The guy there now is the closest we've had in a long long time - he can be useful and those who tried to knock him off would make things a lot harder.
Israel is an interesting question. Considering the USS Liberty, they have killed more American service members than Saudi Arabia. Israel exists because of our money and military support, yet does act contrary to our interests more than it seems to support them. It’s occupation or colonization of Arab lands is problematic. That it is imposing a religious state upon an unwilling majority of people in the lands it controls is a recipe for disaster. The Islamic residents will not convert to Judaism. It cannot repeat evicting them in large numbers like occurred in 1948 and thereafter—not accepting back residents who initially fled the area. It increasingly cannot legitimately claim to be a democratic state when it denies equal rights to the majority of its residents. The pressing questions are many and time only makes them worse. Who is who among those direct residents are citizens, what to do with the occupied lands and their residents, especially where many of these lands are being colonized by Jewish people, what to do with people that have family claims to lands that Israel has seized, occupied, maybe even sold to others. This is a festering situation. And, yes, I’m sure I’ll get flamed on this, but it is a problem, one of many in the Middle East. I’m not saying stop support of Israel, just saying our support needs to be with open eyes, realizing that its values and actions do not align with ours, that its future is troubled because they have not found a way to resolve any of the problems they face—occupied lands, occupied people, imposing religious rule upon a majority of people not sharing the same religion, etc. Lebanon shared similar fate and endured a bloody civil war. Israel has kept the powder keg under control but at cost. It has far more weapons, even nuclear weapons. Will force of arms keep it controlled forever? Are we along for that ride forever? Are their lines that Israel will face and cross that we will not follow? Since we are its primary supporter, money and weapons, can and should we play a bigger role in guiding or directing its future?