Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
2013 Budget: “Difficult Cuts” for Americans, Gravy for Israel
Speaking before students at Northern Virginia Community College on February 13, President Obama unveiled his 2013 budget request, in which he proposed “some difficult cuts that, frankly, I wouldn’t normally make if they weren’t absolutely necessary. But they are.” These budget cuts are unavoidable, the President argued, because “the truth is we’re going to have to make some tough choices in order to put this country back on a more sustainable fiscal path.” In a sad commentary on the misplaced priorities of the Obama Administration, however, these “tough choices” will affect the delivery of basic services to U.S. citizens while the Israeli military hits the jackpot at taxpayer expense.
As part of its budget request, the White House released a 205-page document detailing the cuts, consolidations, and savings the Obama Administration is proposing. These proposed cuts include $5 million to the USDA to analyze food-borne pathogens, potentially making the U.S. food supply even less safe than it already is after 30 people died last year after eating listeria-infected cantaloupe; a $359 million cut to the EPA to provide grants to states for water infrastructure projects when an estimated 1.7 million Americans shockingly lack access to basic water and sanitation services according to the Water Infrastructure Network; and a whopping $360 billion cut over ten years in Medicare, Medicaid, and other health programs even though the World Health Organization rates the U.S. health system as only 37th globally in health care performance.
Given these “difficult cuts” to the budget, it is easy to agree with Israeli journalist Ran Dagoni, who wrote last year in the Israeli business newspaper Globes, that “The time has come to bid goodbye to the military aid that the US extends to Israel, that generous package..that enables the Israeli taxpayer to share the cost of procuring equipment for the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] with the US taxpayer.” After all, Israel – the 28th wealthiest country in the world in 2011, with a per capita gross domestic product greater than Korea and Saudi Arabia according to the International Monetary Fund – hardly needs U.S. charity more than we need safe food, clean water, and health care.
Yet, instead of reducing or even just freezing levels of U.S. military aid to Israel, President Obama wants to provide Israel with $3.1 billion of U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons next year, an increase from $3.075 billion in 2012, making the State Department’s claim that this budget request “maintains last year’s record funding levels” for Israel both immodest and inaccurate. By comparison, of the nine other Near Eastern countries receiving U.S. military aid, the budget request for eight of them is unchanged from last year’s budget while the request for Tunisia declined.
Were Israel using these weapons for legitimate purposes and to further U.S. foreign policy objectives, then perhaps a persuasive case could be constructed for why the United States does not need to make any budgetary “tough choices” when it comes to Israel. However, Israel misuses U.S. weapons, in violation of U.S. laws, to commit grave and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in furtherance of its 44-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip and its illegal colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. From 2000 to 2009, the United States provided Israel with more than $24 billion of military aid and delivered more than 670 million weapons, rounds of ammunition, and related military equipment. During that same period, according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, Israel killed at least 2,969 Palestinians “who did not take part in the hostilities and were killed by Israeli security forces (not including the objects of targeted killings)."
Israel often kills Palestinians with these same U.S. weapons provided at taxpayer expense. Such was likely the case last December when an Israeli soldier fired a high-velocity tear gas canister at 28-year-old Mustafa Tamimi, a resident of the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, who was protesting against Israeli settlers seizing land on which his village’s natural spring is located. The canister, fired from an Israeli armored vehicle, struck the activist in the face. He died the next day from his wounds. Strong evidence exists that the tear gas canister that killed Mustafa was made by Combined Systems, Inc. of Jamestown, Pennsylvania and likely could have been one of more than 595,000 tear gas canisters and other “riot control” equipment, valued at more than $20.5 million, which were funded by U.S. taxpayers and given to the Israeli military between 2000 and 2009.
Not only does U.S. military aid to Israel make U.S. taxpayers complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinians; it also acts as a disincentive for Israel to work in tandem with the Obama Administration to achieve stated U.S. foreign policy goals of freezing Israeli settlement expansion, ending Israeli military occupation, and establishing a Palestinian state and a just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The United States cannot afford the moral and economic costs of providing ever-increasing amounts of U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons to Israel. In this era of “tough choices” for the budget, here is a clear-cut example of a subsidy that should be ended.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
38 Comments so far
Show All"After all, Israel – the 28th wealthiest country in the world in 2011, with a per capita gross domestic product greater than Korea and Saudi Arabia according to the International Monetary Fund"
How can that possibly be? What exactly is it they produce or export except war and destruction?
