Iran must've finally wiped Israel off the map.  What else would explain why Israel isn't mentioned by all the self-appointed experts on the Middle East in all their bilious blabber about what should be done about evil incarnate ISIS?

After all, Israel is supposedly our closest ally in the Middle East and has the most powerful military in the region, including a nuke arsenal.  Wouldn't it be taking a key role in fighting ISIS if it still existed?

Actually, Israel has gone missing before.  It was missing during our first Gulf War, during our second Gulf War, during our Bosnian War, during our ongoing Afghanistan War, and during our other military actions that resulted in the death of American soldiers.

Could it be that we aren't hearing much about Israel because its strategic interests differ from ours?  Could it be that Israel sees Iran as its biggest existential threat, while we see value in Iran joining in the fight against ISIS?

It's not just Israel that sees the situation differently from us.  For example, our NATO ally Turkey sees the insurgency of its commie Kurd separatists as a higher priority than ISIS, while we see Syrian and Iraqi Kurds as allies in fighting ISIS.  Now, Turkey and Israel have restored diplomatic relationships, and Turkey has patched things up with Russia, a country that has taken the side of the Assad regime in Syria, a regime that we want to overthrow, which is a goal that is at odds with our other goal of defeating ISIS.

Whew, my head is spinning.  And I haven't even gotten to the complexities and contradictions of our relationship with Sunni Saudi Arabia, which is a major source of radical Islam, is fighting a proxy war in Yemen against its archenemy of Shiite Iran, and differs with Turkey on what to do about ISIS.  Then there are the complexities and contradictions of our relationships with Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, Pakistan, and others.  

The Middle East is so complex and convoluted that trying to predict the outcome of an action is akin to knocking over a domino and immediately having a bowling ball fall on your head.

The fight against ISIS (and al Qaeda) makes strange bedfellows.   Of course, unnatural couplings have been the political situation in the Middle East for the century that the West has been mucking around in the land that Westerners don't understand.  As soon as we get in bed with one country of ill-repute, we find that it is cheating on us with another country of ill-repute.  Then we wake up in the morning with an embarrassing rash from a dose of diplomatic STD. 

Yet many bilious blabberers think it would be easy to defeat ISIS if only Obama weren't an effete intellectual with Muslim sympathies and a hatred of the USA.   At the same time, these maestros of machismo are afraid to raise questions about Israel.

Well, this fool will rush in where maestros fear to tread.  Below is a conversation that I've been having with myself about Israel.

Given a choice, would I rather live in Israel or some other Middle Eastern country?  Israel, in a heartbeat.

Why?  Because the Israeli tribe shares many of the same values as my tribe, and because I admire Jewish culture, humanity, industriousness, and intelligence.

I like Jews so much that I wish that the USA had let Zionists establish a state in America instead of Palestine.  And I'd support an immigration policy of letting the entire Jewish population of Israel immigrate to the USA.  (More Jews already live in the USA than in Israel.)

On the other hand, I am deeply conflicted over Israel, because it is a religious state and thus runs counter to America's founding principle of the separation of church and state.  Likewise, I resent that many Jewish Americans (as well as many Christians) have let their religion influence our policies in the Middle East, often to the detriment of the USA.  In that regard, I share the concern that FDR and Truman had about Zionism—that a Jewish state would mix government and religion and ultimately lead to tragedy, including the possibility of a world war.

I recognize that virtually all nations in the world hold land that was taken by force from someone else at some point in history or at multiple points in history.  It's hard to find clean hands in the evolution of nation states.  Still, I'm uneasy with the terrorist roots of the founding of Israel and with its treatment of Palestinians.  At the same time, I recognize that Palestinians aren't angels and are not entirely innocent victims.

I also recognize that due to the politics of the situation and to our tribal affiliation with Israelis, we will remain tied to Israel to the end, whatever that may be. I find that reality sobering, because after I weigh all the plusses and minuses of being tied to Israel, I find that the minuses outweigh the plusses.  Or stated differently, I find that our relationship with Israel is not mutual, because Israel benefits more from it than we do. 

Granted, Israel's existence and military keep our adversaries distracted and their forces split.  On the other hand, its existence and its ties to us serve as a rallying cry from mosques by radical imams to their medieval nut-job fanatics to kill Americans.   

Maybe Israel has gone missing in the fight against ISIS for the simple reason that if it joined the fight directly, this would enrage our Muslim allies of the moment.  Or maybe Israelis want us to shoulder the burden so that we suffer the blowback instead of them. 

Whatever the reason, I find it strange that few people are talking about this.