On Apr 7, 1:44=A0am, VTR <vexjo...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Should the U.S. End Aid to Israel?
> Funding Our Decline
>
> By ALISON WEIR
>
> April 1st I participated in a debate in San Francisco that raised the
ques=
tion of US aid to Israel.
>
> It was highly appropriate that this debate was held two weeks before tax
d=
ay, since in Israel's
> sixty years of existence, it has received more US tax money than any
other=
nation on earth.
>
> During periods of recession, when Americans are thrown out of work,
homes =
are repossessed,
> school budgets cut and businesses fail, Congress continues to give
Israel =
massive amounts of
> our tax money; currently, about 7 million dollars per day.
>
> On top of this, Egypt and Jordan receive large sums of money (per capita
a=
bout 1/20th of what
> Israel receives) to buy their cooperation with Israel; and Palestinians
al=
so receive our tax
> money (about 1/23rd of that to Israel), to repair infrastructure that
Isra=
eli forces have
> destroyed, to fund humanitarian projects required due to the destruction
w=
rought by Israel's
> military, and to convince Palestinian officials to take actions
beneficial=
to Israel. These
> sums should also be included in expenditures on behalf of Israel.
>
> When all are added together, it turns out that for many years over half
of=
all US tax money
> abroad has been expended to benefit a country the size of New Jersey.
>
> It is certainly time to begin debating this disbursement of our
hard-earne=
d money. It is quite
> possible that we have better uses for it.
>
> To decide whether the US should continue military aid to any nation, it
is=
essential to examine
> the nature and history of the recipient nation, how it has used our
milita=
ry aid in the past,
> whether these uses are in accord with our values, and whether they
benefit=
the American
> taxpayers who are putting up the money.
>
> 1. What is the history and nature of Israel?
>
> Describing Israel is always difficult. One can either stay within the
main=
stream paradigm, or
> tell the truth. I will opt for the truth.
>
> Drawing on scores of books by diverse authors, the facts are quite
clear: =
Israel was created
> through one of the most massive, ruthless, and persistent ethnic
cleansing=
operations of modern
> history. In 1947-49 about three-quarters of a million Muslims and
Christia=
ns, who had
> originally made up 95 percent of the population living in the area that
Zi=
onists wanted for a
> Jewish state, were brutally forced off their ancestral land. There were
33=
massacres, over 500
> villages were completely destroyed, and an effort was made to erase all
ve=
stiges of Palestinian
> history and culture.
>
> The fact is that Israel's core identity is based on ethnic and religious
d=
iscrimination by a
> colonial, immigrant group; and maintaining this exclusionist identity
has =
required continued
> violence against those it has dispossessed, and others who have given
them=
refuge.
>
> 2. How has Israel used our military aid in the past?
>
> In all of its wars except one, Israel has attacked first.
>
> In violation of the Arms Ex****t Control Act, which requires that US
weapon=
s only be used in
> "legitimate self defense," Israel used American equipment during its two
i=
nvasions of Lebanon,
> killing 17,000 the first time and 1,000 more recently, the vast majority
c=
ivilians. It used
> American-made cluster bombs in both invasions, again in defiance of US
law=
s, causing the "most
> hideous injuries" one American physician said she had ever seen, and
which=
, in one day in 1982
> alone, resulted in the amputation of over 1,000 mangled limbs.
>
> It has used US military aid to continue and expand its illegal
confiscatio=
n of land in the West
> Bank and Golan Heights, and has used American F-16s and Apache
Helicopters=
against largely
> unarmed civilian populations.
>
> According to Defence for Children International, Israel has "engaged in
gr=
oss violations of
> international human rights and humanitarian law." Between 1967 and 2003,
I=
srael destroyed more
> than 10,000 homes, and such destruction continues today. A coalition of
UK=
human rights groups
> recently issued a re****t stating that Israel's blockade of Gaza is
collect=
ive punishment of 1.5
> million people, warning: "Unless the blockade ends now, it will be
impossi=
ble to pull Gaza back
> from the brink of this disaster and any hopes for peace in the region
will=
be dashed."
>
> In addition, Israel uses US military aid to fund an Israeli arms
industry =
that competes with US
> companies. According to a re****t commissioned by the US Army War
College, =
"Israel uses roughly
> 40 percent of its military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of US
we=
apons, to buy
> Israeli-made hardware. It also has won the right to require the Defense
De=
partment or US
> defense contractors to buy Israeli-made equipment or subsystems, paying
50=
to 60 cents on every
> defense dollar the US gives to Israel."
