PALESTINIAN GENOCIDE - ISRAELI-TERRORISM AWARENESS THREAD

[niketalker23]

If a bunch of guys were throwing rocks at a couple of cops, would you think shooting them all down is an appropriate response?

You can kill someone with a rock to the head.

Which is why stoning is still a form of capital punishment in some countries.

A bunch of guys throwing rocks at a couple of cops can easily kill them, so yes shooting them down is justified.

 

[duba169]

Did a moderator just deny the Holocaust? And I'm supposed to believe that you are anti Israeli govt and don't flat out hate jews?

Fact of the matter is a lot of you get angry, upset, and irrational when people present facts. Then you get pissy and show your true colors.

you tried so hard.... but just could't help it could you...

I also want to know what some of you think would happen if you went and threw rocks or bootleg bombs at cops or civilians

 

[me love nutella]

do i have to quote sarah palin
at least the jews are out of the pictures and then we can see if the followers of islam are such peace loving people with "little satan" out of the desert

i do agree with DubA169

You know those countries are infighting because indirectly of Israel right. The colonizers placed minority government states in that region to create instability which in turn works in favour of Israel. Make the people fight civil wars to keep the status quo and make the Arabs less united. A united 350 million Arabs is their worst nightmare. Israel was placed there as a strategy as a gateway to the western world to serve the interests to the former colonizers. This protects the interests of the colonizers, keeps their status quo, and Israel can stand strong.

The Palestinian - Israeli conflict is the key to unlock to so many i socio-political issues in that region. Goes all the way back to history.

 

[me love nutella]

Did a moderator just deny the Holocaust? And I'm supposed to believe that you are anti Israeli govt and don't flat out hate jews?

Fact of the matter is a lot of you get angry, upset, and irrational when people present facts. Then you get pissy and show your true colors.

you tried so hard.... but just could't help it could you...

I also want to know what some of you think would happen if you went and threw rocks or bootleg bombs at cops or civilians

Dont even compare. Palestinian kids throw rocks as a form of resistance. You got Israeli 18 yr olds who think they are all big and tough carrying their advanced guns and who at many times kill innocent civilians mercilessly and for no apparent reason. You have many. Of these kids who have a genocidal mindset to kill Arabs. Are you trying to compare a rock to the mighty artillery of the IDF? How about the military get out of Palestinian neighborhoods if they are pissed off at rocks being thrown at them? They don't want the IDF coming in to their houses to kill them randomly or shoot to death Palestinian protesters for no apparent reason as it happens often. You damn well bet you will see rocks thrown at you.

 

[me love nutella]

userref15, are you kidding me. Since when has Egypt been a Palestinian ally? Egypt government despises Hamas. Egypt closed off their borders to Palestinians. Egypt, behind Israel, gets the most aid from the U.S. to in return aid Israel. Egypt and Israel were on good terms since the late 70s.

Hamas is isolated. They also have their own goals and strategies in this war too. I mentioned it, as a Palestinian, I think they have done so much wrong and completely do not support their violence towards Israeli civilians. They are too extreme.

However, as a result from a brutal occupation, you will have groups like Hamas that prop up. Look at Nelson Mandela and how he was deemed a terrorist because of his leadership and support of the militant wing of the ANC fighting South African apartheid. You think Hamas were the only ones of their kind to form? By the way, in the 80s, Israel helped fund them so they can be a counter force to the PLO and to create infighting between Palestinians.

How do you expect a people to be tortured, have their land stolen, be constantly oppressed, caged liked animals and to not have a militant group arise or people take arms? By the way, let's not forget that MOST forms of Palestinian resistance is non violent.

 

[me love nutella]

Let me add something. .are some of you seriously condoning the IDF shooting at Palestinian kids throwing rocks? You guys know the IDF at this point is illegally present in Palestinian towns and neighborhoods right? As per international law, they are the occupying force and vigilants stationed where they do not belong. The IDF are brutal and exercise a lot of unjustified killings and violate international law and human rights violations. Do not come at me denying this. You have to look no further than many organisations and international rights groups to see the violations and statistics. You think they just go in Palestinian towns to restore peace? They have no business being there. The Palestinians see them as violent thugs. Especially when Palestinian kids have seen the IDF murder their family members, raid their houses, destroy their houses, illegally take their family members to prison, illegally torture them and even torture children in jails, shoot and kill peaceful Palestinian demonstrators..yet you expect Palestinian kids not to throw rocks at them once this barbaric army shows up in their neighborhoods and the IDF has the right to shoot at these kids throwing rocks.

Wonder how Israelis would feel if it was reversed.