"How can that possibly be? What exactly is it they produce or export except war and destruction?" They are a top designer and manufacturer of the security state technology. That's what you said? Oh, well, never mind.
It is wrong. South Korea and Israel are about the same in the per capita GDP ratings. Saudi Arabia is lower. Israel is between 26th and 33rd most wealthy by per capita GDP depending on what source you use.
Israel exports agriculture products, food products, tourism, military goods, and electronics/technology. Half of their exports almost to the dollar are high tech goods and technology.
Israeli companies holds patents on a boatload of printing technology, integrated circuits, medical technology.
And how much of that was stolen technology funded by the US of A? You are a fcking zionist apologist Troll.
I tend to think it was more a case of outsourced manufacture. It probably skirted many laws and regulations surrounding the manufacture of arms and the dispersal of intelligence. But I am sure teams of attorneys and legislators can prove it was within the law as they interpret it.
You left out processed diamonds, one of Israel's most lucrative exports.
From LondonBDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions): Israel is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and exporters of cut & polished diamonds which generate more than US$ 1 billion a year for the Apartheid State. Many jewelers falsely claim Israeli diamonds are “conflict-free” which is totally unjustified, given Israel’s blatant violation of international laws.
The Kimberly Process is the organization that is supposed to insure that diamonds on the market are conflict free and not so called "blood diamonds." The US holds the rotating chairmanship of the Kimberley Process for 2012. Last year it was Israel. Enough said.
Israel, the largest benefactor of US state sponsored terrorism.....
second largest - corporations are the largest benefactors of amerikan terrorism
"..and a whopping $360 billion cut over ten years in Medicare, Medicaid, and other health programs."
Ok, you slimy little Obama supporters. Let's hear those bullshit excuses about why he is "better than a Republican," why we should vote for him (or any other Dem/Repub) this year, and why he was "forced" to slice and dice yet more of the social safety net that has stood for almost 80 years. Go. I'm waiting with bated breath and vomit-bucket standing by. Go.
This medicare cut by O is just the beginning. The sycophants that argue that he's better than the Repugs are imbibing large quantities of Dem Kool Aid while the Dems and O keep twisting the knife in their backs and taking away much needed money for social security, medicare, medicaid and environmental protection, among others.
A note about the so called aid. The arms "aid" comes with strings. The weapons will be supplied by our killer weapons manufacturers. All this aid is really corporate welfare to the MIC. The author knows this but doesn't want to couch it in those terms.
KEMO SABE: Your post expresses the bitter truths.
Fact is we will have the choice of electing 1 of 2 realistic choices. Either a donkey or an elephant. 3rd parties will not have the votes needed to win. So personally I will vote for the least repugnant of the 2. Not happy about it but that is the way it is going to be and no matter how much I might jump up and down, bitch,moan and complain it will not change the choices I am offered. As he does not wish to shove his judeochristian morality down my throat, as the repubs do, Obama is the better choice than the repubs.
LOL there it is!! Bing, right on schedule! The shape Amereicha is in is your fault, you dumbshit lesser-evilist. Keep on voting for being raped! At least it is a softer, more gentle rape, though, right timebiter? What a shame YOUR voting for rape means I have to be raped too.
Well said. How do we get across to the average American voter that a vote for Republicans and Democrats is WORSE than "throwing your vote away" on a third party. If you're voting for a candidate that supports your views, you are NOT throwing your vote away. If you're voting for the lesser of two evils, because they have a chance of winning, you're just plain stupid--or you like getting raped. Stupid Monkeys.
Open up your mind timebiter. Going to the voting booth is not about picking a winner, like buying a lottery ticket, it is about voting for policies you want and voting your conscious. You lose with both the Repub or Dem selections. What did you win with Obama, an expanded war on terror? a health care bill that is a gift to insurance companies? more tax cuts for the rich? Apparently it isn't bad enough for you personally to realize the two parties are both taking you in. I guess the demise of Social Security benefits by both parties doesn't affect you, nor do governmental budget cuts to social spending while both parties spend, spend, spend on war... Imagine this, you live in Wisconsin and the repubs just cut your benefits and Obama reneged on his campaign word to support you (you being labor). Now living with less benefits, you'd be a fool to vote for either party.
