The Price of the Alliance with the USA

We are allied with the USA and we enjoy its vital political support. But now a colossal rival has rised to dispute American hegemony, the Agatean Empire (as by Terry Pratchett) and America is calling its debts of goodwill. Last week, in the middle of the worlwide corona epidemic, the all-powerful Secretary of State made a short visit to us and discretely reminded us of our friendship.

I can imagine a very polite conversation over tea in the garden about the weather with some vague mention of advances in telecommunication and the taste of desalinated water, because that was the English style and Mr Pompeo is American and probably drinks coffee and his style is direct. We understood (how not to!) and immediately (yes! immediately) the Soreq2 desalination plant project was given to an Israeli-European consorcium and not to the cheaper and better Chinese, and of course the advanced and efficient Huawei will not allowed to put a feet in Israel. We are paying the price of American alliance, in this war we are faithfully with America. Not that the Chinese ever did something bad to us, and personally I like the Chinese and admire their hard work and can-do spirit.
But they dared to compete with America and that will not do. Look what happened to the Japanese.

Ill.: The Athenian tetradrachm, the US dollar of Antiquity, the currency of the so called Delian Alliance (symmachia).  

P.S.: Ron Unz predicted this outcome a few day ago. Unz is conspiracy maniac but this time he was right. Quote: "The classic 1972 film The Godfather ranks #2 in the IMDb Movie Database, and one of its most famous scenes concerns a conflict between a powerful and arrogant Hollywood film mogul and a visiting representative of the Corleone family. When the polite requests of the latter are casually disregarded, the movie tycoon awakens to discover the bloody head of his prized race-horse in his own bed, thereby demonstrating the serious nature of the warning he had received and indicating that it should not be disregarded. Pompeo had recently served as CIA Director, and I suspect he called in a few favors with elements of the Israeli Mossad and had them take lethal steps to convince Netanyahu that our demands that he reassess his ties with China were of a serious nature, not to be treated lightly. I strongly suspect that the controversial Chinese-Israeli economic ventures will soon be curtailed or abandoned."