>
> Israel has used US aid to kill and injure nonviolent Palestinian,
American=
and international
> activists, as well as American servicemen. Israeli soldiers in an
American=
-made Caterpillar
> bulldozer crushed to death 23-year-old Rachel Corrie; an Israeli sniper
sh=
ot 21-year-old Tom
> Hurndall in the head; Israeli soldiers shot 26-year-old Brian Avery in
the=
face. In 1967 Israel
> used US-financed French aircraft to attack a US Navy ****p, killing 34
Amer=
ican servicemen and
> injuring 174.
>
> Israel has used US aid to imprison without trial thousands of
Palestinians=
and others, and
> according to re****ts by the London Times and Amnesty International,
Israel=
consistently
> tortures prisoners; including, according to Foreign Service Journal,
Ameri=
can citizens.
>
> 3. Are these uses in accord with our national and personal values?
>
> Not in my view.
>
> 4. Do these uses of US aid benefit American taxpayers?
>
> While some Israeli actions have served US interests, the balance sheet
is =
clear: Israel's use
> of American aid consistently damages the United States, harms our
economy,=
and endangers Americans.
>
> In fact, this extremely negative outcome was so predictable that even
befo=
re Israel's creation
> virtually all State Department and Pentagon experts advocated forcefully
a=
gainst sup****ting the
> creation of a Zionist state in the Middle East. President Harry Truman's
r=
eply: "I am sorry
> gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious
f=
or the success of
> Zionism. I do not have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my
constituent=
s."
>
> Through the years, as noted above, our aid to Israel has not resulted in
a=
reliable ally.
>
> In 1954 Israel tried to bomb US government offices in Egypt, intending
to =
pin this on Muslims.
>
> In 1963 Senator William Fulbright discovered that Israel was using a
serie=
s of covert
> operations to funnel our money to pro-Israel groups in the US, which
then =
used these funds in
> media campaigns and lobbying to procure even more money from American
taxp=
ayers.
>
> In 1967 Israeli forces unleashed a two-hour air and sea attack against
the=
USS Liberty, causing
> 200 casualties. While Israel partisans claim that this was done in
error, =
this claim is belied
> by extensive eyewitness evidence and by an independent commission
re****tin=
g on Capitol Hill in
> 2003 chaired by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral
Thoma=
s Moorer.
>
> In 1973 Israel used the largest airlift of US materiel in history to
defea=
t Arab forces
> attempting to regain their own land, triggering the Arab oil embargo
that =
sent the US into a
> recession that cost thousands of Americans their jobs.
>
> During its 1980s Lebanon invasion, Israeli troops engaged in a
systematic =
pattern of harassment
> of US forces brought in as peacekeepers that created, according to
Command=
ant of Marines Gen.
> R. H Barrow, "life-threatening situations, replete with verbal
degradation=
of the officers,
> their uniform and country."
>
> Through the years, Israel has regularly spied on the US. According to
the =
Government Accounting
> Office, Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operations
against =
the United States of
> any ally." Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said of Israeli spy
Jona=
than Pollard: "It is
> difficult for me to conceive of greater harm done to national security,"
A=
nd the Pollard case
> was just the tip of a very large iceberg; the most recent operation
coming=
to light involves
> two senior officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPA=
C), Israel's powerful
> American lobbying organization.
>
> Bad as the above may appear, it pales next to the indirect damage to
Ameri=
cans caused by our
> aid to Israel. American funding of Israel's egregious violations of
Palest=
inian human rights is
> consistently listed as the number one cause of hostility to Americans.
>
> While American media regularly cover up Israeli actions, those of us who
h=
ave visited the
> region first-hand witness a level of US-funded Israeli cruelty that
makes =
us weep for our
> victims and fear for our country. While most Americans are uninformed on
h=
ow Israel uses our
> money, people throughout the world are deeply aware that it is Americans
w=
ho are funding
> Israeli crimes.
>
> The 9/11 Commission notes that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's "animus towards
th=
e United States
> stemmedfrom his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring
Isr=
ael." The Economist
> re****ts that " the notion of payback for injustices suffered by the
Palest=
inians is perhaps the
> most powerfully recurrent theme in bin Laden's speeches."
>
> The Bottom Line
>
> In sum, US aid to Israel has destabilized the Middle East; propped up a
na=
tional system based
> on ethnic and religious discrimination; enabled unchecked aggression
that =
has, on occasion,
> been turned against Americans themselves; funded arms industries that
comp=
ete with American
> companies; sup****ted a pattern of brutal dispossession that has created
ha=
tred of the US; and
> resulted in continuing conflict that last year took the lives of 384
Pales=
tinians and 13
> Israelis, and that in the past seven and a half years has cost the lives
o=
f more than 982
> Palestinian children and 119 Israeli children.
>
> By providing massive funding to Israel, no matter what it does, American
a=
id is empowering ...
>
> read more =BB
Alex
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