In essence it's not about Israel itself, but rather that the US wants an ally in the region that they can use to project power in the middle east. Of course nowadays there's mutual interests and lobbying, so the choice for Israel is very much set in stone, but in another universe it could have been a different country.

>It is hard to understand why the U.S. cares about a random Middle Eastern country called Israel this much.

Study the links between the American military industrial complex and Evangelical Christianity, in particularly the latter's view of Israel's role in end-times prophecy, and you'll get your answer.

Excellent propaganda and god knows how much blackmail. Just look at the US cities lighting up monuments etc. to celebrate Israeli independence day. And this during a war the majority of US citizens don't support.

Israel is "western" outpost in the Middle East. It's not a random country. It's a colonial power with a geopolitical mission.

The American people are well on their way to this realization. The problem is in our government, media and executive class, which are fully Zionist occupied.

It kind of made sense (strategic, if not moral) when we were a booming country very dependent on Middle Eastern oil in the last half of the 20th century and wanted to have a strong ally in the region. Makes less sense recently though.

Then perhaps Israel has surmised that the US might not be interested in sticking around and decided to make their play while they had an ally in the White House.