Aid to Israel

"The military rabbinate [religious wing of the Israeli Army, like chaplains] brought many magazines and articles with a very clear message: 'We are the Jewish people, a miracle brought us to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, and now we have to struggle so as to get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land.' All the feeling throughout all this operation of many of the soldiers was of a war of religions," he said. "As a commander, I tried to explain that the war is not a war of Kiddush Hashem [the sanctification of God's name, including through martyrdom] but over the stopping of the launching of the Qassam rockets."
- Israeli soldier identified as "Rahm" on the recent Gaza war, interviewed by the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/20/AR2009032003463.html?wprss=rss_world

I know that every war has its ingrained religious dogma and nationalist propaganda, but give me a break. Since this controversy broke, some military rabbis have been reprimanded or given leaves of absence. And that's not all; Human Rights Watch and the IDF are conducting separate investigations into the use of white phosphorous munitions (used to illuminate battle areas at night, but can also rain down on people and burn their flesh) during the Gaza conflict. Using such materials in an urban zone is a war crime, and HRW has concluded that Israel is guilty. Peace activist and former IDF soldier Yehuda Shaul interviewed 20 soldiers who participated in Operation Cast Lead. "Some soldiers from some units who led this operation in the front, basically when they received the briefing, it was - guys, we're entering in, everything that moves, everything that is a threat, everything you are afraid of, you shoot," said Shaul. Needless to say, shooting indiscriminately is also a violation of the Geneva Conventions, though unfortunately it takes place in all wars. The Israeli government has dismissed Shaul's work as unconfirmed anecdotes.
The [Israeli] army says it's investigating, even as some Israeli soldiers are coming forward with their own accounts of what they describe as needless civilian deaths and highly permissive rules of engagement. Shaul says some of the soldiers he's interviewed also say they destroyed civilian property and homes, actions that seemed to have little or no tactical purpose or necessity. Some soldiers, he says, called it gratuitous and stupid. -NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=102371101

Personally, I don't want my tax dollars financing such brutality and RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM. My own country engages in enough of that - we don't need to indulge others overseas. Ironically, the War on Terror is built on the premise that radical Islam is the most significant international security threat, yet we overtly or implicitly condone Zionist extremism? Obama seeks to increase foreign aid from $20B currently to $50B by 2012, but that may run into trouble in Congress due to the economy. Already they are looking to trim $4B in aid to try to pass the 2008 budget, but not sure how that affects aid to Israel (probably negligibly).

How is it that Israel receives 1/7 of all US foreign aid ($2.5-3B annually)? Israel's population is 7M; that is 0.12% of the wold's population. In comparison, Bangladesh and its 151M people get $50M. Unlike Israel, Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations on Earth, often hit by natural disasters, and has been peaceful with its neighbors since the 1970's. The per-capita difference there is 1,286-fold in Israel's favor. Speaking of per-capita, Israel's GDP PPP is $28K (#31 worldwide according to the CIA Factbook, ahead of Czechs and Saudis) and Bangladesh's is only $1.5K. Only 20 nations are pooer. I am not so naive to think that we give our foreign aid based on need, but some disparities are too ludicrous to ignore. But then again, I am sure that pro-Israel lobbyists in Washington vastly outnumber their Bangladeshi counterparts.

As part of with an initiative by then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the civilian aid has been steadily decreased over the course of the past 10 years, going from USD 1.2 million to being completely cancelled this year. At the same time military aid to Israel has increased from USD 1.8 billion to USD 2.4 billion.
-Yitzhak Benhorin, ynetnews.com, 2007

Since the founding of the Jewish State, they have received over $80B in US assistance (over half of that for their military, and the proportion is growing), which is over $10K for every Israeli alive today. And our federal government spends all that effort cracking down on "welfare moms" and Earned Income Tax Credit abusers? Plus it's not like they would be out in the cold without us. Since the Luxembourg agreement of 1952 and subsequent decrees, Germany has been giving substantial aid to Israel (like unofficial reparations for Nazi crimes). As of 1995, Germany has given over $26B directly to the state and people, as well as $94M in annual low-interest loans. They have a legal and moral responsibility to do so, but what is our reason?

There are poor people in Israel and some Arabs have had their homes demolished by the government. I have no problem helping them, but I'll be damned if some of my labor contributes to the sniping and shelling of innocents in Gaza for their "holy war". The lifeblood of war is money. I wonder how international conflicts would be affected if the US universally cut military aid to Israel, as well as other big recipients like Colombia, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi. And imagine how many Americans could be put to work or how many Africans could be fed/immunized with those billions.

http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/politics/us-foreign-aid.htm
http://www.hotpolitics.com/tax4israel.htm
http://www.ameu.org/page.asp?iid=97&aid=134&pg=1
http://philanthropy.com/news/government/7609/congress-may-cut-some-foreign-aid-money-from-proposed-budget

All this is not anti-Semitic; it's just fact.