An observation. Eighteen billion dollars: this is the amount of American military aid granted to Israel over the past year. And if the United States regularly asks the Jewish state to show more restraint in its war against Hamas and Hezbollah, they continue to supply it with weapons.
Support that is rooted in history, estimates the information site of Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS).
The United States was the first to recognize Israel in 1948. But at the beginning of the history of the young state, it was more the USSR which played the role of godfather. It was only from the 1960s, in the context of the Cold War, that the United States and Israel became closer.
The first reason is strategic: the Islamic revolution of 1979 in Iran deprived the United States of its main ally in the region. Washington needs reliable friends in the Middle East. Israel then became “America’s largest aircraft carrier”, in the words of Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State.
+ The role of religions +
Religion also plays an important role internally in the United States. The country had the largest Jewish community in the world before the creation of Israel; today it includes 6 million people – compared to 6.5 million in the Jewish state. A numerically modest electorate, but influential on the political scene.
Much more numerous, evangelicals represent a quarter of the American electorate, with 90 million individuals. Since the 1970s, they have made support for Israel one of the pillars of their identity and their faith.
These two religious groups exert a certain influence on the support that the United States provides to Israel. But in the future, this privileged relationship could evolve, because young Americans, including Jews and evangelicals, are much more critical of the Jewish state than their parents, adds the same source.
Article19.ma
