"A solid majority of Americans would redirect $38 billion the Obama Administration pledged to Israel toward other priorities.
The Obama administration last week signed an executive agreement with Israel pledging $38 billion ($3.8 billion per year) in foreign aid for fiscal years 2019- 2028. The majority of the proposed spending is for Foreign Military Financing to provide Israel advanced and upgraded jet fighters, to continue developing Israel’s missile defense systems and to purchase other U.S. weapons. Although the White House has released a Memorandum of Understanding fact sheet, the actual MOU has not been made publicly available.
An IRmep poll fielded by Google Consumer Surveys reveals 80.8 percent of the US adult Internet user population says they would redirect the proposed spending toward other priorities. Caring for veterans (20.7 percent) was their top priority, followed by education spending (20.1 percent) and paying down the national debt (19.3 percent). Rebuilding US infrastructure was favored by 14.9 percent, while funding a Middle East peace plan received 5.8 percent of support.
Only 16.8 percent said the $38 billion of pledged foreign aid should be spent on Israel." Grant Smith
http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2016/09/19/81-americans-oppose-38-billion-pledge-israel/
————-
A change of pace from the Borg Wars and the political circus. pl
Senator Graham thinks we should give more. I don’t think either Trump or Clinton will listen to us on this, too many of their big dinners are Israel foresters.
i really hope if Trump gets in he’ll follow his initial instinct which was even-handedness in the Palestinian Question, and reign in the open line of credit for Israel in diplomatic, military, and financial matters.
Vox Day picked up on an article from the Jpost that argued one way or another the relationship between Jews and the GOP was ending:
https://voxday.blogspot.co.nz/2016/09/the-twilight-of-us-jewry.html
If Trump does get in, the very fact he’s not willing to commit endless resources to wars for Israel or show the slightest pullback from unreservedly supporting Israel’s moves in Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank; he will be attacked by the regime media. This will have the effect of creating an incentive for conservatives to reassess the benefits that accrue to them and America from the ‘special relationship’ with ‘our greatest ally’.
There’s a phenomenon known as ‘error push’, where a position is adopted for the purpose of signalling against perceived hostility against your group. Since Trump will have redefined the GOP if he wins into America First, attacks from Jews and their media allies will result in instinctive hostility from the formerly pro-Zionist conservative base (the defeat of Ted Cruz shows the political power of hardcore evangelicals – the core of GOP’s pro-Zionist base – is in decline). In this case, the ‘error’ will be a happy one, and the Jews will be relegated to the DNC from whence they will have to make their case to the American people instead of relying upon the Washington Consensus.
And I know all Jews aren’t Zionist but the vast majority oppose America First, Zionist or no.
A bid for attention from Mister Clippy’s secret lovechild ????
Obviously, the masses need a little more of that edumacation thing.
Fore once I’m in the majority.
Wrote this on my kindle and words get changed. I meant donors not dinners and firsters not foresters.
Well it’s up to the pitch forks and torches to vote in mass come Nov 8th. Otherwise our grandkids and their grandkids are going to pay a heavy price.
Sorry., same ole same ole. Gift my ass.
Most folks here, and I mean most folks this side of the ocean, have zero concern for Israel//what goes on there.. okay, after the Sunday message some-places. 81% is just the beginning. Does it matter what the rank and file here thinks/has zero to do re WDC’s on rent costs, come-on.
Or have you always been in the majority?
In the contemporary USA, the views of the people are not important. The only thing that matters is what the Masters of the Universe want. In this case the defense contractors, DC think tanks, the Likudniks & AIPAC crowd and the establishment of the duopoly are on the same side.
Anyone expecting any kind of change in US policy vis–à–vis Israel is smoking something real strong!
Perhaps the public can do with educational trips to Israel??
I read this today. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-military-helicopters/ This announcement of aid to Israel indicates how skewed our priorities are.
I think you are totally wrong. Don’t you get it that Trumps daughter and grandchildren are Jewish and many of his backers are Israel firsters. You are also wrong about American Jews. My husband is an American citizen with dual citizenship with Israel. He fought with the IDF in 67. Our son is in the US Navy and it sickens my husband how Israel is behaving. His parents had close family die in the holocaust and Trumps rhetoric reminds him of the rhetoric in Germany in the 30’s.
This amount is outrageous. This is money that needs to be spent on US forces. According to Congressional testimony America would take “high risk” in any current war. We need to fix our own house first. It is critical.
For this to be going on I suspect that this is not just the usual military industrial complex drumming up oversea business. Total speculation but maybe this is a pay off to Israel for America not conducting the preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities that Israel all but demanded, as well as the diplomatic agreement on Iranian nuclear developments.
That is a lot of cash for a “make up kiss and forgive”. If it is, it was not worth it.
Vic
Lemur,
Does this give you second-thoughts?
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.744233
I look back fondly at the Donald Trump of the primaries. He was above both parties. He quietly presented an eclectic mix of heterodox & nationalist proposals.
IMO, the later months of August & this September have seen Trump hand THE BORG far too much control in the areas of economic & foreign policy.
