Why America should stand with Israel -- but not too close

That is one important reason why America’s destiny did not mirror Europe’s. We did not split apart into a rat’s nest of warring states. We did not get stuck in a cycle of political violence fueled by ethno-national enmity. And we did not have to bristle with arms out of terror.

To put it bluntly, America is unlike Europe in pretty much the same ways it is unlike Israel. And just as we know we stand with our European allies — but not too close — the same goes for Israel, for the same kinds of reasons, in the same way.

Even this is onerous to some critics, of course. They are disgusted that it is even possible for Israel, so much like the bad old nation-states of Europe, to exist in that way. They see it as an unjust and repellant atavism, one that must be replaced with a peaceful, pluralistic, multicultural democracy on the new European model — or, implicitly, America’s own. But the peaceful European model was the consequence of complete exhaustion and destruction following the world’s two most terrible wars. And Israel cannot just start being like America. No Old World country can.