Shame on you all.

 

[duba169]

Meanwhîle Israel accepts egyptian ceasefire and Palestine rejects it. I'm done with this thread but have fun spinning that one.

 

[tn123]

So this government orchestrated military is resembling a past government and leadership that supposedly murdered 7,000,000 Jews. And this is the type of pass and allowance given after all these years? So when you see Benjamin Netanyahu smiling in these pictures, shaking hands with government leaders around the world, with a very abrasive look on his face - think of Hitler every time you see him.

Anybody humane, should be disgusted by anyone who supports Israel as anything positive. They are racist, demoralizing, murdering terrorist. And this is coming from someone who's been affected by this first hand. From a son who's fathers roots were about deflecting abuse by the Israeli treatment of the Palestinian people.

 

LOL.. cool story bro. I wish we were as nice, forgiving and loving as you guys. You guys are angels, never did anything wrong.

In the minds of unbiased, intelligent, and informed people this isn't even a debate. I'm done arguing with people who are lost causes. People who can't put biases aside to stand up for human rights.

The focus should be on winning the minds of people who are uninformed to hopefully sway public opinion and eventually public policy before a genocide and eradication of a people is completed.

Apologize as well. I wish we were as unbiased, educated and informed as you are.

 

[hand2handking]

so israel could like for real wipe out every palestinian?

that would be like ww3 right?

 

[me love nutella]

Meanwhîle Israel accepts egyptian ceasefire and Palestine rejects it. I'm done with this thread but have fun spinning that one.

It is a no brainer Hamas would not accept it. The ceasefire conditions and concessions to Hamas played in the hands of Israel. Just like Israel would not accept a ceasefire that did not work in their favor or they thought was unfair. This is all for show. So Israel can pretend they were agreeing to a ceasefire when they knew Hamas would not accept it.

Another thing, Hamas officials are claiming they were not consulted in the formulationof this ceasefire and only learned about it from media reports. How is that a fair ceasefire negotiation?

Hamas do not want to accept a ceasefire that is short term. They experienced this in the past and it failed. What they want are concessions to agree on the demands of the Palestinian people, ending the siege and opening the border crossing, then they will agree. Otherwise they say history will keep repeating itself.

 

[me love nutella]

so israel could like for real wipe out every palestinian?

that would be like ww3 right?

What they do is an ethnic cleansing. They will not wipe them out at once because they know they will get slapped for it so they do it hiding under fake pretenses and ways like you see right now what is happening now.

Let's just post a reminder that in this operation so far, 192 Palestinians killed, in which over 80% are civilian casualties. There are 1400 wounded and more than 17,000 are sheltering in UN compounds. Israelis wounded from rockets - at least 10. Israelis killed? 0

 

[Original Playa Records]

Y'all are mistreating Africans so what can you say? Just take it

 

[mr marcus]

So sick of Israel...hope they one day get the big head towards America so we can set they ***** straight

 

[7thave btn 31stn33rd st]

Both Hamas and the Israeli governing bodies should be held responsible of the deaths of innocent lives

Ding Ding Ding.


As some one who is Jewish, I was brought up and taught that Israel = Good, Palestinians = Bad. Religious school heavily influenced this thinking, and made it out that the formation of Israel was some sort of "miracle". I did my own objective research when I got older. Zionism has deep, deep roots in corruption and had a huge influence in the Holocaust as a way for them to use "antisemitism" for their benefit. Zionism is a nationalistic mind-set for Jews (like the KKK for anglos). Zionist leaders have use graphic and horrible words to describe Palestinians/Arabs over the years in order to eradicate them. Ironically, Jews were dispersed for hundreds of years. The Ottoman Empire took them in for safety. Jews and Muslim Palestinian/Arabs lived peacefully among each other for decades and always throughout history have gotten along. Since the rise of Zionism is when the conflict started.


Zionism has NO ROOTS TO JUDAISM, PERIOD. Zionism was a political movement developed by either secular or atheist born Jews. The concept of the "State of Israel", or a governing body over the Jewish people in anti-torah.

I'm not defending the govt of Israel or Hamas/PLO/Fatah, both are equally responsible, both equally have a right to defend themselves. The IDF are no angels, their military along with their govt are just as corrupt as any other govt in the world. The media in country does not report what happens in the region fairly. The Israeli govt treats not only treat Palestinians as second class citizens, they treat their OWN as second class citizens. Israelis are mostly Ashkenazi (from Eastern Europe) and they look down and treat Sephardic (Spanish/Latin descent Jews), African Jews, and Arab Jews as second class citizens.