The debates would be a good venue to re-state & re-claim some of his independence. If not, Hillary comes to look like the more attractive choice…
Best,
Paul
According to this military times survey, the majority of respondents have problems with the issues of foreign aid and nation building:
http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/after-15-years-of-war-americas-military-has-about-had-it-with-nation-building
Nancy K
I think you cannot simultaneously say that Trump is in thrall to Ziocon interests, has Jewish family and is simultaneously a neo-Nazi. That is cognitive dissonance with a vengeance. I agree with you that there are far too many Ziocons around him; Woolsey, Flynn/Ledeen, Gaffney, etc., How much influence these people would have on him as president or for how long is an open question to me. OTOH, she, IMO, is a compulsively controlling cold blooded super-grandma type with dictatorial instincts who is still now, so long after her speech at graduation from Wellesley planning to change us all “for the better” whether we want it or not. pl
I worked with a colleague that also was in the ’67 war. He immigrated and naturalized in the 70’s and has gone, over 30 years, from being very pro-Israel to a combination of disgusted with Israeli policies and worried about its future. However, he’s not an activist.
Trumps spokesman said that Trump would allow the Jews to annex the rest of Palestine. No word on whether the Palestinians would be pushed into the sea or ovens. Then again pick any topic and I can find Trumps talking out of both sides of his mouth.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/top-trump-aid-hed-back-israeli-annexations-in-west-bank/
Ether candidate is going to make the humanitarian disasters we have now look like kids play. The upside is 5 years ago that poll would have said 100% of Americans support giving Israel any thing it wants. Maybe some day the politicians will catch up with the people.
My husband is also very saddened and worried about its future. He says this is not the country that he fought for. He blames the ultra religious and the settlements.
You would be surprised about how gung go for Israel the Christians such as Ted Cruz are. I don’t think they care at all about Israelis but they do look forward to Armageddon when they will be raptured before Jesus returns. Christians and the like of Adelson make for very strange bedfellows.
I agree that this is cognitive dissonance with a vengeance and think it would be impossible for anyone but Trump to succeed at. However I do not think he is a neo-Nazi, but I think he attracts those who are. I am not saying that Clinton is not also in the pocket of Israel, I’m just saying it is naïve for people to think that Trump is above the fray. I truly wish we had another choice for president besides the two we have, but we don’t not really.
There are Israeli neo-Nazis according to Haaretz.
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.605234
Nancy K
I was head of DoD liaison with IDF general staff intelligence for seven years. I would not be surprised. What does your son do in the navy? pl
He is a 1st class Petty Officer, involved in security. He plans on making the navy his career.
Do you not then see the veracity of the point that I have been repeatedly raising, viz. that the electorate bears much of the responsibility for this state of affairs?
I keep on reading on this forum and elsewhere how Americans wish to have had other choices.
Who is responsible for the absence of such choices in the United States?
In Iran, many blame the Guardian Council of Constitution for an analogous situation; whom does one blame in the United States?
Or in UK?
Or in France?
Or in Italy?
Or in Hungary?
Who is responsible?
What a charming vision that is. If filmed, that would be the downfall of pornography.
Nancy K,
Trump appears not to support the actual nazis in Ukraine – the ones who celebrate Bandera and swastika’s. Hillary and neo-con USA support them.
Trump talks tough about muslims, but so do most US politicians (or they talk nice and bomb bomb bomb, or cackle, we came he died (and the muslims live in hell) – ha ha ha). Obama deporter in chief talks about inclusiveness – but…
On the other hand, Trump has lots of business in the middle east – did the actual nazi’s do business with Jews?
Cognitive dissonance everywhere – its an exceptional condition in an exceptional nation.
You’ve noticed that no politician in the US is allowed to run for office with out being sent to Israel for reprogramming as well.
“His parents had close family die in the holocaust and Trumps rhetoric reminds him of the rhetoric in Germany in the 30’s.”
Issn’t the shelf life way past expired on that meme?
How much longer are we to be held hostage to “what Germany did in the 30’s [sic]?
otoh, keep it up: more are more are discovering what was done to Germans, Poles and Russians, Armenians, etc. by zionists, in the 19teens, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, and until today.
Perhaps that’s how the full story finally comes out: in small pieces, provoked by the “doth protest too much” phenomenon.
Nanacy K
That would be an E-7? Sounds like SIGINT. One of my father’s brothers (John H) was a quartermaster warrant officer and another (Gordon P)a torpedoman warrant officer. There is a wiki on John and I mentioned earlier that Gordon endowed a chair at wellesly. pl
Last thing the “public” needs is “educational trips to Israel.” Such ventures almost always end up as psychological manipulation.
The public could do with educational trips to Iraq, Libya, Aleppo, and the other places in ME where wars for Israel were fought and the native population was killed or displaced, their cultures and society devastated for generations.
I suspect Ted Cruz spells that Armage$$on. His major benefactor influences how “Gung Ho” a “Christian” he should act.
