Trump’s budget laments that we do not have the money we need
to address the problems facing America, such as health care, education, climate
change and the infrastructure. That’s why he says his proposed budget puts “America
First”. Yet, he seems to have vast sums for Israel. Money for Israel is not on
the chopping block. His proposal for deep cuts in foreign aid are not to effect Israel.
According to the Los Angeles Times:
The budget plan from the White
House calls for slashing the State Department’s $50 billion budget by about 28%,
cuts that would mostly target climate change, democracy promotion, health
programs, and numerous foreign aid projects.
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said U.S, aid to Israel, which
totaled about $3.1 billion this year, would not be touched under the Trump
plan. Israel gets more U.S. aid than any other nation.
Aid to every other country will
come under review.[1]
Israel has a population of about 7.7 million, far less than
the state of New Jersey. It is one of the most affluent nations on the globe.
Its unemployment rate is less than the U.S., Yet, we neglect our problems and
borrow money to send billions every year, about $8.5 million every day, to help
Israel deal with its problems.
There’s still more to the story,
because parts of U.S. aid to Israel are buried in the budgets of various US
agencies, mostly the Department of Defense. For example, since 2006, the
American Defense Budget has included between $130 and $235 million per year for
missile defense programs in Israel.[2]
Add it all up and Israel,
with less than 8 million people gets more “foreign aid” than all the
countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined –
which have a total population of over a billion people.[3]
There are also hidden costs to our blind support of Israel,
such as the oil boycott of 1973, and 9/11.
According to Harvard professor Steven Walt:
The 9/11 Commission reported that
9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s “animus
toward the United States stemmed from his violent disagreement with US foreign
policy favoring Israel”. Other anti-American terrorist – such as Ramza Yousef,
who led the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center – have offered similar
explanations for their anger toward the United States.[4]
And, of course, the biggie. Would we have ever invaded Iraq
if it were not for the pressure from Israel?
Conclusion: The only reason I give a little money to a
homeless beggar on the street is because I think he needs it. I support a
shelter for battered woman because the mothers and children there are hurting and
hope for a better life. I even give to my church because it reaches out to suffering
people in dozens of ways. But, to give vast sums to Israel which obviously does not need it, but uses it to oppress
Palestinians, build settlements on what is left of their shrinking land, confiscate
their water, imprison their children and exploits them as cheap labor, among
many other oppressive practices, does not make sense to me.
Oh, how I wish Mr. Trump really would put America, and
American ideals, first.
Thomas Are
March 25, 2017
[1]
Trump’s ‘America First’ Budget puts
Israel right up there, Too, Mondoweiss, March, 17, 2017
[2]
Jeremy Sharp, U.S. foreign aid to Israel,
Congressional Research Service, March 12, 2012. Cited in Newsobserveronline, The Staggering Cost of Israel to Americans.
, May 8, 2013.
[3]
Richard Curtiss, “The Cost of Israel to
the American People”, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, 1998.
[4]
Stephen Walt, Whiff of Desperation,
Foreign Policy, April 25, 2011.
