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Republicans and Democrats Agree: Cut Aid for Poor People, Not Israel
With the U.S. economy in the tank and governments at all levels facing massive budget shortfalls, politicians left and right are seeking ways to curb spending. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker wants to eliminate collective bargaining rights and the decent pay that goes with them. President Barack Obama’s budget includes halving the home-heating oil subsidy poor households depend on.
As Republicans and Democrats propose cuts in programs that actually benefit their increasingly impoverished constituents, though, they agree there's one area of the budget that's not to be touched: the annual $3 billion subsidy U.S. taxpayers provide to the Israeli military.
One of the biggest defenders of the handout is House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. “There will be no cuts to security assistance to the Jewish State of Israel,” her chief of staff declared in a recent letter to House Republicans. The rest of the U.S. foreign aid budget, including assistance for Iraqi refugees and food aid to the world’s poorest people, is fair game. But Florida congresswoman insists we must help Israel maintain its “Qualitative Military Edge.”
And congressional Democrats have her back.
Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, for instance – a leading member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus – has drafted a letter, cosigned by California Democrat Anna Eshoo, warning that the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia “have the potential to add to the very real security challenges faced by Israel.” Reducing or “otherwise endangering aid to our ally” would be “unproductive,” she adds, encouraging her colleagues to tell Obama they “strongly support … providing $3.075 billion in assistance to Israel.” (For those shivering at home, that's more assistance than Obama is proposing to offer Americans trying to keep their houses warm.)
This liberal appeal for Israeli military aid, meanwhile, is being sent out under the auspices of J Street, a group that positions itself as a left-leaning answer to AIPAC. But J Street staff we spoke with at their recent conference were hard-pressed to explain why U.S. taxpayers should fund a right-wing Israeli government that continues to build settlements and maintains an inhumane siege of Gaza.
So it's left to folks like libertarian Congressman Ron Paul and his son, Kentucky Senator and Tea Party favorite Rand Paul, to call for ending aid to Israel. In a February 4 interview with ABC News, Rand Paul said of Israel, “I think that their per capita income is greater than probably three-fourths of the rest of the world. Should we be giving free money or welfare to a wealthy nation? I don't think so."
Indeed, Israel has the 24th largest economy in the world, and ranks 15th among 169 nations on the UN Human Development Index, which makes it a “very highly developed” nation.
Yet what thanks did Senator Paul get for his call to save the U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars? A torrent of criticism, even from J Street, which called on Republicans – and their donors – “to repudiate his comments and ensure American leadership around the world is not threatened by this irresponsible proposal.”
Paul's fellow Tea Partiers aren't any better. Of the 87 freshmen House Republicans elected on platforms of cut-baby-cut, at least three-fourths have now signed a letter declaring that, “As Israel faces threats from escalating instability in Egypt” – where have we heard that line of argument before? – “security assistance to Israel … has never been more important.” Subsidies are for militaries, you see, not poor people.
But even without U.S. funding, Israel would still spend $11 billion-plus on its military, more than all but 20 other nations in the world spend on their armed forced – and hundreds of millions of dollars more than the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite having just 1/10th the population. Throw in a couple – as in, couple hundred – little things called nuclear weapons, and, for better or worse, the Jewish state's “Qualitative Military Advantage” isn't going anywhere.
But you wouldn't know that listening to the folks at J Street or to liberals like Jan Schakowsky, who hysterically cite the specter of Arab democracy to advocate billions in subsidies for a government that openly flouts international law. So much for their concern about human rights. And so much for being progressive. Indeed, with liberals like these, the Netanyahu government and its allies at AIPAC are likely asking themselves: who needs the Tea Party?
50 Comments so far
Show Allgood for you medea.
j street is so patently fraudulant.
Israel is reportedly planning to launch a new war to strengthen its position in the Middle East, following recent political reforms in regional states.
A Western diplomat in the Jordanian capital Amman said on Wednesday that Israel has decided to attack Syria and Lebanon following the downfall of Hosni Mubarak's regime in Egypt, which served as a great loss to Tel Aviv, the Lebanese daily Assafir reported.
The diplomat reiterated that since Tel Aviv is seriously worried about consequences of the Egyptian revolution and future developments in the region, it wants to start a new war in the Middle East in order to turn the situation back in its favor.
"Israel intends to overthrow Bashar al-Assad government in Syria in a matter of weeks after a war with Lebanon's resistance movement of Hezbollah east of Lebanon, near the border with Syria,” Assafir quoted the diplomat as saying.
