Posted on 09/19/2016 7:00:04 AM PDT by VitacoreVision
Last week’s announcement of a record-breaking US aid package for Israel underscores how dangerously foolish and out-of-touch is our interventionist foreign policy. Over the next ten years, the US taxpayer will be forced to give Israel some $38 billion dollars in military aid. It is money we cannot afford going to a country that needs no assistance to maintain its status as the most powerful military in the Middle East.
All US foreign aid is immoral and counterproductive. As I have often said, it is money taken from poor people in the US and sent to rich people overseas. That is because US assistance money goes to foreign governments to hand out as they see fit. Often that assistance is stolen outright or it goes to the politically connected in the recipient country.
Just as bad is the fact that much of what we call “foreign aid” is actually welfare for the wealthy here at home. The aid package to Israel is a very good example. According to the agreement, this $38 billion will all go to US weapons manufacturers. So the real beneficiaries are not the American people, and not even Israeli citizens. The real beneficiaries are the US military-industrial complex. Perhaps the money won’t even leave Washington – it may simply go across town, from the Fed to the Beltway bomb-makers.
While even US government aid to desperately poor countries should be opposed on moral and practical grounds, it is even harder to understand US aid to relatively rich countries. At a nominal per capita GDP of over $35,000, Israel is richer than Japan, Italy, and South Korea. Not long ago Business Insider published a report by the Institute for the Study of War showing that the Israel is the most powerful military force in the Middle East. We know they have hundreds of nuclear weapons, a sophisticated air force, drones, and even nuclear weapons-equipped submarines.
So why is the US giving a rich and incredibly well-armed country a record amount of military aid? Part of it is that the US government believes it can coerce Israel to do Washington’s bidding in the Middle East. History shows that this is a foolish pipe dream. If anything, US aid subsidizes Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza and elsewhere.
Another reason is a very powerful lobby in Washington, AIPAC, that pressures Members of Congress to focus on Israel’s interests instead of US interests. Members of Congress should look at our economy, with effectively zero interest rates, an anemic non-recovery from the 2008 crash, historically low participation in the work force, and inflation eroding the value of the dollar and conclude that this might not be the best time to start handing out billions of dollars in foreign aid. Unfortunately most Members of Congress find it impossible to say no to special interest groups like AIPAC.
Here’s a better aid package for Israel: free trade, travel, friendly relations, and no entangling alliances. Israel should be free to pursue its national interests and we should be free to pursue ours. If individual Americans feel compelled to provide assistance to Israel or any other country or cause overseas they should be allowed. But the rest of us should not be forced to do so. Trade, not aid.
AS usual, Ron Paul get something half-right. No, we shouldn’t be sending any aid to Israel, much less any other countries. Maybe discounted old DoD gear we stop using, or assistance after natural disasters. But that’s about it.
Also, his reasoning behind his conclusion is somewhat whacky.
Israel had we allowed them to under GHW Bush, Clinton, GW Bush, and Obama's administrations could have stabilized much of the middle east even handling Iran and keeping Sauds in check. Israel despite some incidents is still our most loyal alliance in the Middle East and perhaps the world. Considering the conduct of our State Department and foreign policy we've had since GHW Bush-present Israel has still be a loyal alliance which they had good reasons especially with Obama to break off alliance. Israel strategy wise is important to us. Total Isolationist Policies which Ron Paul often pushes eventually found us in two world wars because issues were not dealt with soon enough. Japan strategy wise is also valuable to us.
One last point. I'd rather see our M.E. Navy shipyard located in Israel than the UAE. Reagan wisely used the Big Stick defense policy and the maps soon changed. We must be ready to protect our interest anywhere in the world and that includes U.S. flagged ships at sea. It takes ports and bases to do this.
IDIOT!
So they'll become even more powerful, and help us blow up the maniacal murdering moslems.
Next question.
I propose we stop funding to ALL maniacal murdering moslem nations, and send it all....
TO ISRAEL!
If true, then why do they need U.S. taxpayers giving them “peanuts”?
Israel is a first world country with a vibrant economy and 200 nukes (per Colin Powell). It’s citizens don’t have to worry about health care - it’s covered.
I firmly believe the security of Israel is best left in the hands of the Israelis. They don’t need meddling U.S. politicians and correspondingly they need to be weened off of the U.S. taxpayer.
Correct, he’s consistent - stop foreign aid, period.
You raise a good question.
Ultimately, the lavish aid program is weakening Israel, in all sorts of invisible ways, and will lead to destabalisation. Aid and hand outs always lead to corruption - the money goes in all directions. Israel was a much more strong, dynamic country in its more austere days of the 1950s and 1960s. Oddly, they had no aid back then.
One day, the gravy train will halt. The results will be more upheaval.
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