Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, says the latest round of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians has provided more evidence that the United States should no longer give Israel unconditional economic, military and diplomatic support.

Walt explained

in an article for the US

Foreign Policy website that the benefits of this policy are zero, and the costs are high and rising. Instead of a special relationship, the United States and Israel need a normal relationship.

Ignore the Arabs

He noted that the special relationship between the United States and Israel was justified on moral grounds, as the creation of a Jewish state was seen as an appropriate response to centuries of violent anti-Semitism in the Christian West, yet the moral state was compelling only if one ignored the consequences for the Arabs who lived Palestine has existed for many centuries, and if one believes that Israel is a country that shares basic American values.

The writer adds that the picture here is also complex;

Israel may have been "the only democracy in the Middle East," but it was not a liberal democracy like the United States, where all religions and races are supposed to have equal rights.

The end of the moral argument

Walt continues that decades of brutal Israeli control have destroyed the moral argument for unconditional US support.

In the past, it was also possible to say that Israel was a valuable strategic asset of the United States, although its value was often exaggerated.

During the Cold War, for example, support for Israel was an effective way to curb Soviet influence in the Middle East, because the Israeli army was a much higher fighting force than the armed forces of Soviet clients such as Egypt or Syria.

The Cold War ended 30 years ago - as the writer says - however, unconditional support for Israel today creates more problems for Washington than it solves.

Israel could do nothing to help the United States in its wars against Iraq, for example.

Real American support for Israel

Walt said that the real American support for Israel is not only financial, but there is political support and other costs for America, as the $ 3 billion for Israel is not a drop in the sea of ​​the United States, a country whose economy is $ 21 trillion.

The writer says that the unconditional support for Israel makes it difficult for the United States to claim a high moral standing on the world stage.

The administration of US President Joe Biden is keen to restore the reputation and image of America after 4 years under former US President Donald Trump.

It wants to make a clear distinction between America's behavior and its values ​​and those of its adversaries such as China and Russia, and in the process re-establish itself as the linchpin of a rules-based order.

That is why - Walt says - US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the United Nations Human Rights Council that the administration would place "democracy and human rights at the center of our foreign policy."

Blinken's claim is hollow

But when the United States stands alone and uses its veto power against 3 separate Security Council resolutions on the ceasefire, and repeatedly reaffirms "Israel's right to defend itself", sends additional weapons worth $ 735 million to Israel, and provides the Palestinians with an empty letter only about their right. In living freely and securely with support for the two-state solution, Blinken's claim of moral superiority can be described as empty and hypocritical.

In conclusion, Walt says that it is not surprising that China has been quick to criticize the US position, and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi highlighted the US inability to act as a fair mediator.

This may not have been a serious offer, but Beijing could hardly do worse than Washington has done in recent decades, the writer commented.