Follow up to The Great James Baker

It is commonly assumed by pretty much everybody that Israel is the creation of some US/UK conspiracy, and has been funded, armed and protected by them from its inception.

Nothing could be further from the truth. So where did the idea come from? It is Palestinian/Arab propaganda. Why was this lie invented? To hide the real reason why in five major attempts the Arabs have been pathetically incapable of destroying Israel by military means. Without US and British military might helping them, this argument goes, we would have crushed the Zionist entity with ease! Yeah, right.

Both the US and the UK have had major interests in the Arab middle east since the early twentieth century. They were completely uninterested in a Jewish Israel because they understood that it would threaten their oil interests, especially in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Until the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979, and Ronald Reagan in America the year after, there was no principled support for Israel from US or British administrations. They remained either neutral, or were lukewarm allies of convenience. They didn't supply money, arms or diplomatic cover. France and Czechoslovakia were Israels primary friends, and Czech tanks and small arms and French Mirage jet fighters were the tools Israel used to fight its wars.

It was only when the Soviet Union ramped up its support of Syria, Egypt and Iraq that the US became interested in Israel as an ally. Even then, it was very slow off the mark. The UK, which largely supported Jordan in that vicinity, was even slower. Why is it that Israel has its own main battle tank, the Merkava, rather than Challenger 2's or M1 Abrams? Because even in the 1980's, with somewhat pro-Israel govenments, neither the UK nor the US would sell Israel their top-line kit. The US did figure out in the mid-1980's that selling fighter jets to Israel was the best way to find out whether they had the technology lead over the soviets.

The fact is, Israel exists because of money from groups of American Jews, fighter jets from France and tanks and small arms from Czechoslovakia. For the first half of Israels existence, the US and UK governments were always lukewarm allies, if that. All 'information' to the contrary is Arab dissimulation designed to hide their godawful military records.

Could Israel survive without positive help from the US? Absolutely. It did it before, and it will this time. Especially as the millions of Jews in America who supported Israel in the past will always rally around. And there are always countries like India whose diplomatic and political elites do not have the ingrained historical anti-semitism present in those of the US and the UK, who will act as conduits and providers of armaments and trade.

Israel has already withstood enormous challenges to its existence, and through a combination of toughness, wilyness and friends like France and Czechoslovakia, survived to see its sixtieth birthday. Whether it lives to see its seventieth and eightieth does not depend on the friendship of the United States government.

Thank God.