And no one must never 'hinder the Jewish state'. Or else. I really can't recall Israel ever being an asset to America. To call the war in Iraq 'important' is disingenuous in the extreme. Important for who? Ah, there's the rub. Over the years America has given Israel foreign aid that amounts to four times what it cost to put a man on the moon and what did Israel use it for? To turn Israel into a military monster, a nuclear armed military monster, and to set up a telecommunications industry that allows it to spy and eavesdrop on anyone in the US that it wants to keep tabs on. I'm not making this up. I simply don't have the imagination to outdo the reality of the situation. Israel receives billions from America while its own citizens get $5 an hour for working, often in dirty, dangerous industries that wreck their health, meanwhile millions have no health care at all and even the ones who do are routinely ripped off by their funds, and every night American homeless (men, women and children) sleep on the streets and under bridges and get their breakfast out of garbage cans. Mad world? You betcha!

Israel was a crucial asset for the USA during the Cold War. It was on the front line of a proxy war (Egypt being supplied by USSR, for example) and held the line for the West. It also obtained, through costly battles, important information about Soviet military wares, etc.
The rest of this post is harder to deal with, as it doesn't pose questions and ignores the billions in US aid to Arab countries over the years. It also makes up a link between the relatively small amount (to the US) of aid to Israel and the poverty in America. Hey, what about that bailout? Was that Israel's fault, too?

Israel also spies quite heavily on the U.S. to maintain their position and undermine their opponents here. And yes, we have spent billions on the Arabs, especially Egypt, buying their cooperation from attacking Israel. Otherwise, the Camp David accords would have collapsed years ago. Not that I know the answer to the Middle East mess. Just observing from the sidelines while paying my taxes.

Those costly battles also obtained a fair amount of territory which Israel refuses to return despite UN resolutions. The same sort of UN resolutions that the US insisted were to obeyed or else be invaded when it came to Iraq.

Furthermore, to say that Israel 'held the line for the West' is disingenuous. If the Arab countries' enemy, Israel, hadn't been backed by the US there would might have been no reason for Egypt, Syria etc. to seek support from the USSR and so no proxy war to fight.

C-Tips wrote:

"If the Arab countries' enemy, Israel, hadn't been backed by the US there would might have been no reason for Egypt, Syria etc. to seek support from the USSR and so no proxy war to fight."

That's so ignorant of history that I wasn't even going to try, but what the heck...

The US hasn't supported Israel from independence, it was actually the French that were Israel's biggest ally at the time (and the French as well as the British used Israel to retain shipping rights in the Suez canal). The arab countries actually got military support from the USSR before not after Israel got support from the US.

I have no problem with you being against whatever it is you're against (couldn't really tell from your post) - but don't just make up things...