Israel Is A Crappy Ally

I grew up a big Israel fan, partially because the Holocaust loomed large in my young mind (I have no personal ties to it, but WWII always loomed large in my mind, and so forth), and partially because Israel always seemed besieged and outnumbered. It took me a long time to change my mind, but I suppose my current position is: I'm fed up with them. Despite the fact that I think we should choose our allies primarily on moral grounds, it's begun to bug the crap out of me that our alliance with Israel is such a one-way street. And I'm fed up with groups in the U.S. (e.g. Israel-adoring conservatives) who constitute a voting block that make it impossible for anyone to rationalize our relationship with Israel. (And, as for the moral case for an alliance with Israel...well, that's not looking too shiny these days either, of course.)

I thought that this--"Israel: Asset or Liability?"--by Chas Freeman in a Nixon Center Debate pretty much hit the nail on the head.