Ah yes the deluded, blood on your hands, I'm holier and more moral than thou spiel. You all live in the same wonderland as santorum. Dream on deluded ones, dream on, and don't forget to take your haldol.
roll on demon - i'm with you
i started posting against obummer before the inauguration and i got lots of flack from the true believers
4 years later the public has discovered this unknown ghost from the corrupt chicago democratic machine who came out of the ford foundation and was selected by henry kissinger....
now the bells are going off...
we got a bunch of millionaire psychos running for office with a small group of billionaires funding them
that's democracy you can believe in
as far as zion goes - they get more foreign than all the other countries combined - and they are a developed nation
go figure
i guees it goes without saying that all the bribe money paid out by aipac aint going to waste
cutting everywhere at home but increasing aid to israel
"“The National Jewish Democratic Council applauds this increased, largest-ever military assistance requested for Israel under President Barack Obama—made all the more significant against the backdrop of a difficult budgetary climate. This is yet another example of how President Obama continues to stand with Israel, time and time again"
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000623507&fid=1725
nonetheless he got booed at aipac
"OBAMA BOOED AT AIPAC"
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2011/05/obama-at-aipac-boos-at-introduction/
last month the editor of the atlanta jewish times stated in an op -ed that
"The Atlanta Jewish Times, a newspaper representing the Jewish people in the Atlanta area, is taking donations for a fund to finance the murder of President Barak Obama on behalf of the Israeli government."
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/01/21/atlanta-jewish-times-please-donate-to-assassinate-the-president/
you can't make this stuff up
israel is egging us on to war with iran - hey iraq went so well
and not only that - israel feels an "existential" threat - in other words its only in their minds
well that's good enough for congress who mad fools of themselves by giving 29 ovations for the psychopath netanyahu
"Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got 29 standing ovations during his speech before a joint meeting of Congress today. That compares to just 25 for President Obama’s last State of the Union address, ABC points out."
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/05/israeli-prime-minister-gets-20-standing-ovations-in-congress-sends-message-to-white-house/
the united states of israel....
mine eyes have seen the glory brother
We should give Israel zip and tell them to eff off.
Med: Did you mean to say "mine eyes have seen the gory?"
It's a new take on the "ownership society"They own us. Lock,stock and barrel. Americans will pinch pennies to pay for food while the Israeli war machine murders at will in the mideast.
Difficult cuts for Americans while the Rolls Royce, American paid for welfare system of subsidized housing, food, healthcare, education, a life of religious study, etc. for Zionists continues.
>>Were Israel using these weapons for legitimate purposes and to further U.S. foreign policy objectives, then perhaps a persuasive case could be constructed for why the United States does not need to make any budgetary “tough choices” when it comes to Israel.
>> However, Israel misuses U.S. weapons, in violation of U.S. laws, to commit grave and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in furtherance of its 44-year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip and its illegal colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. From 2000 to 2009, the United States provided Israel with more than $24 billion of military aid and delivered more than 670 million weapons, rounds of ammunition, and related military equipment.
People should stop fooling themselves. Israel does not commit these atrocities over US objections. The Government of the USA is supportive of how the Government of Israel uses these weapons.
Any objections expressed are merely for Public consumption and all of this is demonstrated by the 300 to nothing type votes In Congress for providing Israel more weapons or those continual vetoes in the UN.
The United States of America is fully complicit and supportive of these crimes and its Government feels anything Israel does is in the best Interests of the United States of America.
The very fact such aid is provided to one of the worlds WEALTHIEST countries is proof that the USA sees Israel as a sort of "hired gun". The reason in the United States of America will not cut aid to israel is the same reason it will not cut military spending. They are the same thing.
Whereas Kemo Sabe & GW North speak in terms of the big picture, the one that holds U.S. militarism--via the bloated MIC--at its center, and recognizes how the aid to Israel serves its purposes... several other posters toe the thin line between hate speech and expressing a solid opinion. That's you: Johnny Red (11:36), Really Curious, Ahro & Jack East. Refering to a people as parasites is not a big leap from calling the Israelis lice or vermin, or whatever it was that fueled Hitler's death machine.