Of course that $40B is just the tip of the iceberg. On top of that you have the dark money for covert ops and other purposes. There are a large number of Americans and equipment posted in Israel and the Sinai. That doesn’t count the other places in the ME that are there to attack some one that might fight back against Israel. There is also a carrier task force permanently stationed in the ME to protect Israel and if you need one you need two because the up time on them isn’t that good though better than many. There is the used military equipment that the US gives Israel for free. Some of it gets used by Israel, but large quantities get sold to nefarious actors especially in Africa. That includes countries the US has arms embargo against. When Bibi starts crowing about the love he gets in Africa now this is why.
the shelf life is never expired for those it happens to. You can question it because obviously you have never experienced such horror. I have not either. My father was a POW in Germany for 2 years and he really never got over it.
I’m not sure, for a brief time in my life, many years ago, I attended a church that was very into end times. They were sincere, the minister Chuck Smith, who has since died, was intelligent, yet he completely believed in Armageddon and the Church being raptured before the return of Jesus. The congregation was large, it was a mega church, probably 20 thousand or more and they all believed this. They use to spend time in Israel on a Kibbutz and were completely enamored of anything Israeli.
Israel has played US evangelicals like a violin. But not a very difficult thing to do when your theological grounding is as simplistic as that embraced by many evangelicals. Prime example of telling someone what they want to hear.
Any idea how much of this funding is effectively assistance to the US arms industry, ie giving Israel money that they can only use to buy items from US arms suppliers?
Nah, it is what another commentator observed here: you cannot have a frank discussion with the electorate; you will never get their vote – in US or elsewhere.
Henshaw
It appears that the money will be spent in US companies and from there will cycle to major shareholders who are friends and patrons of BHO. Their money would be useful for his library. pl
@Nancy k
– check my last sentence. Not all Jews are Zionist but most oppose Trump, especially elites. In future ALL of them will have to make their case for why from one party whatever their reasons.
– Israel Firsters are in Trump’s camp but he’s not up for their plans in Syria.
– the ‘literally Hitler’ meme has no basis in fact but plenty in emotional appeals to the Holocaust.
– Israel was problematic from its inception,and poisoned Western relations with the Muslim world for no good reason.
@Paul & Brave
– the pressing problem with Israel is their influence on disastrous American foreign policy as a whole in the ME (eg Syria). The Palestinian thing is an issue but at least its somewhat contained.
– This is why the neocons are arrayed against The Donald despite his assurances outlined in the links above.
Please read “The General’s Son” by Miko Peled. More Israeli-Americans need to speak up against Likud; Christians are ham-strung as “anti-Semites”. “The General’s Son”.
Lincoln did
Kolomoyski, paymaster of Right Sektor.
We have, Jill Stein. If you think casting a ballot for The Clown or the Evil One is a waste, just waste it on a good cause.
Col.,
“1st class Petty Officer” That’s E-6. A chief would be E-7.
The American public tend to be against foreign aid generally. Many are under the impression that we give “too much” when in fact the U.S. has often lagged behind other powers in this department.
After the agreement was signed Obama immediately began talking again about a two-state agreement and there is talk that he might go to the U.N. with a resolution. He has no desire to do Bibi any favors and I have the impression it’s all he can do not to hold his nose whenever Netanyahu enters the room.
The agreement also contained a provision wherein for the next two years, at least, if Congress appropriates more money for Israel than the Administration wants to give – which is usually the case — the Israelis have agreed to return it. Lindsey Graham was peevish and said this demonstrated the Administration’s “antagonism” toward Israel.
None of this is great news,and I wouldn’t make too much of it, but it is progress of a kind.
No Republican candidate of any stripe has shown any interest in pressuring Israel. Trump just told Bibi that he will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel if elected.
No matter who you vote for the government always wins
All
I have a question on the wording: why are there 38b USD called a gift instead of a tribute?
Are there any polls indicating a majority of US people sees this money as gift instead of a tribute?
I mean do people not know about the laws requiring the US president to guarantee Israel’s QME?
I can hardly imagine this.
After the agreement was signed Obama immediately began talking again about a two-state agreement and there is talk that he might go to the U.N. with a resolution.
Probably not any more. Via MondoWeiss, a letter from AIPAC signed by 88 Senators warning Obama to not even think of it.
As an AIPAC official once said, “You see this napkin? In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin.”
Not a lot of profiles in courage among those signatories.
Well, one can dream. Also, unlike those senators, Obama doesn’t have to face the voters, or perhaps I should say campaign donors, again. I think that if Trump is elected, there’s a real possibility that Obama goes for it. If Clinton wins, then he’d work it out with her, and she might well appreciate – privately – having Obama be the one to put the screws to Israel, even though she has assured Netanyahu that she would oppose such a resolution.
Or maybe Obama’s just enjoying watching Netanyahu sweat a bit. In the debate tonight, Trump said reproachfully that Obama and Clinton are getting Bibi all upset. If so, good.
Imagine – How is that guy Kolomoyski able to have triple citizenship?? I assume nobody cares in the Ukraine. And I know Israel allows dual citizenship, but do they allow triple? Cyprus?? He may have investments there.
mike allen
I have known a number of people who had triple citizenship. They had Lebanese, British and Canadian citizenship generated by investments in the UK and Canada. They would have sought US citizenship as well but US tax requirements dissuaded them. pl