Over $3bn in US aid to Israel in FY2012

The AIPAC-bought Congress continues to hand over American money — surely needed at home when unemployment is at over 10%, a lot of infrastructure failing and poverty rising — to Israel, a country that defies US demands, breaks international law, and continues encroaching on Palestinian land.

From the US Campaign to End the Occupation:

Obama Gives Israel Too Much Love in Valentine’s Day Budget

(Washington, DC) February 14 -- The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation today criticized the Obama Administration for giving Israel "too much love" in its FY2012 budget request to Congress. The budget request, delivered today to Capitol Hill, contains a record-breaking $3.075 billion in military aid to Israel. 

"With the United States facing an ongoing budget deficit and an unsustainable debt, it is difficult to believe that President Obama would actually request an increase in U.S. military aid to Israel," stated Josh Ruebner, National Advocacy Director, "especially given the fact that Israel misuses U.S. military aid to commit systematic human rights abuses of Palestinians in violation of the Arms Export Control Act."

Ruebner added that "Now is the time -- with the U.S.-backed 'peace process' in tatters and Israel continuing to illegally colonize Palestinian land -- to end, rather than increase, U.S. weapons transfers to Israel."

Last month on CNN, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for ending U.S. military aid to Israel, an idea endorsed by the Israeli think tank Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (JIMS) and Israeli journalist Ran Dagoni writing in Globes.

The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation is organizing a multi-year campaign to end U.S. military aid to Israel.  On its interactive web site, www.aidtoisrael.org, users can view how much money their cities, counties, Congressional districts and states provide in military aid to Israel, and determine how much health care, education, housing and jobs training this money could purchase instead.

Comments

[Pococurante]

Not just Israel, cut off aid to all countries in the ME. that money props up the dictators as well as the Israeli democracy.

[wolf]

This "aid" may be problematic

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/141692

[Slovakistan]

America's warped vision of the Middle East is shaped by the House of Saud's aspirations and its never-ending supply of petroleum, not a relatively unimportant lobbying group. Saudi Arabia cannot play the hatchet man against Iran, lest it risk losing its ever-dubious religious credibility, so we funnel millions of dollars to Israel whenever we need someone to do the region's dirty work. As the article you cite points out, even Israelis are fed up with this arrangement. We use the IDF the same way Iran/Syria use Hizballah and Hamas, only we have the funds to make sure they have better weapons.

Thanks for pretending to care about America's warped budget priorities though, I'm sure you'll have a thorough analysis of farm subsidies in your next post.

[sabasarge]

But no issues with $1.5 billion in military aid to Egypt?
America actually gets something in return for dollars spent in Israel, not the least being access to R&D in areas of innovation military systems. And oh yeah, something about shared values, you know, women's rights, gay rights, free press, etc.
And before anybody chimes in about "oppressing" the poor "Palestinians", can anybody answer why, when for 19 years ('48-'67) Gaza and the West Bank were held by Arabs, there was no movement towards an independent Palestinian State?
Allow me to answer that........it's because this has nothing to do with Palestinian rights, or land. This is, and always has been about Dar al Islam's inability to accept a microscopic sovereign Jewish presence in its' midst.
Period.