To pick but one example, there's no reason to expect that Israel should be the last bit special to the Chinese.
As WW2 rapidly passes out of living memory, the emotional ties to Israel will fade, even in the United States. Someday, Israel must cease to be special, even to the Americans. And to Canadians, once our newspapers go broke or change hands. In the west, outside some self-reinforcing enclaves, the war, the Holocaust, and any legitimacy that Israel may have gained from it, will take the proportions of cartoon characters, mere balloons in a parade, easily punctured at the first conflict of interest.
Israel is of no greater fundamental importance than say, the eastern Congo, the Sudan or Bangladesh (a nation that will soon in fact be driven into the sea). If Israel is smart, they will cut a deal with their neighbours while their position is still relatively favourable. But I do not expect them to be smart because, well, they are drunk on the power they think they have. This is the usual behaviour of nation states with big guns and weak neighbours: they think the situation will never change. And meanwhile, there will be no shortage of religious fanatics ready to seize another piece of stolen land on the West Bank, to plant dragon's teeth.
"Israel is of no greater fundamental importance than say, the eastern Congo, the Sudan or Bangladesh (a nation that will soon in fact be driven into the sea)."
It depends what you mean by "importance" - certainly, U.S. planners have for decades considered a powerful, expansionist Israel a useful "strategic asset" in the most strategically important region on the planet. Hence the support successive U.S. governments have given and continue to give to Israeli expansionism.
It is true that the "Holocaust weapon", along with the "anti-Semitism" card, has been used to help stifle criticism of Israel, but I think it's a mistake to explain U.S. policy towards Israel in terms of just this. While such tactics have undoubtedly helped create and sustain public sympathy for Israel (although polls show that most Americans feel that current U.S. policy is overly biased in favour of Israel, and want the U.S. government to "avoid taking sides" in the conflict), U.S. support for Israel is a product fundamentally of a perception among U.S. elites that a strong, militaristic client state in Middle East serves their interests. The Heathlander
Now i will keep quiet, because I am merely channeling Gwynn Dyer.
