Hawks Call for Cuts to Israel Military Aid

[Draggingtree]

The American Conservative :

Hawks Call for Cuts to Israel Military Aid

 

By JONATHAN COPPAGE • July 18, 2014, 11:28 AM

 

As Israel ramps up its ground invasion and bombing campaign against Gaza, one might think that the Jewish state’s fiercest defenders here in the United States would be resolutely holding the line against any suggestion of reducing support to the IDF. Instead, Eli Lake reported this morning, many of Israel’s most prominent hawkish supporters are increasingly open to the idea of reducing or eliminating the billions of dollars in military aid that the United States provides Israel every year.

 

They have not changed their feathers, to be sure, but rather see a phase-out of aid to be in Israel’s best interests as they understand them. Noah Pollak, who runs the Emergency Committee on Israel, said, “The experience of the Obama years has sharpened the perception among pro-Israel Americans that aid can cut against Israel by giving presidents with bad ideas more leverage than they would otherwise have.”

 

Elliott Abrams, the former George W. Bush deputy national security adviser and “leading pro-Israel writer and policy analyst” told Lake,

[Valin]

 

Pollak is not alone. Elliott Abrams—a former deputy national security adviser to President George W. Bush and a leading pro-Israel writer and policy analyst—told The Daily Beast, “My view is over time it would be healthy for the relationship if the aid diminished. Israel should be less dependent on American financial assistance and should become the kind of ally that we have in Australia, Canada, or the United Kingdom: an intimate military relationship and alliance, but no military aid.”

 

Eli Lake

 

 

 

[Valin]

From the comments......

 

 

Michael N Moore says:

July 18, 2014 at 11:52 am

 

Most of our aid to Israel and other countries like Egypt is actually a massive subsidy for the US arms industry. Zionists have no counter argument for I am tired of having my tax dollars spent on Israel, so they have cooked up this little charade. Their superiors of the military-industrial complex will see that aid is maintained or laundered through other countries.

 

 

William Dalton says:

July 18, 2014 at 4:27 pm

 

This could, indeed, be Rand Pauls hour. One side benefit, of course, to ending military aid to Israel is that it will also end the flow of billions each year to the Egyptian army. As though we needed an excuse

 

 

Steve Murray says:

July 18, 2014 at 6:59 pm

 

Whilst you are all pontificating on whether you should be giving a country with a population of 6 million 3 billion dollars worth of aid, might it be worth considering that much of this ordnance is being used to splatter two year olds all over the walls of their houses?

 

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Talk about deep insightful thinking.....or something.

[Valin]

The question should also be asked, what do we get in return for this aid? Other than access to Israel's military high tech, their intelligence, and (no small matter) the message send to other nations of the region.