Fear of losing Israel is part of the "tiny country surrounded by huge hostile enemies" mindset that successive Israeli regimes nurture in order to keep their people onside. It's not just an Israel thing by a long chalk. The enemy without was very well delineated in Orwell's 1984. More recently we've had invocations of evil empires, the axis of evil and so on. The Cold War fed on it for decades, even though "Russia" was never really a threat to the US or Western Europe at all. All illusory but very convenient. Yes there's a lot of rhetoric from the more idiotic Islamic factions about wiping Israel off the map, etc., but rhetoric is all it's ever been. No-one has ever come close, nor should they even think about it (hope I'm not losing friends...)

And thank you mods for shutting down a thread just before I'd spent 20 minutes on a post to it. Grr! :-)