Dog-Wagging Foreign Policy

I don't have any particularly brilliant insight on what's happening in Israel and Gaza right now. I do think that the Israeli government is playing into the radicals' hands for short-term domestic political benefit, and that the those determined to destroy Israel are out of their minds. What I find most frustrating is the neutered quality of political discussion about this issue in the United States. Let me tell you a story to explain what I mean. Once I was talking about the middle east and asked the following: "Setting aside for a moment the moral considerations of supporting of Israel, which in general I accept, how does our support of it serve the strategic interests of the United States?" I was immediately accused of being anti-Semitic. Does that seem fair to you? It strikes me as a little weird.