Israel today is one of the most brutal, violent, militarized societies on earth… with the current system of continued and unending Israeli military confrontation, sooner or later they are going to loose… most likely in a catastrophic way. That to me is not how a Jewish state (or any state) should be. It is an extremely unfortunate situation – and much of the blame can be placed on the United States.
I visited and travelled throughout Israel in November 2005, and IMO Israel is nowhere near one of the most brutal or violent places on earth. He's obviously never considered Somalia, Rwanda, Congo or a host of the world's nastier spots.
The Israel I visited was extremely pleasant, with friendly, enjoyable folks from all walks of life. I ate at dozens of outdoor cafes in both Arab and Jewish neighbourhoods. Yes, every Israel must serve in the military, but it's nowhere near a sense of military oppression to see the armed teenage and young adult soldiers.
Israel was not created by the USA. The Balfour Declaration was of British design, Israel was a made by British protectorate under the League of Nations; an organization that did not include the USA. It was Britain and France that allied with Israel against Egypt in 1956, not the USA. Yes, they have close ties today with the USA, because they share a common enemy, that of the Middle East Arabs. Of all the countries in the world, of course Israel would choose to ally herself closely with the USA, since America is the strongest military power in the land, and has more Jewish people in its population than Israel itself (not that this guarantees American assistance - no Zionist conspiracies please)
Regardless, these points are mute, for the simple reason that Israel is Israel, it's not going away. Israel is not going to loose any war, as all the neighbouring Arabs combined have tried at least four times and misserably failed each time. Iran may drop a nuclear missile on Israel one day, but then we all loose, since the retaliation will be ugly.
Israel is the only working democracy in the Middle East, and has been under constant seige from her neighbours since 1947. Under these circumstances of course Israel wants to be allied with the world's superpower. Notwithstanding this, the USA is not a very strong ally, surely they provide $ and gear, but no American soldiers came to assist Israel when in 1973 the state was almost overrun in the Yom Kippur War.
Chomsky seems to beleive that if only Israel had not allied herself with the nasty USA, and placed large emphasis on military capability, that she would be living in peace today with her neighbours. This is purely not the case. Without a strong IDF, in the Arabs would have attacked and killed every Jew they could find upon the UN's creation of Israel in 1947.
