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Rethinking the Costs of Peace
In pledging to trim ineffective spending, President Obama declared that "there will be no sacred cows and no pet projects. All across America, families are making hard choices, and it's time their government did the same."
By asking earlier this month for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel in his FY2010 budget request, it would seem that on this important policy issue President Obama's commitment is more rhetorical than substantive. Since 1949, according to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has provided to Israel more than $100 billion in military and economic assistance. In 2007, the United States and Israel signed an agreement for $30 billion in additional military aid through FY2018.
Yet the provision of U.S. weapons to Israel at taxpayer expense has done nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to achieving a just and lasting peace. Rather, these weapons have had the exact opposite effect, as documented recently by Amnesty International, which pointed to U.S. weapons as a prime factor "fueling" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, during the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 innocent Palestinian civilians, including more than 1,000 children. During its December 2008-January 2009 war on the occupied Gaza Strip alone, Israel killed nearly 1,200 non-combatants.
On average, for each day that President Bush sat in the Oval Office, Israel killed one Palestinian civilian, often with U.S. weapons. Before Congress appropriates any additional military aid to Israel, it should insist upon President Obama providing a comprehensive and transparent review of the effects U.S. weapons transfers to Israel have on Palestinian civilians. The Arms Export Control Act limits the use of U.S. weapons given to a foreign country to "internal security" and "legitimate self-defense."
If, after reviewing the impact of Israel's misuse of U.S. weapons, the President and Congress cannot find the political will to sanction Israel for its violations of the Arms Export Control Act and prohibit future arms transfers as is required by law, then there are still steps that the U.S. government should take to ensure that any future transfers are not used to commit human rights abuses but instead to promote U.S. policy goals. For example, previous U.S. loan guarantees to Israel have stipulated that funds cannot be used to support Israeli activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel in the same way would prevent these weapons from being used to kill innocent Palestinian civilians.
As President Obama has stated, "We can't sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars, on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists or interest groups. We simply can't afford it." In regard to U.S. aid to Israel, this is true as much from a budgetary standpoint as it is from a moral one.
This article originally appeared in the Detroit Free Press but was reprinted with permission from the author.- Posted in
21 Comments so far
Show Allthis is hilarious.
"Hilarious"? Israel kills and kidnaps Palestinians every day, with U.S. support and complicity. Here in the U.S., we are losing jobs, homes, education, and health care, and Social Security and Medicare are threatened, while our tax dollars, to the tune of $15 million each day, are sent to the apartheid state of Israel. Our weapons and aid are used illegally by Israel in their program of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians so that Israelis can steal ever more Palestinian land and water resources.
Our complicity in the slow-motion holocaust Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people earns us the hatred of people around the world, and threatens our security.
I guess this would be "hilarious" to people like the Mossad agents who were celebrating and dancing as they photographed the 9-11 attacks as they unfolded in NYC. But I don't know anyone, myself, who is laughing.
Why do American's hard hit by undeserved financial loss act like lemmings? The answer to their bondage lies therein.
Habit?
. . . it would seem that on this important policy issue President Obama's commitment is more rhetorical than substantive.
This will probably turn out to be true for nearly everything Obysmal does or proposes for the next three years and eight months. On questions of the empire and the constitution he has already proven himself to be a consummate quibbler and equivocator. Cheney urinates on his head and his only response is to ask where the paper towels are. He should have thrown the Judith Miller business back in that evil old fart's face. Cheney makes up a pack of the vilest lies regarding the invasion of Iraq, feeds them to an unscrupulous "journalist" who gets them printed in the NYT. Cheney then goes on Press The Meat and says "Why only this morning, the New York Tombs said . . . " Why didn't Obysmal keep repeating this story when asked to respond to Cheney's lies? Why? In this cowardice and microscopic political calculation lies the seeds of his possible defeat. Obysmal is no profile in courage.
We can write our cathartic thoughts in these blogs till "hell freezes over" but none of our corporately selected "officials" care. They want to keep us occupied by bitching. They aren't even accepting faxes about health care anymore. Probably the best way to stop them is to discontinue enabling them by not paying our income tax. Many offshore corporations don't so why should we? If the tax money stops rolling in they won't be able to get credit for continuing the huge defecits they are running up for their own selfish causes. We then might be able to regain control of our runaway government and reinstitute what our founders had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.
No they do not care.
More to the point, the cynical bastards fund a lot of these sites so that there will be a safety valve and you won't march on the White House.
