Does anyone else find it odd that Israel is the most visited foreign country by US politicians?

I’m not talking about Biden going there as VP, which is clearly part of US foreign policy. I’m talking about trips that are not part of policy, more like meet-and-greet/networking affairs. And it’s not just congressmen. It’s also various lobbyists, and lawyers connected with federal and state government departments, etc.This used to be a mainly Democratic party phenomenon, but over the last couple of decades it’s increasingly being done by Republicans also, especially the neocons and the evangelicals.

The thing that confuses me is this: Why?

Our trade with Israel is minor, compared to our trade with many other countries. Israel is not nearby. It’s not part of NATO. Etc, etc, etc. We’re stuck in no-win wars in the Middle East, but Israel can’t help us there. In fact, our relationship with Israel probably harms us more than it helps us, in that regard.

We do have poor relations with some of the people Israel has a quarrel with, but one of the reasons for that is that we get lumped in with Israel because we provide cover for their policies. We’re not the ones grabbing Palestinian land, the Israelis are. But our support for Israel lumps us in with them and creates enemies for us. That, by the way, was why Israel announced that they’re building 1,600 new residential units on confiscated Palestinian land DURING Biden’s trip. They WANT to make that US-Israel connection in people’s minds. Who here is stupid enough to believe that the timing was a mistake. Really? And was it a mistake when they used to do the same thing to Condi? They keep dragging us into their arguments with their neighbors and we end up getting it in the neck.

And for this privilege, we pay them over $6 billion a year directly, and quite a bit more when you count the value of our UN veto, arms technology, financial links, etc etc etc. Can someone explain again why we do this to ourselves?

I like Ron Paul’s solution to this issue: You guys want to grab other people’s land and blow each other up? Fine. But do it on your own dime and stop dragging us into your stupidity. We have enough of our own problems. We don’t need your help and we’d really like it if you’d stop calling us for help.

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