This is a cute piece, Roi.  However, you are clearly engaged in wishful thinking.  Or maybe just wishful without the "thinking" part.  On what base are you saying that Bush will be the last biased president?  Have you listened to what the candidates are saying about Israel?  It is the same narrative over and over.        

I agree with every word! 

Doesn't this ignore the nuances of the American-Israeli relationship, which despite the silly speeches that you point towards above certainly have a complex and varying history. American support to Israel (nay, it's policies throughout the world) have always reflected a certain level of American self-interest, and as such as varied as those self-interests have changed (Kissinger and Nixon bringing the '73 war to a stalemate, the sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, etc...), so has the ways in which American support has changed.  Do we speak of the monolith of American/Egyptian relations? Well, no...yet Egypt receives enormous amounts of aid as well, but we accept the complexities of that relationship; why not American-Israeli relations? If we question the efficacy of American monetary/military support of Israel, and only Israel, is this not ignoring the very nature of modern international relations? For your implied criticism of Bush as an Israeli lackey, is it not important to note that he is the very FIRST American president to explicitly call for the establishment of a Palestinian state? 

President Bush said today that the allies should have bomber Auschwitz.Is he the first US President to admit this? McGovern said something similar in 2005 (and McGovern knows since he was a pilot of a B-24 in the 1940s who flew within miles of the death camps), but in 2005 McGovern was just a retired senator.

Adam,  your point about the complexity of international relations is well taken.  But it is precisely because of self-interest that people in the US are beginning to reassess the salutary benefits of the relationship in question.  In other words, while supporting Israel in the context of the cold war may have been advantageous, doing so today isn't (at least not in the same way). Israel today stands as a strategic burden to US interests.

You ask if I should have noted that Bush was the first American president to explicitly call for the establishment of a Palestinian state. I am afraid that I am too jaded for that.  In Israel (where I am writing this from) and in Palestine these words are simply meaningless.  Bush has called for a Palestinian state for a long time, but has done so little to bring it about. 

Finally, you are absolutely right in stating that change in itself is not necessarily a good thing.  I just hope that a more balanced position vis-à-vis Israel will bring about good results for Israelis, Palestinians, and the Americans.     

Thanks Roi, your last note is definitely something that we can all hope for. And thanks for the thoughtful response (though we do certainly disagree regarding the "strategic burden" idea).

Perhaps public opinion was never strongly behind Israel in the first place, it's just that now it is acceptable for people in the U.S. to vocalize it. After 9/11, the big question for many Americans was, why do they hate us? Once they realized that Bush's idiotic statement that "they hate us for our freedom" was b.s., they focused their attention on America's support for Israel. Terrorism on U.S. soil made it permissible for public figures to question America's relationship with Israel.

Yoram, no American candidate for president is going to use too many harsh words against Israel because they want the Jewish vote. What they say and do after they are elected is a different story. In that sense, I think Roi is right on the money here. The next president is going to focus on reducing the threat of terrorism, not by invasions, but by establishing healthy relationships with Arab countries, and the nature of the U.S.-Israeli relationship is going to come under the microscope.

Terry,

You erroneously assume that American support for Israel comes only from the Jews. Christian America will never abandon Israel. While Jews are the largest donors by far to the Democratic party, check out which group in America gives the most money and support to Israel--it ain't the Jews.

I might also add that perhaps--and I don't think this is zany--the United States supports Israel precisely because we have a shared history and vaguely shared ideals of pluralism and democracy. Wacky, I know. (this is the Michael Oren line of argumentation)  And that won't change, thankfully, no matter how singular administrations (see Bush I) cozy up to the Saudis and such. This isn't to say, of course, that we shouldn't have close relations with those Arab nations and leaders who protect basic human rights and plurality...yet we do have an absolute self-interest, and more importantly a moral obligation to support those nations with similar ideals and values (whomever those might be).

Quote: "Christian America will never abandon Israel."

The majority of America is Christian and I suspect that most of them spend little energy thinking about their religion or how Israel plays a role in it. Unless they are practicing Christians, their religious background is as insignificant to them as which way the wind blows.

What you might say John, is that Evangelical Christian America will never abandon Israel. The other people who will never abandon Israel are those who believe that America's job is to foster democracies throughout the globe. The problem is, the first group is small and the second group is rapidly shrinking due to the Iraq fiasco.

Nobody is saying that America will abandon Israel. No question, both countries will be allies to the last. What will change is the fierce dedication and boundless nature of America's support.

Unfortunately I still beleive that every politic decition has behind power or money interests over human needs or rights.

All I know is that Bush has upset his conservative Christian base with his calls for Israel to give land back to Palestinians.

Conservative Christians do NOT even recognize any Palestinian claims to Israel. They believe that Jews are masters of that entire land and only God can tell the Jews when and whom to give land to!

Hi. This is the God of the Christians speaking. No, really. Look, I'm eating a ham sandwich over here. With mayo. I'm splitting an order of fries with Santa Claus, fer My-Son's-sake. It's really Me.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to let all those Hucksters and Thompsoids and such know that I'm totally OK with the Jews giving back Palestine back to the Palestinians. Honestly, I'm fine with it.

Now, Brooklyn, that I don't want any of you to fuck with. But Israel-hey, go to town. Don't be putting any of that mess on me. You have my permission, Jews, to relieve yourselves of the heavy burden of occupation. And you can tell those ignorant peckerwoods that I said so.

You gonna finish those fries?  

This is the real God not the one above that supports the murder of Jewish women and children.  I gave Israel to the Jews thousands of years ago and it's all theirs.  I never created a Palestine or Palestine people. 

You see Israel was was re-named Palestine by the Romans.  The Arabs didn't want anything to do with the term Palestine until they decided to co-opt the ancient Jewish historical ties to Israel.  That's when the Plo was created and the myth of the Palestinian began.

It's all lies. There has never been a Palestinian people, country, language or culture.  Jews were called Palestinians until the Arabs stole the term along with Jewish land.  The Arabs need to go back to Arabia where they came from. God is against the Arab occupation of Jewish land and also homicide bombings, beheadings, honor killings, and children taught to be violent hatemongers.  This is the truth so don't mess with God.

I'm an agnostic catholic who STRONGLY supports Israel! Hell, I wish Israel was 5 times its size.lol

Anyways, I just wanted people here to know that this lowly gentile thinks highly of Israel and wishes its people well!