 

[mr marcus]

 

Both Hamas and the Israeli governing bodies should be held responsible of the deaths of innocent lives

Ding Ding Ding.


As some one who is Jewish, I was brought up and taught that Israel = Good, Palestinians = Bad. Religious school heavily influenced this thinking, and made it out that the formation of Israel was some sort of "miracle". I did my own objective research when I got older. Zionism has deep, deep roots in corruption and had a huge influence in the Holocaust as a way for them to use "antisemitism" for their benefit. Zionism is a nationalistic mind-set for Jews (like the KKK for anglos). Zionist leaders have use graphic and horrible words to describe Palestinians/Arabs over the years in order to eradicate them. Ironically, Jews were dispersed for hundreds of years. The Ottoman Empire took them in for safety. Jews and Muslim Palestinian/Arabs lived peacefully among each other for decades and always throughout history have gotten along. Since the rise of Zionism is when the conflict started.


Zionism has NO ROOTS TO JUDAISM, PERIOD. Zionism was a political movement developed by either secular or atheist born Jews. The concept of the "State of Israel", or a governing body over the Jewish people in anti-torah.

I'm not defending the govt of Israel or Hamas/PLO/Fatah, both are equally responsible, both equally have a right to defend themselves. The IDF are no angels, their military along with their govt are just as corrupt as any other govt in the world. The media in country does not report what happens in the region fairly. The Israeli govt treats not only treat Palestinians as second class citizens, they treat their OWN as second class citizens. Israelis are mostly Ashkenazi (from Eastern Europe) and they look down and treat Sephardic (Spanish/Latin descent Jews), African Jews, and Arab Jews as second class citizens.

yep!!! 

 

[flyeed]

 

In the minds of unbiased, intelligent, and informed people this isn't even a debate. I'm done arguing with people who are lost causes. People who can't put biases aside to stand up for human rights.

The focus should be on winning the minds of people who are uninformed to hopefully sway public opinion and eventually public policy before a genocide and eradication of a people is completed.

Apologize as well. I wish we were as unbiased, educated and informed as you are.

Most people aren't as informed on the subject as they think though. Actually most have been essentially brainwashed their whole lives. if you'd like to have a better idea on things than you have right now, you can ask yourself why there are so many people who are Jewish, or born Jewish that so strongly oppose Israel. 

according to a letter to the NY Times Einstein and 25 other prominent Jews cosigned on...

Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the "Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi  and Fascist parties

http://archive.org/details/AlbertEinsteinLetterToTheNewYorkTimes.December41948

Noam Chomsky on conditions in Gaza after he visited (world's top public intellectual in 2005, and MIT professor, Born Jewish)

NOAM CHOMSKY: It’s kind of amazing and inspiring to see people managing somehow to survive in—as essentially caged animals and subject to constant, random, sadistic punishment only to humiliate them, no pretext. They’re—Israel and the United States keep them alive, basically. They don’t want them to starve to death. But the life is set up so that you can’t have a dignified, decent life. In fact, one of the words you hear most often is "dignity." They would like to have dignified lives. And the standard Israeli position is they shouldn’t raise their heads. And it’s a pressure cooker, could blow up. You know, people can’t live like that forever.

one of his interviews here:
there are literally COUNTLESS books/videos/interviews of holocaust survivors that are against Israel's policies, and if anybody has the capacity to empathize with people struggling and being persecuted due to religious/racial reasons, its them.

here's just one example I found very quickly with a google search:

having an opinion based on all of the facts is not a bias. it would be a bit of a shame to imply now that a holocaust survivor like Mrs. Epstein in the last video, or a world-renowned intellectual who was born Jewish like Noam Chomsky has any sort of biassed agenda. you even had the informed Jewish intellectuals of their time (including Albert Einstein) likening Menachen Begin and his party to Nazis. 

The things here are really just scratching the surface on the truth and perspectives that people don't know of.

 

[jadakhanman]

What's good y'all. Honestly a lot of people in this thread have personal connections and agendas, which guide their opinions. That is fine as it is expected that you feel a certain way when your loved ones or people of the same religion as you are threatened. That is human nature. What isn't right is that the United States is funding mass murder. I don't understand why regular American citizens are not up in arms at the gross over expenditure towards Israel. Guess chiraq can't use an extra 3 billion a year. Feel free to read the below article. Here is the link for citation purposes for those who think these are internet tin hat findings: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34485.htm


The Staggering Cost of Israel to Americans

By Pamela Olson

April 02, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -"If Americans Knew" - Israel has a population of approximately 7.8 million, or a million fewer than the state of New Jersey. It is among the world's most affluent nations, with a per capita income similar to that of the European Union.[1] Israel's unemployment rate of 5.6% is much better than America's 9.1%,[2] and Israel's net trade, earnings, and payments is ranked 48th in the world while the US sits at a dismal 198th.[3]

Yet Israel receives approximately 10% of America's foreign aid budget every year.[4] The US has, in fact, given more aid to Israel than it has to all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined—which have a total population of over a billion people.[5] And foreign aid is just one component of the staggering cost of our alliance with Israel.

