America will still be Israel's mule - whether it's Bibi or Mickey Mouse in charge.

Part of this is right - replacing Netanyahu would be unlikely to materially change Israeli policy in the short term, and probably not in the intermediate term. But it ignores the very real geopolitical reasons why we support Israel militarily. Not because we're their mule, but because it is in our interest to do so.

The Middle East is very important, geopolitically. There's the obvious fact that a lot of oil and gas is there, of course - and it's also a critical shipping route. So the West generally, and the U.S. specifically, care a lot about what happens in the region. And so do our largest geopolitical rivals. Russia, of course, has forged alliances with Iran and Syria for decades - and increasingly China is bringing countries into its sphere of influence through the Belt and Road. The Gulf War eliminated Iraq as a strategic check on the Shi'a states, and Iran's military influence - backed by Russia - is driving the security needs of all of the Sunni countries.

So we want to project power into the area and counter those growing influences. But we don't have a lot of allies in the region. So it is enormously beneficial for the U.S. for Israel to have oversized military might compared to the other regional powers. Not only does it serve as a direct check against Iranian hegemony, but it also draws the other Sunni nations (like Saudi Arabia) into Israel's security sphere. And as an added bonus, Israel's oversized economy in the region creates an alternative to those nations being exclusively in the Chinese economic sphere, as changing oil markets (especially America's oil and gas revolution) shift away from Gulf oil heading west to the U.S. and instead head east to China and India. The last thing we want is for the various Sunni states to fully commit to the Chinese sphere of influence as a means of protecting themselves against Iran/Syria, and we'd really like them to continue to shift a little more towards the West through economic ties with Israel.

All of that means that it is very much in the US' interest for Israel to continue to be one of the strongest powers in the region, militarily and economically. Which is a big part of the US' balancing act on the current crisis.