America has one great ally in the world. It's chief ally, by some calculations, maybe it's only real ally, and that's the state of Israel.

And that has been the case for a long time. In fact, so long that few people question whether that's a good idea or why exactly that is.

Everyone knows our closest ally is Israel, and we have all kinds of military and economic ties to Israel.

But the main way you know Israel is our closest ally is that really up until just the other day,

there was not a scenario you could conjure in your head in which the United States would take

the side of any other country over Israel. It just couldn't happen.

So Israel's our chief ally. Hasn't always been this way. Of course, Israel didn't exist until right

after the Second World War. So it's all pretty new and it's accelerated with every decade. We've

become closer and closer to Israel. Our commitment, not our legal commitment or publicly discussed

commitment, but our in effect commitment, or on the ground

commitment, Israel has become stronger every year. But there's no reason that should stay the way it is

forever. What if we decided to change it up? What if we decided to get a new closest ally in the world?

How about Qatar? What if Qatar was our closest ally?

Float that one at the next dinner party you go to. People will respond strongly, especially

if they're Fox News viewers. What? Are you an Islamist? Qatar? The bloodthirsty Islamo-fascist state. What are you getting paid by the Qatar lobby?

A-quack? Of course, there is no actual A-Quack, but if there was a Qatar lobby, it should be called A-Quack.

And then you would be forced to explain why Qatar should be our closest ally.

And of course, people look at you like you were insane, in fact, dangerous and probably anti-American.

But let's just take Qatar out of it for a second.

How do you think about, if you're the United States, who ought to be your closest ally?

Who gets that job?

Who do you take to the prom?

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