Yes, we recognize the government of Israel (as we should) -- although we have NO treaty of mutual defense with Israel; and it is true -- Israel is at war with its mortal enemy, "Palestine" (though it is an internal war; a kind of civil war, as "palestine" is not even really a nation-state and never has been).
All of which has next to nothing to do with the Gulf War and the ensuing blockade of Iraq. These actions -- actions of imperial military interventionism -- have a lot more to do with the escalation of radical-Islamic terrorism against the US in the 1990s than does our recognition of Israel.
And for what?
Oil?
We have Oil. Here, in the US, in Alaska and in major offshore deposits. There is no need to engage in empire-building in the Gulf; such imperial overstretch invariably serves to enrage and radicalize against us, numerous elements who (if we were not militarily present in the region) would otherwise care very little about us, one way or another.
Patriots would prefer to drill oil at home, and make no more enemies than we have to. We value the blood of our fellow-citizens too highly to endanger them by engaging in empire-building in the Gulf (and somalia, and serbia, and haiti, and... etc).