I’m an American who’s getting the feeling that the interests of my country are becoming secondary to the interests of another nation, who is a strong ally but is often treated as if it were the 51st state rather than just another foreign country.

Recently my country has cut off aid to a government that was elected freely in elections that were encouraged by my government. Why? Because they don’t want to formally recognize this other nation, our ally.

Why should I care as an American whether this new government recognizes our ally?

Not only have we cut off the money flow to the new government but have prevented other countries from giving assistance via the banks. Now there are many workers there who aren’t getting paid. Life gets miserable when you go without a paycheck for a few months as most people who ever have can attest. That can really piss a person off, so naturally they’ll protest. Wouldn’t you? This foments rebellion actually, which is probably what my government wants to do--destabilize this freely elected government because we decided we didn’t like who was chosen by the people (so much for democracy in action) due to their poor relationship with our ally.

It’s not right for my government to do this. People who work deserve to be paid, no matter who their government is, and we are knowingly causing misery to those people even if they don’t get along with our ally. To me, they’d be justified in disliking us because of this. And all because the freely elected government won’t recognize our ally. How does that benefit my nation? It doesn’t really. In fact it may even harm us. When you do the wrong thing, the wrong thing comes back to you

Our ally has been building a wall which makes life hell for the others. A wall between people literally and figuratively is a bad thing. Would you want a wall between you and your significant other? (OK, bad analogy). The whole world condemned this wall because it is wrong. Did we, in deference to both ‘the right thing to do’ and to our ally, abstain from the vote?(the wisest diplomatic decision, I think). No, we vetoed it. That was wrong. How does it benefit my nation to do this? It doesn’t really. In fact it may even harm us. When you do the wrong thing, the wrong thing comes back to you

Having allies/good friends is good. You help them, they help you. You would go out of your way to help each other. That’s great. But when your friend asks you to do something that is morally wrong, this is something completely different. This is where you draw the line and set your boundaries. If your friend wants you to do something that will be to your peril, that is where you draw the line and set the boundaries.

But consistently we don’t. We seemed to have slowly been brainwashed into thinking that the interests of our ally are always in our own best interest. I don’t believe that they are and I think we seriously need to start making this distinction. I think that cutting off this aid to the freely elected Hamas government is wrong and can only bring the wrong thing back to my country, which is my primary concern.

Perhaps I’m off base here or ill informed but I can’t help wondering:

Are we Israel’s bitch?

Note: Please clearly distinguish in your mind the difference between the political state/ foreign country Israel, and Jewish people in general, because the two are not the same in my mind.