Michael. Israel is not, by any definition, a democratic country. It is an ethnic enclave whose raison d'etre is to promote and keep safe a single ethnic group. Part of the reason for the Israeli hard liners grudging acceptance of the various peace plans in recent years is that somebody over there did the math and realized they were being out bred by their Palestinian cousins. Eventually, regardless of intent, Israel would have become Palestine by default within one, perhaps two generations. IF it was a democracy. A true democracy would, faced with that prospect, simply find the means to indoctrinate the coming generations into the appropriate mindset i.e. to think of all Israelis as the same, regardless of ethnicity. But that is less preferable to an ethnocentric state than the two-state solution they've been traditionally against.
By contrast, the principle the US is founded on, E PLURIBUS UNUM (from many, one), is totally antithetical to that of Israel as it is meant to SPECIFICALLY do away with such ethnic cocooning. Ours is a tribe of the mind. Theirs is the old fashioned tribe of the blood. Ours is better.
It's not a democracy. No more than South Africa was a democracy before aparthied went away. To claim it is, is spin.
The US HAS been a long time ally of Israel and, for our pains, Israeli spies have stolen our secrets, sold our tech to our enemies, entered into open trade with countries against which we have embargoes and, on at least one occasion, attacked American military personnel. Some ally.
All of their actions are taken under the heading of what's good for the Israeli state. Which is PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE. They have a tough road and they have a specific goal in mind for themselves that has a lot of blocks in the way. Israel does what every nation should do: protects its own interests to the exclusion of concern for the interests of other nations.
All I have ever advocated is that the US act the same way and only do what is actually good for us rather than what gets the pockets of our politicians fat.
But I'm funny that way.
Osama bin Laden may desire a global caliphate but he's never going to get it and not because of anything Israel does or doesn't do.
As the US is learning in Iraq and as we already learned in Vietnam, it is impossible in modern times for a foreign power, however large and powerful, to control for any real length of time, a seperate coutnry that doesn't wish to be controlled.
Bin Laden is dangerous because he is insane. He and his followers will wreak havoc on various nations forever because their ultimate goal can never be realized. Our siding with Israel, hell, Israel's continued existence, matters not at all in that paradigm. Whether they stay or go, the world is not going to accept the yoke of Islamic law.
Israel has, literally, nothing to do with that.