He added that Israel has already informed Washington about the plan. [presstv]
As long as Israel thinks it can rely on us, as it did with its massacre in Gaza with our white phosphorus bombs and our weapons given to them, and after our veto of the recent Security Council vote, Israel will continue to be the scourge of the earth that we all now know it to be. I never would have thought that I would agree with Reverend Farrakhan, but in this upside-down world, I think I love him! He really has been consistent and he has followed his convictions, and for those reasons, he is a person I really admire.
This is a scandal of epic proportions. Americans are freezing, while money continues to be piled on top of an already very wealthy country to maintain an offensive capability that has twice visited untold destruction on its neighbours in the past five years alone.
That this is a bipartisan effort, shows that congress is not only captured by oligarchic power, but by lobbyists of a foreign country. The treachery of progressives as well as tea partiers who betray their own constituencies is there for all to see.
We have been thoroughly betrayed.
Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan gives a summary of what went down in the last 60 years or so.
The Perfidy Of Government
How We Lost Our Economy, The
Constitution And Our Civil Liberties
By Paul Craig Roberts
3-1-11
http://www.rense.com/general93/howec.htm
Israelis have a per capita income almost equal to that of inhabitants of Switzerland, but we will penalize our Katrina victims and we will cut aid to U.S. poor people in order to send our $3 Billion per year to Israel (up front so that they can earn interest on it BEFORE the fact), that scoundrel country, (and we will GIVE them another $3 Billion per year in weapons transfers that we never require them to repay), a country which realized long ago that bilking the West meant that Israel should never pursue peace. What a nasty world our elected have made for us! We probably will hit the streets, at some point, like the Libyans, to protest our leadership!
UN-elect every stinking asshole in Congress and the sorry butt prez too. Bunch of zionist controlled pigs.
Israel has them all over a barrel because all the listening devices are recording inside two private companies inside Israel. Don't you people watch soaps??? They do this stuff all the time. It is called extortion.
Can we as citizens file extortion charges against israel... or the US government?
We should and it should be in the form of:
Abolish the IRS which makes us pay for Israel before we pay for Americans.
Abolish the Fed, as Madoff said recently (and he is King of Ponzi schemes), the Fed is a huge Ponzi scheme.
OR, allow us to OPT OUT of funding Israel. It's an option!
If I don't want to give money to candidates running for whatever on my 1040, I can refuse to do so. We should have a block where we can refuse to give money to Israel and have that portion of our taxes refunded to us.
One wonders if AIPAC might be open to some kind of contractual arrangement to represent the interests of Americans just as a sideline for their primary role. It appears to be about the only way those interests might stand a chance of getting listened to by the congressional representatives of paid sponsors.
One would think that, as Americans, AIPAC representatives really should give a tiny hoot about Americans. It seems they do not.
What ever Lola wants Lola gets. That song should be Israel's anthem. Just like the U.S., Israel is a fascist and corrupt regime posing as a democracy. They are our foothold in the Middle East, so they are given billions of $ by the U.S. taxpayers. Talk about taxation without representation!
WE DON'T NEED 'EM. They have hurt us more than they ever helped us. How have they ever helped us? I would love to have an example. (One cannot discount how they helped us by bombing the U.S.S. Liberty.) Because of Israel we lost absolutely all of our GOOD WILL with Israel's neighbors. Americans were considered "nice"and "just" before our unequivocal support of Israel. Our patent U.N. veto of everything constructive for the world regarding Israel (by the entire world except us and Israel---two votes against the entire WORLD), defies anything logical except if one considers AIPAC and its control of our politicians.
Funny, according to this show I saw the other day. There never was a U.S.S. Liberty. in fact there were no ships patrolling that area at the time of the alledged Liberty attack.
Surely the truth is somewhere, but it keeps getting harder to find less recognize!
>^^<
This is the GIANT elephant in the room here in Vermont. Why in the hell do Welch, Sanders and Leahy ALWAYS support EVERYTHING Israel wants?
National security, my ass. If they think they have to do it or not get elected, then we have lost our country, period.
There are a number of interwoven factors within the creation and maintenance of Israel.
None of them are honorable.
Here are some of the most significant (not prioritized);
1. The consumption of Middle-East oil requires a military ally in the region.
2. The Christian love of "Holy" wars and the perverse desire for the "end times."
3. The more jews in Israel, the less elsewhere.
4. Jews who see themselves as superior to everyone else.
5. Christians who see themselves as superior to everyone else.
6. Muslims who see themselves as superior to everyone else.
7. The concept of the "Holy Land" camouflages a disdain for the rest of the planet. This applies to ALL the separated so-called "sacred" places designated by humans.
8. Separate states for separate people based upon allegiances which insure further separations.
You seem to forget the most important factor of all.
The divine real estate agent of the current occupants, according to a book that they themselves wrote on the subject, awarded them title in perpetuity to all of that land several millenia ago. They're only trying to get rid of squatters and other interlopers. God wills it!