Given the tremendous costs, it is critical to examine why we lavish so much aid on Israel, and whether it is worth Americans' hard-earned tax dollars. But first, let's take a look at what our alliance with Israel truly costs.
Before the Iraq War in 2003

Direct Foreign Aid

According to the Congressional Research Service , the amount of official US aid to Israel since its founding in 1948 tops $112 billion, and in the past few decades it has been on the order of $3 billion per year.[6](In 2011, for example, this amounted to over $8.2 million every single day.)

But this money is only part of the story. For one thing, Israel gets its aid money at the start of each year, unlike other nations.[7] This is significant: It means Israel can start earning interest on the money right away. And it costs the US more than the typical year-end disbursements because the US government operates at a deficit, so it must borrow this money to pay Israel and then pay interest on the amount all year.

Israel is also the only recipient of US military aid that is allowed to use a significant portion annually to purchase products made by Israeli companies instead of US companies. (The costs to Americans caused by this unique perk are discussed below.)

In addition, the US gives roughly $2 billion per year to Egypt and Jordan in aid packages arranged largely in exchange for peace treaties with Israel. The treaties don't include justice for Palestinians, and are therefore deeply unpopular with the local populations.[8]

On top of this, the US gives roughly half a billion to the Palestinian Authority each year,[9] much of it used to rebuild infrastructure destroyed by Israel and to bolster an economy stifled by the Israeli occupation.[1 This would be unnecessary if Israel were to end the occupation and allow the Palestinians to build a functioning and self-sustaining economy.

Yet there's still much more to the story, because parts of US aid to Israel are buried in the budgets of various US agencies, mostly the Department of Defense. For example, since at least 2006, the American Defense budget has included between $130 and $235 million per year for missile defense programs in Israel.[11]

In all, direct US disbursements to Israel amount to approximately 10% of all U.S. aid abroad, even though Israelis only make up 0.001% of the world's population. In other words, on average, Israelis receive 10,000 times more US foreign aid per capita than other people throughout the world, despite the fact that Israel is one of the world's more affluent nations.[12] And that number rises significantly when one considers disbursements to Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority and Defense spending on behalf of Israel.

Additional Ad hoc support for Israel

Dr. Thomas Stauffer, a Harvard economist and Middle East studies professor who twice served in the Executive Office of the President, wrote a comprehensive report about all components of the alliance with Israel's cost to American taxpayers for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs in 2003. He wrote:

"Another element is ad hoc support for Israel, which is not part of the formal foreign aid programs. No comprehensive compilation of US support for Israel has been publicly released. Additional known items include loan guarantees... special contracts for Israeli firms, legal and illegal[13] transfers of marketable US military technology, de facto exemption from US trade protection provisions, and discounted sales or free transfers of 'surplus' US military equipment. An unquantifiable element is the trade and other aid given to Romania and Russia to facilitate Jewish migration to Israel; this has accumulated to many billions of dollars."[14]

Israel has often used its privileged access to US military technology against both the US government and US corporate interests. According to the Associated Press in 2002, "In France, Turkey, The Netherlands and Finland, Israeli companies have edged such U.S. firms as Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics out of arms deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years. The irony, experts say, is that tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars and transfers of American military technology helped create and nurture Israel's industry, in effect subsidizing a foreign competitor."

The AP article quoted a vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association of America, who bluntly said, "We give them money to build stuff for themselves and the U.S. taxpayer gets nothing in return."[15]

Meanwhile, according to the Christian Science Monitor , Israel has also "blocked some major US arms sales, such as F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. That cost $40 billion over 10 years."[16]

Even worse, Israeli weapons "buttress the arsenals of nations such as China that the United States considers strategic competitors, alarming US military planners," the Associated Press article went on to report. "[In 2001] US surveillance planes flying along China's coast were threatened by Chinese fighter jets armed with Israeli missiles... Had Chinese fighter pilots been given the order to fire, they could have brought down the US planes with Israeli Python III missiles... US defense chiefs say Israel sold China the missiles without informing the United States."[17]

Lost jobs, trade, and standing

One of the most devastating indirect costs of the US alliance with Israel was the Arab oil boycott of 1973. The Arab states imposed the boycott in protest of US support of Israel during the 1973 war, in which Arab countries attacked Israel to try to reclaim lands Israel had invaded and occupied in 1967.

