How does Israel support us, please? Specifically? And how does their support in some way even begin to counter the tremendous animosity engendered by our continued support of them?
Bear in mind, no matter what your feelings may be, or whether you think the reasons it was done were good or understandable reasons, the truth is still that land was essentially taken from Palestine by force, by foreign powers, against the will of the people living on it, and given away to re-create an extinct country. Rather like taking food out of the mouth of one person and giving it to another, because you're bigger, stronger, and you like the other guy better.
Then, because that guy knows you like him, and you're big and strong, he's going to keep taking, because he has a big strong friend to back him up. And in the taking, he makes a lot of people very, very mad at you, because you are helping him perpetrate an injustice against people who cannot defend themselves against him AND his big strong friend. Nonetheless, some of those people decide they are going to fight. They may have to be stealthy, because they are not strong enough to go head to head with both of you, but they are determined, and time is on their side. And in time, as they get stronger, they make friends too. And their plight serves as an example, and a warning to others, who decide that you are a bully, and that they don't like you, or your friend, at all.
Israel still exists because we support them. Fine. I'm not suggesting that they give their county back, because I don't think it would solve anything. But, I do think Israel collectively decided long ago that they had the right (God-given, they believe) to do whatever they wanted when it came to aggression against the countries around them, and we let them believe that it was OK with us for a long time because we didn't withdraw our support. That we didn't has a lot to do with guilt over the Holocaust, I think. However, Israel has chosen to use our support to do some very wrong things, and we are guilty by association. Those are not the actions of a friend.
See, here's the way real friends act. They tell you the truth. When you're about to do something colossally stupid, they yell, "Wait! That's a colossally stupid thing to do!" They don't help you to do something that will harm you irreparably. If you are wrong about something, they argue with you. If you want to rebel against your country and start another one, they fight for you, and help you found a nation. If their country is being overrun by bad guys, you fight for them and help them survive. You give each other thoughtful, unique gifts. Some days they get mad at you, some days you get mad at them. Some days, they try to find solutions to a bad problem that they think is just going to get worse, because they don't want to see a whole hell of a lot of MORE people die, even though they know that you disagree with them.
And if you are truly friends, none of it will destroy your friendship, it will just make it stronger. Vive la France!
BTW, I can hear you screaming "Anti-Semite!" I'm not. I do know a lot of American Jews who are very upset with Israel's actions. They don't want to see Israel wiped off the map, and neither do I, but they feel Israel has quite deliberately chosen a course of action that they know could escalate out of control at the drop of a hat. One of my (Jewish) co-workers told me yesterday that she thinks the hard-liners are hoping for that, working for that, as it will give Israel an excuse to use their arsenal to all-out obliterate their age-old enemies. A full scale war of that nature would poison the whole world, in more ways than one. What's so friendly about that?