BUT they are getting rid of "squatters" with Madoff's transfers to Israel for his clients. They are getting rid of "squatters" with money from New Yorkers. They are getting rid of "squatters" with money from Home Depot, Maggi Bullion, Starbucks, and Intel (which is currently squatting on Palestinian land). These are the realtors squatting on Palestinian land.
I just don't get it. I wouldn't give a dime to own anything there! Been there, done it...I will never go back.
I suppose much would depend on whether one actually believes that the situation does involve the Will of God and its fulfillment. That's a perspective that has been strongly cultivated in recent times amongst a very large segment of America's so-called "Christian fundamentalist" community, albeit most definitely not in the ultimate "rapturous" interests of Jews themselves.
"So it's left to folks like libertarian Congressman Ron Paul and his son, Kentucky Senator and Tea Party favorite Rand Paul, to call for ending aid to Israel. In a February 4 interview with ABC News, Rand Paul said of Israel, “I think that their per capita income is greater than probably three-fourths of the rest of the world. Should we be giving free money or welfare to a wealthy nation? I don't think so."
Wow, I am so happy I am a supporter of Ron Paul and not one of the WAR Parties (Barack H. Obomber and his Democrats or the Status-Quo Republicans)!
RON PAUL 2012
Peace & Prosperity here at Home & Around the Globe!!
Rand Paul, Ron Paul, they are both 100% right! Israelis are richer than people in Louisiana! We continued to support those bubbas when people in Louisiana were really suffering after Katrina. Cuba offered to help Louisiana. Israel didn't!
Check out this blatant negative propaganda attack by Fox News aginst Ron Paul when he won the straw poll recently. Since he had won the same poll last year and was booed, the bastards at Fox ran that tape to avoid showing the wild cheering when he won this year. Then, when Fox was called out on it, they claimed it was an "honest mistake".
http://freakoutnation.com/2011/02/16/fox-news-aired-fake-footage-of-ron-paul-being-booed-at-cpac/
Israel has been shown to be a terrorist state. Americans are supporting a terrorist state while we lack food, housing, and medicine.
America is a terrorist state.
This is another thing that's not going to end well...
Is the US government actually trying to incite anti jewish feeling in the usa? That's the only thing that makes sense when you do something like this. Let the poor starve, but give aid to a nation that doesn't need it?
"Is the US government actually trying to incite anti jewish feeling in the usa?"
It wouldn't surprise me very much. The Jewish role as scapegoat and distraction from domestic dictatorhip has plenty of historical precedent. The Nazis were by no means the first and may not be the last, notwithstanding that "never again" slogan. In fact, revitalizing and augmenting global hatred could be a close race between the U.S. and their own Israeli government.
A stupid comment....
Also a good way to detract from the truth. You must be a hired respondent.
With what do you disagree? Using Jews as handy scapegoats and whipping boys has a very long history, including official church sanction over a considerable period.
As for the U.S., it's no secret that support for Israel is being regarded in many quarters as more of a burden recently in the broader geopolitical context.
The U.S. government is not trying to use the "Jewish card", for God's sake; it is just the opposite. We are being deceived as one of the two "false prophets" of the apocalypse. I cannot take it! People want to be DECEIVED!
No question that you're being deceived. The real question is by whom.
Hint: In all such relationships, coincident interests are both the key and the bottom line.
I am not being deceived. If you think that either the U.S. or Israel is righteous in their conduct of affairs of this world, you have been steered to something that you should question. I question their behavior and so should you if you are interested in the truth.
In that case, recognizing that both parties participate in the plot, each for its own reasons, I fail to see any disgreement at all. But don't expect any such relationship based on coincident interests (as all international relations are) to remain static for ever as those interests are affected by changing circumstances.
"Is the US government actually trying to incite anti jewish feeling in the usa?"
If they were then issues such as those presented in this article would receive much more extensive and intensive coverage in the corporate media.
q
Medea, the answer to your question: "With liberals like these, who needs the Tea Party?"
Democrats need them. Otherwise, this sold out, scum infested political party would disappear. Democrats need the crazies, the Sarah Palins, the Scott Walkers for contrast. This is how it works, this is how the duopoly moves the country to the right, paid for by ......well, see for yourselves who hires our "leaders":
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/sectorallc.php?cycle=2008
Israeli warplanes have once again targeted the Gaza Strip by bombarding two sites in the coastal enclave, Palestinian sources say.
Israeli jets early Saturday bombed two training camps in the southern town of Khan Yunis and the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, AFP reported.
At least one person was injured in the attack, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli military refused to comment on the move as Tel Aviv escalated its ground and air strikes on the besieged territory, killing civilians and destroying property.
