The ally thing is tentative. We got really heavy into the middle east during the cold war because of the Russians, and so long as the cold-war generation of policy makers continue to govern affairs (and so long as Putin being Putin and China acting like a colonial power makes military action relevant) then we'll have to worry about the middle east.

But the day we cease needing petroleum for anything important is the day America starts turning its back on Israel. In another one hundred years, it is very possible that we'll look at the entire region in the same way we look at Africa today. Sort of a "Gee, their lives must suck, now what is the Mars Colony doing right now?"