Presidential candidates go to considerable lengths to cultivate pro-Israel support. They know that the seal of approval from AIPAC and other lobby organizations will facilitate fund-raising and encourage higher turnout on their behalf.

Gaining and retaining that support means backing Israel down the line. That is why presidential candidates John Edwards, Mitt Romney, and John McCain all made emphatic pro-Israel speeches to the 2007 Herzliya conference. Herzliya is an annual meeting on Israeli national security. It is organized by the hawkish Institute for Policy and Strategy.

So US presidential candidates traveled to Israel to speak at an Israeli security conference. They did this to prove their loyalty to Israel. They wanted to avoid the fate that befell Howard Dean in the 2004 presidential campaign. Dean made the mistake of recommending that the United States take a more "even-handed role" in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

This happens even though Israel strategic value has declined. It also happens even though some Israeli actions, like the continued effort to colonize the Occupied Territories, are at odds with stated US policy.

Source: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2007, a book written by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt