Hillel Fradkin considers the U.S. government’s increasing hostility toward the Jewish state in light of Joshua Muravchik’s recent book Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned against Israel. Fradkin concludes:
Obviously [the current trend in U.S.-Israel relations] presents a danger to Israel, but as one sees from Muravchik’s book, it also presents a danger to the United States—a danger to its principles and therewith to its political, moral, and intellectual health, a danger to which the European West has already succumbed.
What has saved America from this disease? As Muravchik observes, the United States held firm against the moral and political direction of Europe not primarily because of a “Jewish lobby” or an “Evangelical lobby,” though those were not unimportant. It held firm largely because most Americans recognized and respected what Israel truly is: a liberal democracy similar to their own and like all liberal democracies threatened by forces hostile to such regimes. . . .
That [America’s] material security would be at risk were Israel were to be destroyed is relatively clear. In the Middle East, America has no other liberal democratic ally, and Israel wields significant power. Yet even more harmful to our health would be the betrayal of our principles and its political and moral consequences. Joining the jackals, as Europe has now frequently done, may yield short-term gains. But as Muravchik ably shows, in the long term the U.S. bears the risk of actually becoming a jackal.
Read more on American Interest: http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/03/31/alone-among-the-nations/