Al Franken, in one of his books, answered the "why Israel" question with "because it's the only democracy in the middle east and that ought to count for something." That said, it has become an increasingly illiberal democracy since Rabin was assassinated in 1995 and, if we're being honest, has been about Israel first, last and always from the drop. Israel has great PR, though, is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world from a lobbying standpoint and has goals that have traditionally aligned with the US often enough for us to let them get away with murder. Should you question this decision they remind you of their PR and lobbying and that's it for you. Lemme show you a li'l movie about terrorists and terrorism: From a simplistic, uninvestigated standpoint, the Middle East is full of hook-nosed stereotypes we'll never understand, all of them hell-bent on annihilating those poor people Hitler tried to finish off. Question that narrative and find another line of work.The pro-Israel, vehemently anti-Trump contingent of American liberals will never make sense to me.