When they killed Bobby Kennedy, there were no US troops in Arab nations. When they took our embassy in Tehran, there were no US troops in Arab nations. When they threw Leon Klinghoffer in the ocean there were no US troops in Arab nations. When they downed Pan Am, there were no US troops in Arab nations.
Yeah, but our subsidiary Isreal was in an Arab nation.
The US has sent as much aid over the years to Israel's Arab neighbors as to Israel itself. Here are the facts of the US Israel relationship:
The US weapons sales to Israel are often overstated. The US did not sell weapons to Israel until 1962, when we sold the HAWK anti-aircraft missile. During our 14 year arms blockade of Israel we sold large amounts of weaponry to the Arab states. We did not sell high end weapons to Israel until 1968, after Sirhan Sirhan shot Kennedy, when we sold F-4 Phantom aircraft. We did not provide military aid to Israel until 1973, until then it had all been regular commercial transactions, when Egypt refused to accept a US brokered peace deal in the Yom Kippur War. A US resupply of weapons allowed the Israel to repel the invasion by the Arab states.
US foreign aid to Israel is often overstated. The US gave exclusively economic aid to Israel prior to 1973, and this aid was smaller than the amounts given to Arab nations during that time. From 1960 to 1985, there were no grants in aid to Israel, it was all loans which Israel has repaid in full. Even the large sum of aid sent to Israel today is still smaller than the aid the US sends to the Arabs, pareticularly Egypt and Palestine, and US weapons deals with Israel are no more extensive than deals with oil rich Gulf states.
US use of the UN Veto is often overstated. The US did not use its UN Veto to protect Israel once until 1972, over a Syrian-Lebanese resolution attacking Israel. In the years prior to this the US actually voted for a number of resolutions critical of Israel. Even today, the US allows the UN to attack Israel without using its Veto. Of the 90 anti-Israel resolutions from the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to the collapse of the Arafat-Barak negotiations in 2000 the US vetoed only 33 of them. This means the US abstained or supported anti-Israel resolutions 2/3rds of the time! It is also worth noting that when the US helped design the UN, Israel was barred from ever being on the Security Council by a convoluted set of rules having to do with regional apportionment the US helped put in place.
The level of US support for Israel is often over stated, and is not a rational justification for Islamic terrorism against America.
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