Yes. The Suez Canal is one reason. About fifty large ships traverse the canal daily, carrying 8% of the world’s seaborne commerce. That may not sound like much, until the prices of those goods suddenly rise significantly due to an added 3,000 miles to shipping distances. It happened once before, in 1956, and the incident brought the Soviet Union and the United States to the brink of nuclear war for a few days and essentially closed the canal for eight years. Prices suddenly went up, goods disappeared from markets in certain developing countries, famine occurred in others, causing political instability and vacuums throughout some others still. The closure contributed significantly to the world economic recession of 1958–59.
Work began last year to widen and improve the canal. It is expected to carry 20% of the world’s seaborne commerce in the near future. The canal’s importance is about to double.
Before oil, before the Suez Canal, there were trade routes. Through the Middle East ran the trade routes between Europe and Asia and the British, Russian, German and French troops were there to protect those routes and keep them open. War between the Turks and their the Muslim caliphate, the Persian Empire, the Afghani warlords and the European Powers had been a threat since the days of Marco Polo—to say nothing of the wars among the Europeans that were fought in the Middle East (Crimean War, etc.) and those trade and territorial wars among the Middle Easterners themselves. So, even if the Suez had never been built, there would today be superhighways along these same East-West routes to fight over and/or hold hostage.
Interest in the Middle East—the same international interests, the same arguments about trade, territory and Gods—are as old as the Old Testament. The occupations of the Romans, the Athenians, the wars with among the Assyrians, the Persians, the Sumerians, and the Babylonians are well documented in other literature. Oil is only the latest interest.
As to Israel: I’m quite proud that my country, among others, supported the creation of Israel. I think it was the right thing to do and I think it was done in the right place. I’m not so naive to believe that this was purely altruistic on the part of the important players in the world, but hey, with friends like these, you take what you can get. I am also not so naive to think that we shall see peace in the Middle East in the near future. But Israel is worth defending. They have the right to exist. As long as the countries around Israel want to be all pissy about this, there will always be a threat of war. War causes instability and instability at such an important crossroads affects the world economy, and the world, including the U.S., will protect their economic interests. This would have been the case with or without oil.
