simply.

Other than recoiling in horror from the loss of life, this doesn't have much to do with America. This is an Israeli conflict with Hizbollah (not the Lebonese resistance movement which you made up).

Hizbollah was ordered to disarm in 2002 when Syria was ordered out of Lebanon. If they had done so, I doubt there would be bloodshed in Lebanon today.

Hell, it has a lot to do with America. We give those Zionist murders enough money and arms to be the fourth strongest military power on earth. And they've proved they are not going to just use their kill toys in a defensive posture. That's our money they're using, our media their corrupting, our foreign policy they're deforming. Hizbollah was ordered to disarm. How many UN orders have The Zionists refused to obey? How many of them have affected Lebanon particularly and The Lebanese resistance movement, which is stronger than damned Lebanese government, exclusively.