Perhaps the biggest foreign policy news this past week was the visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the U.S. Netanyahu spoke before the U.S. Congress, focusing on Iran.
Netanyahu gets more representation from many members of Congress than the American people do. Don’t think that Congress will allow any officials from Iran to speak in their chamber as a rebuttal. Don’t think that Russia’s Putin will be allowed to speak.
In Netanyahu’s speech, he thanked Congress for the support, especially in its “generous military assistance and missile defense, including Iron Dome.” Isn’t it kind of Netanyahu to thank Congress for their “generous” support? The politicians in DC are quite generous with other people’s money.
I have nothing against foreign aid, if it isn’t funded through force. If anyone wants to voluntarily donate money or time to a cause overseas, that should be their right. The problem is that we are forced to pay for this so-called charity.
To make matters worse, the money that goes to the Israeli government is not being used to help starving children or bring medical care to the poor. It is primarily going to fund the Israeli military. This is the worst kind of foreign aid possible.
To be sure, the U.S. funds a lot of other countries, even some of Israel’s supposed enemies in the Middle East. But when it comes to funding the small country of Israel (or should we just call it the 51st state?), the numbers are staggering.
The U.S. government sends about $3 billion per year in aid to Israel, which funds approximately 25% of the Israeli government’s total military spending.
Blowback
When Ron Paul was running for president in 2007 for the Republican nomination, he cited blowback as a primary reason for terrorists going after the United States. He said that terrorists attacked us because we (meaning the government) have been over there.
While Rudy Giuliani called it an extraordinary statement and said he had never heard of blowback as an explanation for the terrorist attacks on 9/11, it is rather naïve to think that U.S. foreign policy does not encourage terrorism.
Osama Bin Laden himself cited the reasons for attacking America, which included the United States’ involvement overseas and also American support for Israel.
Many people will respond that the U.S. government has to support Israel militarily or else it will be overtaken or wiped off the map. But this is an assumption that has little evidence to back it up. The Israeli government possesses a large arsenal of nuclear warheads.
The Israeli’s defense budget is similar to that of the U.S. in terms of allocation. Some of it actually is for defense, while most of it is for offense. Even if the U.S. is funding some portions of the defense, such as anti-missile systems, it enables the Israelis to spend more on offense. If the Israeli government scaled back its offensive forces and military campaigns, then it could fund its own defense without the help of the American taxpayer.
Since Israel was founded in 1948, a total of about $121 billion has been sent in U.S. foreign aid. This is a rip-off to the American taxpayer and it actually makes Americans less safe.
If you, as an individual, want to voluntarily donate money to the Israeli government, that should be your right to do so. But American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for another country’s military, especially when they may not agree with its political goals.
When the U.S. government funds Israel’s military, which many people over there see as oppressive, it is being done in your name regardless of whether you agree with it. While it is wrong and criminal for terrorists to target innocent Americans for the actions of their government, this is the way it is.
Americans should demand that their so-called representatives in Congress stop funding Israel or any other country and to stop interfering with countries all around the world. We can be a lot safer, and a lot richer too.
