Israel as a Strategic Liability?

America’s ties to Israel are not based primarily on U.S. strategic interests.

At the best of times, an Israeli government that pursues the path to peace provides some intelligence, some minor advances in military technology, and a potential source of stabilizing military power that could help Arab states like Jordan. 

美國與以色列的關係主要並非根基於美國的戰略利益。

在最美好的時代，追求和平的以色列政府提供某些情報、某些次要的先進軍事科技，以及在有潛在軍事力量協助如約旦這類阿拉伯國家時，提供穩定的力量。

Even then, however, any actual Israeli military intervention in an Arab state could prove as destabilizing as beneficial. The fact is that the real motives behind America’s commitment to Israel are moral and ethical. They are a reaction to the horrors of the Holocaust, to the entire history of Western anti-Semitism, and to the United States’ failure to help German and European Jews during the period before it entered World War II. They are a product of the fact that Israel is a democracy that shares virtually all of the same values as the United States.

然而，即便是在那個時候，在以色列帶來好處的同時，任何對阿拉伯國家的軍事干預都可能帶來區域的不穩定。美國對以色列承諾的背後真正的動機，是道德和種族的。那是對恐怖的猶太大屠殺予以回應，同時也回應整個西方的反猶太歷史，還有彌補美國在二戰結束前後，無法幫助德國以及東歐猶太人的過去。同時，那也是以色列作為一個民主國家，與美國共享著某種價值的產物。

（本文節錄翻譯自戰略暨國際研究中心，CSIS，原文連結）