General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: My only post on the ME crisis [View all]nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)The similarities are there. But it is worst. During the troubles it was not superpowers feeding it.
The US did not support Israel from the git go. We just did not. The young state was a socialist state and the Cold War....but France did.
On the other side the Russians did, especially after the Russian revolution that brought Nasser to power and formed the United Arab Republic (Egypt, Jordan, Syria). The Russians supported the UAR with weapons, advisors, technical assistance, they also encouraged going after Israel, a strategic sliver of land. The UAR came slightly after Suez by the way. That is where we really took off to the races.
Fast forward to the Suez crisis of 1956, France was not happy. It's not about their client state of Israel, they are annoyed at the Brits, a lot is in the background between De Gaulle and the British high command. It goes to WW 2 and DeGaulle felt the allies always treated him like a third fiddle, which to be honest, they did. Some historians think good ol' Charles wanted to play, that simple. But the Brits did not want to share. So soon after the French slowed down their help of the young Jewish state. They took their anger on the ones they could. So they looked at DC.
That did not become much of a relationship until 1967. It is the Cold War and Israel is Red.
Fast forward to Camp David. The UAR is long gone and as part of the agreement we arm both sides. Israel has Merkavas now capable of knocking out Abrams. That should worry Americans, in fact DOD raised that issue, but they are good soldiers.
Now Israel has extensive agreements with both India and China. (I know, nobody reports on this crap) because Israel sees the writing in the wall. It started well before Obama became President. In fact, it happened during the early phase of the misadventure in Iraq. Ok, that is when it became obvious. They are survivors, but if they lose the US well, there is China.
So yes, it has some similarities. The stakes in the game are geopolitical though.