Saw a very interesting documentary on CBC the other day, it pointed out what the actual debt of the usa was. Including all the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Social Security and the national debt, you poor buggers owe about $53 Trillion. Bush and the repubs really buggered you, either you raise taxes and cut spending or you'll be in the poorhouse by 2040. Of course, raising taxes and cutting spending when you're in the middle of an economic crisis is just the recipee for a long depression...
Yah, 3 more billion to Israel. Why worry, it's not like it's going to be worth 3 billion by the time it gets there.
Buggery! It's the elite american way!
The 'good' thing about these billions seem to be that part of it will be spent on buying American weaponry. BTW, has anyone ever figured out where the US would be financially if less money was spent on war?
The faster we pull the props out from under Israel, the better off the world will be.
Who do you think 'elects' our government? American citizens? It's run by Zionests
NO SACRED COWS EXCEPT FOR THIS ONE, EH, MR. PRESIDENT?
There are now 135,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 49,000 in Afghanistan, according to the Defense Department. The total cost for the two wars now exceeds $900 billion.
Yeah, we know, we're out of money for health care, we need to be more "responsible", pay our mortgages and be good dumb shits.
"Before Congress appropriates any additional military aid to Israel, it should insist upon President Obama providing a comprehensive and transparent review of the effects U.S. weapons transfers to Israel have on Palestinian civilians. "
Don't. Hold. Your. Breath.
Congress?!?
The author might as well state that Cheney or even AIPAC should insist that we stop military aid to Israel.
"Conditioning U.S. military aid to Israel in the same way would prevent these weapons from being used to kill innocent Palestinian civilians."
In a crowded place like Gaza this is all but impossible. Israel's enemies, knowing there is no secure place to hide from Israeli war planes, simply place their operational sites amid civilian areas. This is done to create deterrance as it would raise the political costs of every air strike. This tactic is well documented in cases of asymmetric warfare.
JERUSALEM – Yehoshua Zettler, one of the founding members of a violent pre-state Jewish movement and mastermind of the assassination of a top U.N. envoy in 1948, has died in Israel. He was 91.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090526/twl-ml-israel-obit-zettler-38359fb.html
Founded by terrorists?
President Obama declared that "there will be no sacred cows and no pet projects. All across America, families are making hard choices, and it's time their government did the same."
As President Obama has stated, "We can't sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars, on programs that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists or interest groups. We simply can't afford it."
this, petrkrop, is hilarious. just as most everything coming out of barackstar's mouth is, these days.
and if you want more hilarious, just wait until he opens his mouth tomorrow.
The programs to fund the Israeli military exist solely because of the AIPAC lobby. Our elected officials are not heeding the wishes of their constituents -- we need those tax funds here at home -- and not for our military---but for our social programs and to protect our environment.
Congress is bought and paid for. Members of Congress only want to keep their cushy jobs so they sell their votes for 'donations' (bribes!). Now we are all to blame for letting this happen. Get over this 'lesser of two evils' excrement. Both of the major parties are evil to the bone. You let P.R. rot your brain when you vote either Dem or Repub. Want real change? Change how you vote.
If your 'representative' voted for the added funds for the wars, voted for the bankster bailout, and says Single Payer is off the table with the Employee Free Choice Act--how can you vote for that person again? You can learn---but you have to admit that you were foolish to believe the hype of the campaign season. Watch what is going on and get a little smarter next time. Don't fall for the same old
lies.
But don't leave that Representative alone. Write, call, fax, email and set up meetings at the local office. Make some noise and make your point on how you want your rep to vote---following your advice---not the big money boys. We have to be active if we have any hope of getting any real democracy. It ain't a spectator sport. Get going!
By all means, let's write legislators to stop this.
The US funds Israeli arms to kill people by proxy: they let the Zionists do some of the nasty stuff and let antisemitism and their actions draw some of the heat away from Washington.
We have to work here.
By all means, let's write legislators to stop this.
However ---
The US funds Israel to kill by proxy: they let the Zionists draw fire for horrors they too want. I am persistently surprised to hear few commentators here pointing out the patronization in US patronage of Israel and the antisemitism implicit in this relationship.
That's the payoff for Washington. Of course AIPAC and Israel (not the same!) have some voice: partnership works that way, even for junior partners.
"There will be no sacred cows.....however, the Dept. of Defense will remain as a cash cow for the MIC and accompanying contractors.."