US lawmakers vote to double funding for Iron Dome

The Times of Israel ^ | 5/23/2014

[Former Fetus]

A White House veto threat — reiterated just hours before the vote — had little impact in an election year as lawmakers embraced the popular measure that includes a 1.8 percent pay raise for the troops and adds up to hundreds of thousands of jobs back home. The vote was 325-98 for the legislation, with 216 Republicans and 109 Democrats backing the bill.

The National Defense Authorization Act calls for the addition of $175 million in funding for the Iron Dome system, which currently gets $176 million annually from the Pentagon.

Much of the funding would be tied to a commitment for Israel to share technology for the system, and for much of the money to be spent on American firms.

“Given the significant US taxpayer investment in this system, the committee believes that coproduction of parts and components should be done in a manner that will maximize US industry participation in interceptor and battery deliveries for Israel’s defense needs,” an Armed Services Committee markup of the bill’s text reads.

The legislation also includes $269 million in funding for other Israeli missile defense programs, including Arrow 3 and David’s Sling.

The Iron Dome system, developed in Israel with American funding, revolutionized Israel’s missile defense array when it was unveiled in 2012. The system was used in that year’s war with Gaza, shooting down hundreds of short-range rockets aimed at Israeli cities over eight days.

The country currently has a handful of the batteries, but hopes to build and deploy several more to add to its missile defense shield.

That shield will soon include the medium-range David’s Sling and long-range Arrow anti-missile systems. Both were either jointly developed or funded by the US.

[Former Fetus]

Maybe Congress has remembered that they are a branch independent of the executive branch!

lawmakers choosing to forgo deep cuts proposed by the Obama administration

Certain to frustrate the administration was a provision that would authorize the military to train and equip vetted Syrian rebels

Republicans, even tea partyers who came to Congress demanding deep cuts in federal spending, and Democrats rejected the Pentagon budget

The House rejected all three amendments to change current law

I don't like the part about arming the Syrian rebels, but overall I would call this good news.

An increasingly antagonistic White House issued a veto threat on Monday

[elcid1970]

I’ll keep asking, just when did it become OK to be a Nazi again?

[TexasRedeye]

The bill simply will not be brought up in the Senate. No veto necessary with Harry Reid establishing the agenda.

[Former Fetus]

Maybe, but from the article: "The Senate panel backed the administration on some personnel benefits and a 1-percent pay raise for the military, while breaking with the administration by sparing the A-10 Warthog close-support plane and an aircraft carrier. Certain to frustrate the administration was a provision that would authorize the military to train and equip vetted Syrian rebels battling forces loyal to President Bashar Assad."

I won't be holding my breath, but I definitely see a ray of light.

[Former Fetus]

Excuse me, what do you mean?

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

We shouldn’t be sending money to any other country, for any reason, until the budget is balanced.

[Former Fetus]

Netanyahu made a very good point when he said that Iran can already reach Israel, so it's trying to develop ICBMs to reach the US. Investing in Israel's defense could be considered investing in US defense. Not to mention the US companies that are involved in the missile defense system.

Of course, it never hurts to remember that "I will bless those who bless you" (Gen. 12:3.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Israel’s Iron Dome is national security issue for the US. I was referring to the arming of Syrian rebels.

[Former Fetus]

I’m sorry. It seems like we are in agreement here.

[okie01]

We shouldn’t be sending money to any other country, for any reason, until the budget is balanced.

On the other hand, there is the diplomatic need to offset the billions we're sending to the Palestinian Authority...for their Swiss bank accounts.

[elcid1970]

I mean, old fashioned Nazi-style anti-Semitism has taken on a new, politically correct and therefore acceptable face. A few examples:

“Palestinians deserve their own state and unlimited right of return to Israel!”

“Divest from Israeli corporations!”

“I’m not anti-Israel, just pro-Palestinian!”

“Rocket attacks are all the Palestinians have!”

“Islam is NOT anti-Jew!”

“Rachel Corrie was murdered by the IDF!”

“Jews control world finance and the media!”

“Circumcision is medically unnecessary and wrong!”

“Jews should go back to their homes in Poland and Russia!”

“It was the Jews who crucified Jesus!”

These are the current calumnies. No need to go back to the 1930’s.

[Former Fetus]

A lot of that can be chalked up to ignorance. I was very happy this morning when I saw this picture that can be found in buses throughout Washington DC:

BTW, you may enjoy the article

[elcid1970]

I have read about that bus ad & the legal fight it took to be able to exercise our First Amendment right to display it. Jew-hatred has been hardwired into Islam for over a millennium, but the savagery of the current version has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood & the alliance between Hitler & Haj Amin al-Husseini.

Only, how long before D.C. Transit buses with that ad are vandalized? CAIR will of course counterattack with their usual lawfare against criticism of Islam.

BTW, Mein Kampf in Arabic has been a bestseller in the Middle East ever since the Nazis had it translated in the 1920’s. Yes, 1920’s.

[Mariner]

The House already has the requisite 2/3 majority to over ride the veto and place ENORMOUS pressure on the Senate...and a bunch of “red state” Democrat Senators...to do the same.

[familyop]

"I don't like the part about arming the Syrian rebels, but overall I would call this good news."

