Yeah, I've never quite understood the US's backing over Israel no matter what they have done
In my mind, the short version is because it is in your interests to do so. This was clear during the Cold War when many of the arab states were aligned with the Soviet Union. But the area is still very important, much because of it's energy reserves, and Israel is militarily preponderant there. And, thanks in part to their extensive lead and part to their robust domestic arms industry, this is not likely to change in the short term, even if all US aid to Israel was cut effective immediately.
Here are 3 real reasons why:
1) Jews are a serious voting block with serious campaign finance allocations
Add to that the lobbying power of the armaments industry, which has an interest in continuing the flow of military materiel to Israel and other US allies in the Middle East.
2) Jews are considered by christians to be "people of the book", whereas muslims are not (which is ironic because "people of the book" is a muslim name for Christians and Jews), and they are therefore better guardians of the holy land in the christian mind, which means that most Christians back Israel as well.
Quite possibly, though I believe there are sufficient realpolitik reasons at play to make this point rather insignificant.
3) Israel represents the single most important military assets that America has in the Middle East. It's like the biggest and most powerful military base in the world, and we have a lot of influence over it. Obviously this has negative reppurcussions (which then help justify it's own existence.)
Yes. Israel possesses military superiority over any potential grouping of arab states that might conceivably pose a threat, which is of major significance given the importance of the region. I'll list some other contributing factors:
- Isreali success at suppressing radicals in neighbouring areas (Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan)
- Mossad is one of the most effective intelligence organisations, and has co-operated with american intelligence agencies
- Israel has proved to be a useful proxy through which to funnel US military materiel to groups that are too politically unpalatable for direct US assistance (Iran-Contra affair, Guatemala military junta, apartheid South Africa)
