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I will copy paste some parts of my response to SS. ''Israel and the US are allies , the fact that you don't understand how that alliance is expressed and why it's expressed this way is a result of your lack of geopolitical knowledge. Not trying to offend you or anything but you should read more on this''. More specifically to what you are saying , you are incorrect in a number of points . Your first mistake is assuming that alliances mean i fight your wars or contribute to your war chest. This is not a correct, there are other ways for an alliance to be expressed ,especially in the modern world (intelligence , technology , trade etc, cultural similarities). Israel is very technologically innovative and is very culturally similar to the west , and I will follow up in just a second on how important this cultural similarity is so don't dismiss it. Your main mistake is assuming that Israel doesn't fight the US's wars, you are incorrect. The soviet union lost massive influence in the middle east after the Israeli victory in yom kippur , this is one such example. The thing is that the cultural similarity I mentioned before is really important to an actual alliance because it comes down to what people really value. You can't really trust that the geopolitcal interest of fanatical islamists ( who are not a minority in most arab states) will align with yours when it matters, you can't trust that they will inform you of terrorist attacks or be actual allies in whatever conflict you are in. But the truth is you can trust Israel because cultural similarities dictate that when you are fighting they are 'fighting' ( always meaning locally , not referring to a conflict in the pacific for example) when you were fighting Sadam (both times) the Israelis were very happy it was happening and were literally not fighting with you because you asked them not to fight so as not to inflame tensions in the arab world. Iran hates the US and hates Israel , and the Israelis would gladly bomb them , like they did hezbollah who again is an enemy of both the US and Israel. There are a thousand more things I can say but you must disentangle from this idea that being an ally means fighting a war with you, Saudi arabia fought in the first gulf war but the US should never consider them a serious and trusting ally. That may sound a little naive to you but its the truth , alliances are also about cultural similarities which by themselves create an actual almost humanalike relatioship. It is not only cold geopolitical interest that dictates them and you would be very very wrong to think so, in the midst of such differing cultures Israel is a natural US ally whose interests converge with the western entities by default.
More specifically in regards to the pager. Well like I said, hezbollah has shed so much American blood that the instrument of their defeat seems like a valid present.
Good post, to which I'd add: Israel is a nuclear state, and that alone makes them worth guarding.
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