To be fair, for the past 60 years Israel has been a toehold of relative democracy and stability in the Middle East, as well as a toehold for Western civilization to exert influence in the Middle East, which has the largest concentration of oil reserves to be accessed, after the collapse of the British Empire and reverting European colonies to self rule.
However, that democracy has been undermined by politicians who campaign on tough stances against the hostile Islamist countries around it. These politicians tell their people, "Vote for me and I'll protect you from all these threats!" And so Israeli voters have.
However, what that also means is that such Israeli politicians have a vested interest in maintaining tensions with hostile nations so that their campaign platform remains relevant.
And, to be fair to the the Israelis, the same thing goes on with the Palestinians. They use ancient religious causes to justify modern hostilities to convince the Palestinian people to provide them with power. Which means that they, too, have vested interests in maintaining hostilities.
And it's the Palestinian and Israeli people who get caught in the crossfire, even though they have more in common with each other than they do with the elites who lead their respective people.
As to why American conservatives are so diehard in their support of Israel, it is because of Christian apocalyptic religious beliefs held by American fundamentalist Christians, which Israeli politicians are more than willing to exploit for their own benefit.
tl;dr : read the "Dune" series by Frank Herbert.