Here's some background information that might help with understand Syria's part in the ongoing War.

Ground to a Halt (Research shows: Suicide-bombers Communists, not Islamists
New York Times ^ | August 3, 2006 | ROBERT PAPE

Posted on Wed Aug 9 01:23:46 2006 by GodGunsGuts

...

In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.

...

Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, is the author of “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.”

---

Iran is also communist, by the way (everything state-owned and much of it doled out to the families of clerics). I posted hundreds of articles on Iran and the need to take care of business there a long time ago, but anti-American, pecuniary, international socialist interests here threw trash in threads at nearly every article. Iran continues to build nuclear weapons.

On the Syrian-Lebanese-Iranian alliance.

Lebanon Is NOT Innocent (David Horowitz Slams The Lebanon “Innocent Bystander” Myth Alert)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1671142/posts

Here's some very related information about Lebanon for those acquainted with geography, sub-populations and sentiments in the area.

Maronites are the predominant Christian population in Lebanon.

Harb pledges to be forceful president [Maronite "ready to fight" Israel, "protect Hezbollah"]
Lebanese Lobby (Lebanon) ^ | 11SEP07 | Francis Matthew

Posted on Wed Sep 12 03:12:26 2007 by familyop

"Beirut: Boutros Harb, long-serving Maronite Lebanese Member of Parliament, is standing for president and reaching out to the Shiite Hezbollah, across the political divide in the country.

[...]

"I have proposed that the Lebanese army and government must be in control of declaring war, and that we should find a way to incorporate Hezbollah's forces into the army. But this has to be on the condition that the Lebanese government and army accept the full duty of being ready to fight and protect Hezbollah if Israel attacks," he said, adding that it was also important that Lebanon had to liberate the occupied territory of the Sheba'a Farms from Israel."


Lebanese leaders call for unity [All of them support the terrorists. ...always have.]
CNN International ^ | 20JUL06 | CNN
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1668991/posts

"The ship is sinking and all of us, the Lebanese, should stick together and work together to stop the Israeli aggression," Amin Gemayel, a Maronite Christian who served as president from 1982 to 1988, told the Arabic-language TV station Al-Jazeera . . . Michel Aoun, a one-time commander in Lebanon's 15-year civil war who now serves in parliament, said . . . "I don't think that Israel has the capability to destroy Hezbollah militarily because Hezbollah is not a group of armed men," Aoun said. "Hezbollah is a major part of the Lebanese social fabric."

Lebanon says army ready to fight [The truth about Lebanon.]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1670344/posts

Aoun is also a Maronite Christian.

Lebanon Turns to the Vatican to Halt Israeli Offensive
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1668754/posts

Vatican Condemns Israel for Attacks on Lebanon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1665678/posts


I'm going to allude to cultural differences going back thousands of years here. We, the majority of Americans, tend to lean away from the original cultures of Ishmael and Ham (his mother's heritage) without any basic tendency to initiate antagonistisms against that general culture. Granted, that culture has initiated antagonisms against ours, and some southern European constituencies have long covertly assisted it in doing so in propaganda and trade.

Here in America, we should be Americans in culture. Our culture and morals should continue to be more northern than southern (in re. European divisions) in domestic relations and relations with our allies. That was the nature of the establishment of early American society and our nation. Neither fascism nor communism suits us. We should not be cultural southern Europeans for the sake of any tie overseas--not even a religious connection (see WWII). In WWII, Americans fought as Americans--all kinds.

Many in Iran identify with many southern Europeans in a way and like to remind others that Iran means Aryan and that they are not Arabic. Well, we're more northern than that in morality and associated essence (think Norse, Gaelic, Anglo- and the like, see Reformation meetings in Holland before migration to early America with following 200 years of establishment in American law and society). Not Aryan or Nazi but northern--big difference there. And if nations with significant culturally southern populations want to continue blending with northern culture and identifying with it, they may continue to trend toward supporting it in every way (including cultural change leaning northern).

In fewer words, the U.S.A. is not Madrid, Rome, Athens or Syria. It's the U.S.A. And although many of our recent political politicians and influential constituents don't support Israel, the majority of Americans by far does support Israel. That's where the votes are, and that's where they'll be. So yes, Syria and its big brother, Iran, will be disarmed and eventually denazified.

[Former Fetus]

YEAH!

[familyop]

"We shouldn’t be sending money to any other country, for any reason, until the budget is balanced."

We could certainly do well to lay off quite a bit of the foreign influence on our own soil, too. Government shouldn't be a cash cow with no regards for original American morality. Look at what's climbed into it over the past few decades (too much European influence and not enough Americans of hundreds of years of heritage).

[familyop]

"I’ll keep asking, just when did it become OK to be a Nazi again?"

At the point in time, when most of our politicians were more European in culture than American (see members of Congress, for example). Most of them are from families that haven't fully assimilated. Also, our nation is morally bankrupt.

That probably won't change without seeing the default process all the way through (deposition of such influence from politics for lack of money and time). The economy will most likely be rebuilt with the American kind of ingenuity that is lost for now (technically inclined Americans of long lines of American descent--not negative influences against technical production like regulatory, NGO, legal, administrative of contemporary traits, social, etc.).

[SunkenCiv]

from familyop:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3159358/posts?page=15#15

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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