I said one of the benefits. Islamists are more interested in attacking them than us--they serve as a lightning rod. Better to fight them in Israel than here, same as it's better to fight Russia in Ukraine than here.
That is kinda of a terrible take. While I support Israel, it certainly can be argued that its existence is what sparked the Islamism of the past half century. The failure of Pan-Arabism (which was secular) not to dislodge Israel left the political terrain open for religious fundamentalists. Thankfully, it seems, Islamism is on the wane. But I think the honest answer on why the West supports Israel is because it
is the West. It shares our values - it even participates in Eurovision. It's only natural we would support people who look/act/behave like us.
What sparked radical Islam is oil. Specifically, the flood of oil money that enabled them to go back on the warpath.
And reality is often quite ugly. Ignoring the ugliness might make people feel better but it doesn't make it go away.
You are wrong here. Yes, the influx of oil money DID have a role to play in radical Islam but it was the rapid change that oil money brought, along with the West's desire and yes, arrogance, that they would be able to control the MidEast, and Islamic people and thus the oil and the political advantage, but mostly the oil, and of course the resulting wealth from both.
Oil rich Islamic nations were faced with rapid change of their culture and their people as more non-Muslims were exerting influence over their people, and as culture and nations changed very, very rapidly over a very short period of time.
Look at the US and much of the rest of European based nations: Over the last 50 years, there has been an enormous change in the prominence of Christianity, of the cis white male Christo-hetero normative for power, influence and control as women have gained more and more access to education and to jobs--careers, even! and occasionally, political office. At the same time, it became more acceptable to be gay, bi, even trans (something most Americans had never heard of except, perhaps as transvestites)) or for women to express that they are not all asexual, interested in giving birth, allowing others to dictate what they did with their bodies or with whom and to actually express personal ambitions and to--get this--prioritize them. Black and brown people are no longer willing to accept being back of the bus, literally or figuratively and expect to have decent housing, decent education, access to health care, and jobs and to determine their own futures. In other words, the vast changes in the American and European landscape took place mostly since WWII. And have given us Donald Trump and the decline of the GOP into the QOP.
Now try the Muslim world, which was largely but obviously not completely stuck somewhere in the middle of the 14th century and then skipped ahead to the 20th century. America has done lost its mind over the changes of the last 50-75 years. Is it any wonder that several centuries of what we consider progress compressed into maybe 30 years has caused a lot of blow back from the Islamic world??