Having written my primary college essay on how much I identify with the positive qualities of taxes, I think it is safe to say I am fairly staunch in my political beliefs.

As a young American who is about to turn 18 and gain the legal right to vote, I will soon finally be faced with the opportunity to exercise my right to vote for candidates and laws that closely represent my ideals.  Unfortunately, a byproduct of this rite of passage is that I may be challenged with the quandary of whether or not to vote for a candidate who agrees with the Democrat part of me but not my Zionist side.

This conundrum, posed in a recent Town Hall debate, is considered a very real possibility in the near future.  With support for the Palestinian cause rising on college campuses and an overall decline in our current federal administration’s relationship with Israel, this daunting dilemma might actually appear in a future federal election.

But probably not.

Over the ruckus of pledges to support either Israel or America during Town Hall, I shook my head and remarked that such a situation would never realistically arise, at least not in the foreseeable future.  From having studied AP U.S. History and debated students from around the country in Model Congress, I have derived the conclusion that support for Israel is strategically and morally important enough to America that no candidate for presidency will ever pass the primaries without voicing staunch support of the Jewish homeland.

Historically, America has displayed unwavering support for Israel.  In fact, effective lobbying by Jewish Americans mandated that every governmental conversation with the then-USSR had to include at least one discussion of Soviet Jewry.

We have even leaders with Anti-Semitism tendencies give their support to Israel.  President Nixon’s infamous White House tapes recorded a number of anti-Semitic comments directed at his Secretary of State (Henry Kissinger), yet he still backed Israel and rescued it during the Yom Kippur War.

I also reject the premise that our relationship with Israel has degraded to dangerous levels today.  The Senate unanimously passed a bill last summer doubling funding to Israel for its Iron Dome defense system.  AIPAC is as strong a committee as ever today, and the current realistic frontrunners in the 2016 election support Israel vehemently.

I would remind anyone who questions the relationship between Israel and America that Sen. Robert Kennedy was murdered by a Muslim extremist who feared he was too close to Israel.  Support for Israel is one of the few bi-partisan stances in America, because it is so beneficial to America that it has become central to American policy.  Israel is our only Democratic ally in the Middle East, our chief military ally in training troops for combat against ISIS, and an important supplier of useful technology and medicine to American citizens, businesses and consumers.

Democracy is not a zero-sum game.  For one political party or candidate to support Israel its opposition does not need oppose it. To not recognize the importance of the conflict in the Middle East, and to refuse to support Israel in its struggle for peace, is to not be an educated Democrat or Republican.  The Town Hall question was like asking whether your posture is supported more by your left leg or your right.