Oil does not explain the US commitment to Israel
Oil does not explain the US commitment to Israel
For a long time the justification given for US support of Israel, especially from many on the left, was that it somehow improved the US's ability to extract oil from the Persian Gulf.
This explanation was nonsensical because most of the Arab monarchies were happy to host US bases as a means to reinforce their power over their populations, and were happy to sell oil on the open market in dollars, reinforcing US power through the petrodollar system. The ONLY pressure on this system was the existence of Israel, which inflames their subject populations because of its genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Even Iran would be happy to see US investment in its petroleum output, especially in the absence of Israel. In 2000, Dick Cheney himself lobbied for reducing sanctions on Iran so that Haliburton could develop their oil wells, saying that the US was missing out on investment [1]. Nevertheless, sanctions on Iran remained for decades.
The reason that sanctions remained for decades is because our government prioritizes Israel's security OVER the profits of oil companies. This was due to its powerful lobby in the United States, which include organizations like AIPAC. This was all described by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in their book "The Israel lobby".
However, for 20 years, Mearsheimer and Walt's thesis was outside of the mainstream, not only because of lobby organizations smearing them as antisemites but also because left-wing intellectual figures like Noam Chomsky told their followers that they were naive in not understanding the great power of corporations relative to 'small' forces like AIPAC.
20 years later Mearsheimer and Walt have been vindicated. It has become mainstream to take note when politicians take money from AIPAC, which is a shocking majority of Congress. Noam Chomsky has been exposed as a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein, infamous pedophile and donor to Friends of Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) who collaborated with Alan Dershowitz to smear Mearsheimer and Walt [2].
Furthermore, with Iran's seizure of the Strait of Hormuz the US has lost control over 20% of global oil and LNG transit and indeed has lost a significant amount of sovereignty, because with that control Iran gains coercive leverage over the US. Because of the US commitment to Israel, its access to oil has been constricted and US imperial power has suffered a gaping wound.
I am not trying to portray oil companies in a good light, or that they are the victims in any way, or promote US imperial interests. My motivations are to stop the US from enabling injustices on the Palestinians. But when a problem is misdiagnosed, there is no way a cure can be derived from that misdiagnosis. By hiding the Israel lobby behind the phantom of oil, Chomsky protected them and ensured their continued influence. Many followed suit, hoping to piously absolve themselves of antisemitism by ignoring Zionist political influence. This must end.