The Iconoclastic Society
"If there were not an Israel, we would have to invent one"
— Joe Biden (46th US President)
It is the summer of 1948, your grandpa in his teens turns on the radio —
"Arab states declare war on Israel"
Now, it is the fall of 2023, you take out your phone to scroll a few reels —
"Israel declares war on Gaza with a blockade from land, air and the seas"
They sound quite similar, right? The conflict is generational. Its genesis spans back to the age of our forefathers. Not just a conflict, but a die-hard bonhomie — The US-Israel love story.
Why is the US so obsessed with Israel and the latter with the Arab states?
Bonus Point:-
(LEVANT - The region which consists of Lebanon,Syria,Jordan,Israel, Palestine)
Well, in order to understand this relationship, we have to dive into the pages of history.
§1ADVENT OF ZIONISM AND DEMAND FOR ISRAEL
Jews — the people of this faith have faced a prolonged era of suppression and inhumane brutality. They share a history of regular genocides.
Jews discarded local gods as it was a monotheistic faith. Early age Empires like the Romans believed in polytheism — believing in multiple gods. This led to continuous friction between the monarchy and Jewish minorities. It was often seen as an act of heresy and stubbornness.
Gradually, this led to societal exclusion and state-sponsored discrimination.
Jews were denied of owning land for agriculture,their places of worship were demolished and their religious leaders were executed.
Myths and fabricated stories led to the spread of propaganda. It was widely believed that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
As Jews were denied jobs in the primary sector, they took up jobs as doctors, bankers, and financiers which didn't require any land.
Jews were forced to leave their lands time and again. Babylonian invasion and Roman atrocities forced Jews to witness their most important places of worship demolished in front of their eyes:
The First and the Second Temple, whose remnants are worshipped by Jews as the Western Wall in the Temple Mount complex.
There is a tale in the Jewish Scriptures, when Israelis were being suppressed under the Egyptian pharaoh. Moses guided Israelis through the oceans to reach Jerusalem. And that God has allocated the lands between rivers of Euphrates and the Nile for the Jews. Same connotation is used by many far-right Israeli extremists who demand for a Greater Israel.
Hitler's ruthless state-sponsored genocide was the last nail on the coffin of Jewish tolerance.
Jews believed that if they wanted to secure a stable future for their upcoming generations, a sovereign Israeli state was a must. This belief system was named 'Zionism'.
Jewish contributions in the Second World War for the British were leveraged to demand for a separate Jewish land.
In the year 1948, the British devised a partition plan in and around the region of Jerusalem — a predominantly Arab-inhabited region. British assurance for a Jewish state drove large-scale migration of Jews to the erstwhile Palestinian region. This event was seen as a blatant cultural invasion that displaced the local Arab populace.
The British as usual devised an unfair partition plan without fail that delivered larger tracts of land to the Jews who were smaller in number than the Arabs.
Israel declared itself as a sovereign state on 14th May, 1948 after the exit of the British.
The United States under the leadership of Harry S. Truman — a Jewish sympathiser — recognised Israel officially as a sovereign state after 11 minutes of the declaration.
A furious Arab fraternity declared war on Israel on 15th May, 1948, considering Israel as an unjust state that displaced the rightful owners.
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria collectively waged war against Israel.
Guess what? The Jews fought relentlessly for their survival and pushed back the Arabs alongside annexing the entire Palestinian land.
At this time, US support for Israel was only symbolic, rather than being a complete nexus.
Then, came the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the 6-Day War of 1967. The latter was a miracle. Israel single-handedly defeated 6 Arab nations in a span of 6 days in quick succession.
The United States was observing all these events from closed quarters. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, the US understood that Arab nations have a fragile political stature. Frequent coups, rebellions, and nationalisation waves made most Arab nations unreliable to be full-time partners in the Middle East. Israel's performance in 1956, which was in sync with the French and British forces to recover access of the Suez Canal, made the US believe that it could be the new 'Moral Police' of the Middle East — a weapon that can be leveraged to secure balance of power in the Middle East.
(BALANCE OF POWER 👉No single country in a region should consolidate ultimate supremacy by military, economic or diplomatic might)
An American watchdog that could be used to threaten any Arab state engaged in anti-US activities or harboring Communist ideology.
Israel was the ultimate blockade that had to inhibit Communist influence in the Middle East.
This gave birth to the ultimate nexus of the 21st century — a contract. Ensuring Israel's survival in exchange for securing American interests in the Middle East theater without US boots on Arab soil. High-grade military hardware and monetary aids were heavily pumped into Israel to ensure that it always had an edge above all Arab adversaries. Active collaboration of the CIA and the MOSSAD led to the execution of some of the world's greatest covert missions.
Cutting-edge software tech, database systems, HUMINT, cyber specialists, and computer hardware were exchanged.
Israel being a democratic state was the crown jewel of the US-Israeli nexus. A stable, accountable, elected government was far better than autocratic and monarchical regimes. These regimes functioned on the aspirations of a few men.
It significantly helped the United States to project itself as a preacher of liberal democratic values at the world stage.
That's it for the first part,
To be continued