Decent people are offended by violence (as well as invasions of other lands), and most who post on C.D. are against ALL wars of aggression. However, the idea of holding Israel up as the sacrificial lamb when our own nation has FAR more blood on its hands, is propagandistic. If you wish to speak of the FACT that both nations (added to the U.K. and other peripheral supporters) are complicit in campaigns of violence aimed at the control of the M.E. and its oil, that's another matter entirely.
The hatred splattered around here is like fuel just waiting for the right spark to ignite it. Is such a stance remotely Progressive?
Sioux Rose - Your primary allegiance is showing.
"Israel as sacrificial lamb..." Are you kidding us?
I don't know if you're Jewish, but Israel is such a tough topic for American Jews that most are ambivalent about its violence against others, since virtually all Jews see Israel as "their:" country, their refuge, etc., etc..
The author of this article does a bit of pandering to the extreme Zionists when he says it would be all right if Israel expended the military force we give them in America's interests instead of torturing/killing Palestinians, but he's nonetheless a very brave American Jew to come out specifically against Israel's Apartheid, and to head up a large organization for that purpose.
Creatures who live off of others' life-sustaining resources, whether animal or human, are parasitic. It's an apt description of the Israeli military state at this time in history
To garden...4the let you know that Israel is the top designer and manuf of security tech...what that means is, despite the tremendous wave of Wikileaks floating around, Israel has ALL, I repeat ALL, surveillance of everyone in the WH, Congress, and likely the intel et al. In other words, if there is any hankypanky (didn't mean IF) going on in our government, Israel knows about it. They know all our dirty secrets. We are buying their silence.
The Americans have foolishly let the extreme zionist warmongers take over the foreign policy establishments of both parties so naturally the interests of Israel take priority over the interests of the United States. American presidents are quivering cowards before the Israeli lobby which will not hesitate to use operatives in the congress to humiliate any president who dares to speak up for the genuine interests of the United States. The flag of Israel should fly openly over Washington.
Israel appears to have hegemony over the US Treasury and US Foreign Policy. So what's new ?
What a sleazy person that Obama is! I didn't vote for him because I saw him for what he really is from the get-go; an arrogant, glad-handing, mealy-mouthed, slithering two-headed snake who pretends to have the people's interests at heart, but, in fact, is so full of bullshit that it stinks....all the way from high heaven to hell and back again.
Moreover, I ain't going to vote for Obama this time around either. I'm tired of the one-way fucking bullshit about how Obama's much better than the GOP, because he's not.
The Republicans will still accuse Obama of not supporting Israel.
Actually, both the Dems and Repubs accuse Obama of not supporting Israel enough. I forgot which House resolution in the last two years nearly unanimously came out against Obama for his lack of full support of Israel on some policy. Both parties and Obama have put Israel ahead of American interests.
"Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6.21)" and vice-versa. So obviously Obama's heart is not with the ordinary people of the US, the kind who may get sick, who eat food, drink water.
Talk is cheap. Show me the money. The buck stops here. What have you done for me lately? And a hundred more cliches, derived from hard experience, that mean I am tired of phony talk. The blank-faced hypocrisy makes me almost as sick as do listeria tainted melons.
When i read an author who writes that he would be fine with such repulsive giving of weapons to any country if it would further u.s. strategic interests, i have no desire to read further. He has no moral cred with me. Call me closed minded, but that is just the kind of quirky human i am.
Oh, another tip for anyone interested who posts articles on these types of matters. When the u.s. gives public funds to another country so that they will buy weapons from particular corporations - that is not "aid". It is giving my money to......................fill in the blank. A money laundering operation underneath it all.
Excuse me if I have my information wrong but I believe that the 3 billon that the US gives Isreal each year is mostly spent on US military hardware - thus the US taxpayer is subsidising US arms manufacturers which then gives the kit to Israel.
This creates a vast vested interest in the US in NOT having the Israel-Palestinian problem resolved (leaving aside the end-days nut jobs).
Obama is not the first president to support 'aid' to Israel. We all know that money determines who gets into office. We need to blame the dual allegience which allows citizens of one state to promote the interests of another in the way that members of AIPAC exert their political will. AIPAC as the most influential lobby in Washington, determines the stand taken by key members of government including the president.