Some find Israel admirable, but not the Left.

http://tinyurl.com/353uz9w
Israel, the World's 'Dirty Harry' By Michael Filozof
With the recent "peace flotilla" incident, we have yet another Arab-Israeli dust-up. It's been going on as long as I've been alive, and we can expect "more of the same" for the foreseeable future.
I reflexively side with Israel -- every time. Why do I, though? I am not a Jew. I don't know many Jews, either. I have a couple of Jewish acquaintances, but no close Jewish friends.
What about national security? For all the talk we hear about how Israel is an "ally" of the U.S., the fact is that we have no American military bases there, and American troops have never fought alongside Israelis in any of the numerous Arab-Israeli wars. Unlike Muslim Turkey and Muslim Albania, Israel is not a member of the NATO collective-security alliance. And of course, Israel has no oil to sell us, unlike the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, both of whom we have fought to defend.
So why support Israel? When I was a kid in the 1970s, the Arab-Israeli conflict was front-page news just about all the time. Back then I didn't really understand what the whole thing was about. But one thing became perfectly clear: the Israelis were very tough, very cool, and very professional, and the Arabs were lunatics...