> Serious question- how do you classify Israel as an ally?
Number of reasons:
1) History. Us Germans tried to exterminate all Jews (and thank God we failed), while the USA and Great Britain, the colonial power of Palestine, fought against Germany. It made sense that after WW2, Israel was founded as a "safe haven" for Jewish life, backed by USA/UK.
2) Israel is the only real democracy in the entire region. Yes, Netanyahu has attacked democratic institution and basic democratic decency, but still: Israel is and likely will remain a democracy, a democracy allied to the US right in the region where the biggest oil reserves are.
3) While Israel does have their own weapons program, they are a good customer of US arms. Some of their budget is actually paid by US Congress, but well, as long as the end result is that Israel uses US weapons and the people employed in the districts of the Congressmen approving these deals keep their jobs, there is no real problem.
4) Intelligence service cooperation. The Mossad is one of the best intelligence services there is, rivaled IMO only by NSA/CIA.
I think the GP asked which actions by Israel show that it is an ally of the US, so the first point seems absolutely irrelevant. Btw, the Soviet Union had an equal role fighting Germany in WW2, liberated Auschwitz and was the first country to recognise Israel. Is Israel a special ally of Russia? No.
The second point is also totally irrelevant: the other best ally of the US in the region, Saudi Arabia, is an absolute monarchy. The US never had a problem overthrowing democratic governments to replace them with dictatorships or supporting ferocious dictators as long as they advanced its goals. This talk of democracy as a value to support is just spin to justify attacking some countries, when it suits.
The third point is also irrelevant: Israel receives almost $4 billion is military aid from the US- this proves that the US is an ally of Israel, but again, is Israel an ally of the US?
The fourth point is the only one that barely holds. Yes, the Israeli intelligence cooperates with the US (but also spies on the US at the highest levels: see for example [1]- something that should have been a huge scandal and received almost zero reporting). But one wonders how much of Israeli intelligence helps solving problems that Israel itself has created or that are relevant to the US only because Israel is in the area.
The first three (ignoring their legitimacy) have nothing to do with what makes a country an ally.
Israel’s relationship with the US is central to all of the international problems and threats the US faces in 2020. Including threatening the US’ own democracy due to unchecked Israeli lobbying in the US and openly combatting anyone who tries to question Israeli actions.
> Israel is the only real democracy in the entire region.
This tired fallacy needs to perish. Israel is not a democracy. Even Israelis' can see this, and its why a third of them don't bother voting - the Israeli people know that they don't have the right to select their leaders in the Knesset. The parties do.
If Israel become a real democracy, its Israeli-Arab population would rapidly change the identity of the country. This is why the fallacy is perpetuated.
Number of reasons:
1) History. Us Germans tried to exterminate all Jews (and thank God we failed), while the USA and Great Britain, the colonial power of Palestine, fought against Germany. It made sense that after WW2, Israel was founded as a "safe haven" for Jewish life, backed by USA/UK.
2) Israel is the only real democracy in the entire region. Yes, Netanyahu has attacked democratic institution and basic democratic decency, but still: Israel is and likely will remain a democracy, a democracy allied to the US right in the region where the biggest oil reserves are.
3) While Israel does have their own weapons program, they are a good customer of US arms. Some of their budget is actually paid by US Congress, but well, as long as the end result is that Israel uses US weapons and the people employed in the districts of the Congressmen approving these deals keep their jobs, there is no real problem.
4) Intelligence service cooperation. The Mossad is one of the best intelligence services there is, rivaled IMO only by NSA/CIA.