America vis-a-vie Israel: Conspiracy or Everyday Politics

This question came to mind as I read a piece by Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post. She felt that Israel was being treated by the U.S. as a third rate banana republic as evidenced by Wikileaks cables showing that Condolissa Rice (under Bush) had instructed U.S. officials in Israel to gather all the confidential info available on Israel, Israeli politicians, Israeli military people, Israeli plans, etc. But, then, isn't this one of the jobs of diplomats regardless of where they are posted?

Ms. Glick got closer to her contention when she cited the FBI investigation of AIPAC (again under Bush). In this investigation, the FBI destroyed the ability of AIPAC's Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman to conduct their legitimate activities as lobbyists for Israel. Besides destroying the effectiveness of these two upstanding individuals, the FBI in effect diminished the ability of AIPAC to carry on its work in behalf of Israel. But, is this treating Israel as a banana republic, or is it treating Israel as the enemy?

Liberals have sought to create a counter organization to AIPAC. It's J PAC. To people who follow these matters closely, J PAC was nothing that anyone paid too much attention to. However, now that J PAC has urged the Obama administration to withhold its veto of a UN Security Council resolution harmful to Israel, even congressmen like Akerman of New York, a politician struggling to accommodate all points of view, found it all to be too much and disassociated himself from J Pak. (What Obama does remains to be seen.)

And then, there's Jonathon Pollard. You remember him, he's the guy who told Israel the kind of information that the U.S. had on Syria. No U.S. agents were hurt by this bit of espionage. But espionage it was. And, Pollard was, and is, a spy. However, he has now served far longer than reasonable people find appropriate under the circumstances. His continued incarceration after all these years is simply a matter of successive U.S. administrations sticking their finger in Israel's eye.

But, perhaps it serves a purpose; namely, it helps remind us that despite a generally supportive policy towards Israel, the U.S. is entirely capable of acting in a manner that can only be described as mean and spiteful.