It is because the Arabs countries don't recognize Israel, therefore they don't want to compete with us. This is why we were "adopted" by UEFA. Beside, Culturally speaking Israel is part of Europe, and I don't mean Geographically, I mean the lifestyle. The Hot Israeli girls thread: https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397378 Enjoy
Besides this; it's also due to the fact that when the Isreali teams traveled it caused such a huge hostile environment. At one point when Israel was a part of the AFC it had argueably the best league inside of it at that time.
Believe me I would rather qualify in Asia because I assume it would be easier (I don't know what IFA thinks maybe UEFA is more prestigious) but political conditions make it impossible.
Actually I prefer to keep play in Europe..More safe and definitely more professional. Besides, I love European football, and we're able to play in Champions League and UEFA Cup.
But there's a difference between being able to and actually qualifying. Is the prestige of a club making the CL group stages only a few times a decade better than maybe contending for whatever cup they have in Asia every year? I think I would have to agree with you though, every team whether domestic or international should always aspire to play in the better league or in this case region. Like if we make it to the World Cup we'd truly deserve it unlike Saudi Arabia which goes and then gets beat 8-0 by Germany.
Israel was arguably rejected from the AFC - something they created in the 1940's. Even Palestine/Eretz Yisroel National team before 1948 was practically the 1948 Israel NT onwards. We had a strong base for the FA before hand and before AFC's creation. Its no wonder that we would make it to the World Cup finals everytime..... but ones gotta see modern times vs. the 1970's. Maybe back in the 70's there wasnt S. Arabia or Japan/Korea and China to worry about.... but still we did struggle to some degree and we were lucky to qualify in the WC 1970 in beating Australia. North Korea - another powerhouse at that time, refuse to play the 'Zionist fascists' and it was just us and Australia. Forward to the present day - Europe in the past 17 years have given us alot of opprotunity and dispair. One thing is certain, when we came to Europe in 1992, we were losing to Cyprus and barely winning Iceland. Today we had good away records in Switzerland, Ireland, France and Spain. We also have many players who are seen in Europe and play in Europe - one of the worlds most elite leauges. So thats a plus. Yes; we aren't as good as top European national teams yet, but we did improve dramatically eventhough i am very critical of our game. I think its better to stick to what we have because over time the smallest midgets turn up to be good just like Greece in 04. Serbia which is not new, but broken up again and again seem to recoup and make an amazing NT and U21 team. Montenegro is not that bad either... We can learn from them.... But what i can tell you is that we would never learn when we play as a 'powerhouse' in Asia where there is no scouts, no real good teams and the same final opponents in the playoff run!