politics

Politcally, you're probably right.

But Israel isn't the golden goose, it's treatment of Palestine (specifically Gaza, but also the difference between Gaza and the West Bank) is. It's not a symptom of unconditional support, it's one of the reasons for unconditional support. Palestine, for the US, is a labratory in the same way that different aspects of South America were in the last century.

The US tech space is great at big data, broad spectrum surveillence tech. It's shit at targeted, specific tracking / facial recognition etc, especially when targets aren't American and white. Israel (whether it's provided or not) fills that gap. Israel is a testing ground of missle defence. It's a lab for targeted communications interception. It's a 'high intensity' test bed for border control and everything that entails from fences to automated weaponry. There's a reason riot cops and death squads in all but name in 'western liberal democracies' get training from the IDF and Israel. It's less talked about and surface level, but Israel's ongoing, illegal, and not additment ownership of nukes offers insight into how to hide, move, and set up nuclear capacity. And of course, it's also a lab for public policy when it comes to how much militarisation, blood abroad, propaganda tactics etc that the imperial core willl tolerate (although this last point has diminished as Israel got increasingly high on their own supply).

The importance of Israel isn't that it's a friendly airbase in the middle east (although that helps). It's that it's the perfect testing chamber for the West's most fascist domestic instincts, from surveillence to policing to torture to counter-insurgency.

There’s no reason to give up your money cow just because students are protesting it. They would rather massacre everyone first

Israel is a stable revenue generator for the military industrial complex. The iron dome is basically a SaaS model for arms. "Support" for Israel that isn't money staying within US shores is basically debt. Now that they are world pariahs, they will make excellent serfs. Also the Jewish members of the blob will get to live like Saudi Princes there under this model.

I agree most of the tech is probably a grift, but so is everything else.

Well I think it’s no doubt important politically and strategically for the US as an eventual way to try and take over Iran. But Israel is also a powerhouse headquarters for regional Western spy networks. The Mossad doing shit on behalf of the West is obviously huge, but having that sort of base to run your operations from for a variety of Western countries is critical to Western control over not just the Middle East but projecting power even farther Westward as well.

Mossad has the dirt on the West's bourgeoisie though thanks to Epstein.

No way out now, they don't want Dot setting them on fire too.

There was a thread about this a few weeks ago, icr, but Israel isn't just a hub for vendors but a proxy meant to disorient and attack states in West Asia if they don't fall in line with US foreign and energy policy. I think, though I can't know for sure as it's been a long time since I looked into it, that the US dollar is based on the transaction of oil in that currency. Which is why the US can employ MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) to print unlimited money for its hegemony.