On Thursday, an Israeli unmanned plane reportedly launched a missile attack on the southern Gaza Strip, inflicting injuries on six Palestinians.
The drone strike hit a vehicle that was travelling in the southern city of Rafah along the coastal sliver's border with Egypt.
It followed several aerial assaults across the besieged enclave, which was reported to have caused no casualties.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel's F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters carried out multiple airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.
In June 2007, Israel and Egypt placed the territory under siege and imposed an unprecedented blockade on nearly all movement and supplies in and out of the coastal strip.
Poverty, unemployment, lack of medicine and medical equipment are the main issues in the Gaza Strip, while most Palestinian children are physically stunted from malnutrition.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian crisis for Gaza's 1.5 million residents.
Human rights groups have also criticized the international community for its silence on the siege on Gaza and the 22-day Israeli war in December 2008 that shattered the stagnant economy of the territory.
The offensives killed more than 1,400 Gazans and inflicted a damage of above $1.6 billion on the territory's economy.
DB/NN/MGH
Related Stories:
Israeli troops kill Palestinian infant
Israeli drone raid wounds 6 Palestinians
Israeli jets launch airstrikes on Gaza
Israeli airstrikes injure 16 Gazans
Israeli fire injures 13 Palestinians
----------------------------------------------------------
Your tax dollars for Israel at work...
Don't forget the utter destruction of factory which produced medicine with no outcry.
Israel is a miltary outpost under the command of an international cadre of
bankers and arms dealers. They recognize no borders and swear no allegiance. They act swiftly when threatened. God help[ whoever stands in their way.
Good summary. It also sounds painfully familiar for some reason.
Hey Anonymous, a little help here please.
Some Americans are eligible, owing to their ethnic background, to immigrate to Israel, where indigenous people are regularly dispossessed to make room for new arrivals. Among those eligible for immigration are a small contingent of members of Congress. We should be allowed to know which legislators enjoy this privileged status, and we should demand that these members act ethically and not vote or lobby their colleagues on matters involving military aid to the Jewish state.
*Well* spotted! You're right, that's a definite conflict of interest that should cause them to step back from involvement in legislation.
How do we apply the necessary pressure?
Israel is conducting a campaign of genocide against the indigenous population. Why wouldn't the US approve of this? The US itself was founded on genocide and slavery.
Just as Ted Rall said in a previous article: "Tax the rich!" The only governmental spending that needs to be cut is the amount used for war. The alarmists on both sides of the aisle are exhibiting exactly "Disaster Capitalism" so well described by Naomi Klein in her book "The Shock Doctrine".
THESE COMMENTS DEMONSTRATE HOW ZION HAS BEEN SNIFFED OUT AND BUSTED..ZION ENGAGES IN A STUDIED CIRCUS OF LIES...but the world is slowly moving against the great dissimulator...and its nazi ass...
I am not in the least bit surprised. Israel owns us.
Actually, the whole Zionist/Israel issue will go away on its own. The only - ONLY - reason the U.S. supports Israel without reservation is because of the oil in the MidEast. Once the oil supply there eventually diminishes to the point that it is more expensive to suck it out and transport it to the West, the US will stop giving a shit about controlling its "foothold" in that region, and refocus all of its military and economic muscle on South America, where the last large "easy" oil reserves on the planet exist. Then Israel will find itself completely alone against its neighbors. Unfortunately, that day is still far in the future. And Israel/US can and will do a ton of damage to the people of that region before that day comes.
The BEST thing that can happen to the Earth and the human race is for all the oil reserves on this planet to be completely used up. It is the root of all capitalism, and all war. The world economy is built on oil - and nothing else. Without oil, there IS no economy. No crappy consumer goods, no food (it takes oil to grow and transport all food), no Wall Street (all commodities and corporations rely 100% on oil for everything they produce/import/export), no US government (it is 100% built on its corporate controllers, who rely 100% on oil to make their trillions of $$), no US military (it relies 100% on oil to run its planes, ships, transports, bases, etc). Oil gone=destruction of the world as we know it. And the sooner the better, I say.
We had our shot to wean ourself off of carbon fuels, to be 100% self-sufficient energy-wise with renewable energy sources. We chose not to. We chose to continue sucking at the black teat until it is dry. Let us reap the whirlwind. We deserve no less. The Earth will thank us when that day comes.
I've been hammering my Congressional delegation for years to stop aiding and abetting the crimes of Israel. They are _using_ us as an accomplice in their crimes.
ISRAEL IS _NOT_OUR FRIEND!! REMEMBER THE USS LIBERTY!!
Have these people no shame? No conscience that they betray their own fellow citizens without batting an eye lash? Are they so high up the israeli ass that the lack of fresh air impairs their thinking? What are these traitors doing running any government???