To add a further clarification, I live in Europe where, in my experience, the dominant view amongst liberals re the Middle East is that Israel is an aggressor towards Palestinians (who are victims). Feelings in the US may be different.
Yes, feelings are different: there's a very strong pro-Israel attitude out there in our electorate, and remember, Israel is a client state of the US: and not all of that is just for weapons--it's a huge subsidization for the entire national economy of Israel. Who knows where the money goes once it gets there? Politicians of both our parties court votes from American Jews, and the pro-Israeli lobby's very vocal and very-well-financed clout is considerable.
Then there are American evangelicals who do the 'God thing' about Israel, the chosen people, and, of course, 'The Holy Land'. And there's always the scare idea about Megiddo and immanentizing the eschaton... I don't see where this has as much significance in Europe, where there is stubbornly persistent anti-semitism (on the rise, apparently) and considerable relocation of European Jews to Israel, encouraged by Israeli representation of Europe as hostile to Jews. Perhaps the European fascination with its fascist and nationalist past and pressent accounts for some of the anti-Israel sentiment.
Israel is a also military ally, and the US has always regarded it as a stabilizing force in the middle east, which seems always to have more than its share of madmen. Plus Israel has been the underdog in a steady Arab and Persian effort to crush it from 1948 on--and Americans love an underdog. Palestinians as victims? Americans seem not to like victimhood.
Frankly, Israel is not a source of the rabid, insane, destabilizing religious elements that threaten Western values and the West itself.--far from it.
Am I pro-Israel? It depends on who commits the Insanity of the Day--Israelis or their combined middle-east adversaries.
A friend of mine suggested the best solution to the problems of the Middle East may to pave the whole region, and then to use that as a parking lot for a combine of religious theme parks.
And Europe? Well...it remains to be seen what happens there: I'm not optimistic. Look at your history.
Just my take, admittedly one opinion.
