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Comment by cobookman | Hacker News Reader

Disagree. Its a complex game. If the US pisses off Israel there one true friendly in the middle east is gone. Israel's presence and allegance in the middle east gives the US a bigger military influence into the region.

In regards to game theory it's better for the US to have Israel as an ally and make an enemy of Iran than the opposite. Don't forget that Israel has nuclear weapons and the country would not hesitate to use them in self defense. Also while the Saudi's are scum, you'd have a situation worse than Iraq if you removed them from power.

In the end there's no great answer, just one that has a not as worse outcome.

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>>If the US pisses off Israel there one true friendly in the middle east is gone.

I'm not sure I'd call Israel a "true friend." At a high level they may be ideologically aligned with the West, but they're simply using the USA to advance their own interests.

Which countries are true friends of any other? Is US true friends of any?

Good question :/

No.

> Don't forget that Israel has nuclear weapons and the country would not hesitate to use them in self defense.

Pakistan also has nuclear weapons, Israel's use as such is probably mutually assured destruction, not 'self-defense'.

Didn't the US originally provide those nuclear weapons?

Actually, the US didn't have much to do with Israel's early development of nuclear weapons. It was the French who helped them setup a nuclear reactor originally. They also had many (Jewish) former Soviet scientists who fled to Israel. The strong US-Israel military relationship is a more recent development.

I should've included a "I have no idea what I'm talking about" disclaimer. Thanks for the info, just read a bit more about it.

> Didn't the US originally provide those nuclear weapons?

Developed independently of the US[1], in cooperation with the apartheid government of South Africa. South Africa went on to become the first (if not only) country to voluntarily give up it's nuclear weapons program, right on the cusp of black rule.

Officially, the US does not/will not acknowledge Israel's nuclear capability.

It sounds like France and the UK both played a part in early nuclear weapons development in Israel as well.

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