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This is one of the explanations about USA involvement with Israel that is so bizarre to be believable but keeps getting repeated over and over on the Internet.

by ceres 5y ago

This is one of the explanations about USA involvement with Israel that is so bizarre to be believable but keeps getting repeated over and over on the Internet. Sure, there are a lot of evangelical Christians in America but they are not that stupid and naive? Plus aligning the world's most powerful country's foreign policy with superstitions like the rapture is so ridiculous that it would not be plausible even as a plotline of a novel.

gruez 5y ago
>Sure, there are a lot of evangelical Christians in America but they are not that stupid and naive? Are you european by any chance? US christians are much less secular than european christians. Also, opinion polling data (in the linked article) supports the claim.
true_religion 5y ago
I think it keeps getting repeated because it is more palatable than saying the cause is a combination of 1. Latent racism. Having minority groups set up a homeland and encouraging all of them to move there is a core tenant of some racist groups. 2. Natural support by US Jews, and the many many people who know them and believe having Israel be a country is good for the safety of the ethnic group. 3. Israel is a natural ally of the US, and cannot become a local leader no matter how much support is given to it. This makes for a fairly stable partnership. US gets to aid a power hostile to its enemies like Iran, etc. while making a pretense to neutrality since it’s not directly acting. 4. Progressive social groups like Israel. It’s the most westernized style nation in the Middle East, but it retains enough cultural heritage to be palatable to conservatives too. 5. The more mundane biblical stuff. Even lip service only Christians have heard of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, etc. being a part of Israel in historical times. Thus there is a tendency to support Israeli control of the area since from the US point of view, which never takes into account fine ethic differences, Jews are Jews thus even European Jews have a historic right to the land. 6. Supporting Israel, a country hated by the oil powers of the Middle East, makes US nationalists happy since it acts as proof that oil-powers do not hold America’s leash. There isn’t really any one singular reason for support to Israel. It’s more of a perfect storm making it easy for activists of any stripe to thumbs up supporting Israel as a budget item. Remember support for Israel is a feel good measure. American lives aren’t at risk. However, people would rather claim someone strongly supports Israel, even if he reasoning is irrational, than say many millions vaguely support Israel so long as it is limited to “safe” things like money, political speech and weapons sales.

by ceres 5y ago

gruez 5y ago

>Sure, there are a lot of evangelical Christians in America but they are not that stupid and naive? Are you european by any chance? US christians are much less secular than european christians. Also, opinion polling data (in the linked article) supports the claim.

true_religion 5y ago

I think it keeps getting repeated because it is more palatable than saying the cause is a combination of 1. Latent racism. Having minority groups set up a homeland and encouraging all of them to move there is a core tenant of some racist groups. 2. Natural support by US Jews, and the many many people who know them and believe having Israel be a country is good for the safety of the ethnic group. 3. Israel is a natural ally of the US, and cannot become a local leader no matter how much support is given to it. This makes for a fairly stable partnership. US gets to aid a power hostile to its enemies like Iran, etc. while making a pretense to neutrality since it’s not directly acting. 4. Progressive social groups like Israel. It’s the most westernized style nation in the Middle East, but it retains enough cultural heritage to be palatable to conservatives too. 5. The more mundane biblical stuff. Even lip service only Christians have heard of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, etc. being a part of Israel in historical times. Thus there is a tendency to support Israeli control of the area since from the US point of view, which never takes into account fine ethic differences, Jews are Jews thus even European Jews have a historic right to the land. 6. Supporting Israel, a country hated by the oil powers of the Middle East, makes US nationalists happy since it acts as proof that oil-powers do not hold America’s leash. There isn’t really any one singular reason for support to Israel. It’s more of a perfect storm making it easy for activists of any stripe to thumbs up supporting Israel as a budget item. Remember support for Israel is a feel good measure. American lives aren’t at risk. However, people would rather claim someone strongly supports Israel, even if he reasoning is irrational, than say many millions vaguely support Israel so long as it is limited to “safe” things like money, political speech and weapons sales.