Footing the Bill While Israel Thumbs Its Nose
By Chris ToensingApril 17, 2015 "ICH"
- It’s tax season again. How about a little accounting?
Every year, Washington sends $3.1 billion of taxpayers’
hard-earned money to Israel. It’s only fair to ask what Americans are
getting in return.
That seems especially appropriate now.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is busy
badmouthing the tentative nuclear deal with Iran, a major diplomatic
achievement for the United States. And a few weeks ago, he declared his
opposition to a Palestinian state, a long-standing US priority.
Bibi has tried hard to sabotage President Barack Obama’s
efforts to head off another Middle East war. He didn’t just give a speech to
Congress against the negotiations. According to a Wall Street Journal
report, Israel also spied on the nuclear talks and spoon-fed bits of
out-of-context innuendo to Obama’s GOP foes.
It’s not big news that friendly countries snoop on one
another. The Obama administration is guilty of this practice, too. But using
the intelligence to meddle in your ally’s domestic politics is beyond the
pale.
Netanyahu’s subsequent campaign pledge to reject
Palestinian statehood flew in the face of not only his previous (if
grudging) acceptance of a two-state solution, but also decades of stated US
policy.
Don’t take my word for it.
When President George W. Bush signed off on Israel’s
$3-billion-a-year aid package several years ago, State Department official
Nicholas Burns called the funds “an investment in peace” and in “the
creation of an independent Palestinian state.”
Obama now says it’s “hard to envision” how the United
States can broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians if the stronger
side —- Israel -— doesn’t want it. There have been intimations from the
White House that Washington won’t automatically side with Israel at the UN
Security Council any longer.
In response, Netanyahu tried to walk back his
electioneering bluster.
But he’s still campaigning against the nuclear accord with
Iran. And he looks likely to form a coalition government of right-wing
parties that will thwart a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict in word and deed.
Why?
Maybe it’s because in the same breath as its jabs at
Netanyahu, the White House promises to keep dropping that $3-billion chunk
of taxpayer change into Israel’s coffers.
Last year, that money constituted more than half of all US
military aid worldwide —- and nearly a quarter of Israel’s arms budget. This
boodle forms the core of the US-Israeli “special relationship.” And as long
as the White House considers it sacrosanct, Israel won’t take US criticism
seriously.
Want to see if Israel will halt the construction of
Israeli settlers’ homes and shopping malls in occupied Palestinian land? Or
stop its attempts to thwart the peace process with Iran? Put that military
aid on the chopping block.
If Israel thumbs its nose, as it very well might, then at
least Americans will no longer be footing the bill. It’s scandalous that
we’ve kept this up for so long.
Chris Toensing is the editor of
Middle East Report, published by the
Middle East Research and
Information Project