"Washington's intervention triggered the Arab oil embargo which cost the U.S. doubly: first, due to the oil shortfall, the US lost about $300 billion to $600 billion in GDP; and, second, the US was saddled with another $450 billion in higher oil import costs," wrote Stauffer in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.[18]

Then there's the cost in lost jobs. "US policy and trade sanctions reduce US exports to the Middle East about $5 billion a year, costing 70,000 or so American jobs," Stauffer estimates. "Not requiring Israel to use its US aid to buy American goods, as is usual in foreign aid, costs another 125,000 jobs."[19]

But perhaps the most damaging cost to the US has been its loss of standing in the Arab and Muslim worlds, where US largesse towards Israel as it commits human rights violations[2 provokes deep resentment. "To many of the world's Muslims, it places the US taxpayer on the Israeli side of its conflicts with Arabs," observed the Associated Press article.[21]

According to Harvard professor Stephen Walt, "The 9/11 Commission reported that 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's 'animus toward the United States stemmed not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with US foreign policy favoring Israel.' Other anti-American terrorists—such as Ramzi Yousef, who led the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center—have offered similar explanations for their anger toward the United States."[22]

There are many more potential categories of costs that are even more difficult to quantify. All in all, Stauffer estimates that Israel cost the US about $1.6 trillion between 1973 and 2003 alone—more than twice the cost of the Vietnam war.[23]
Costs since Stauffer's study in 2003

Israel's cost to American taxpayers has remained high since Stauffer's 2003 study. The US currently gives Israel an average of $3 billion a year in military aid, under an agreement signed by the Bush administration to transfer $30 billion to Israel over ten years, starting in 2009.[24]

All of the other extras and costs remain and in some cases have increased since 2003. For example, "Despite a tough economic climate and expected US budget cuts—including drastic cuts to the US military budget—US lawmakers will provide $236 million in fiscal 2012 for the Israeli development of three missile defense programs," reported Israeli newspaper Haaretz.[25]

In addition, the US government "has provided $205 million to support the Iron Dome, manufactured by Israel's state-owned Raphael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The system uses small radar-guided missiles to blow up in midair Katyusha-style rockets with ranges of 3 miles to 45 miles, as well as mortar bombs… Legislation moving through the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives would give Israel additional $680 million for the Iron Dome system through 2015."[26]

And if, as many experts believe, the US would not have invaded Iraq without intense and sustained pressure from Washington insiders who advocate actively on behalf of Israel,[27] this adds yet another dimension of staggering cost to the equation: "hundreds of billions of dollars, 4,000-plus U.S. and allied fatalities, untold tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths, and many thousands of other US, allied, and Iraqi casualties," according to retired US foreign service officer Shirl McArthur.[28]

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes put the cost of the Iraq War at over $3 trillion, and incalculably more if you take into account the opportunity costs of the resources spent on this unproductive war. For example, higher oil prices due to the war have had a devastating impact on America's economy, and so have the surging federal debt and the servicing of that debt. Without the war, the 2008 financial crisis almost certainly would not have been as severe, and the Afghanistan war most likely would have been shorter, cheaper, and more effective.[29]

The Israel lobby and partisans are currently gunning for a war with Iran with the same zeal they showed in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[3 By all estimates, the costs of a war with Iran will be much higher than the Iraq war. In addition to the loss of life, analysts predict, for example, that if Iran's oil production were taken out of the world market, gas prices would rise 25-70 percent.

If the Straits of Hormuz (straits adjacent to Iran through which 20% of the world's oil production passes on a daily basis) were attacked or blockaded, the cost of oil would skyrocket to a level never seen before, and the economic recession or depression that followed would be nothing short of "apocalyptic," according to Matthew Yglesias writing for Slate .[31]
Reasons and Consequences

So now we are back to the question of why America continues to pour money into a state that commits daily human rights violations, defies US strategic interests,[32] provokes rage and resentment among billions of people,[33] competes with and crowds out US interests using technology subsidized by US taxpayers, and sells America's military secrets to its enemies.[34]

The answer is simple and summed up well by professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer in their ground-breaking article in the London Review of Books , "The Israel Lobby,"[35] and their book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy .[36]

"Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state?" the article asks. "One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides.

"Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the 'Israel Lobby.' Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country—in this case, Israel—are essentially identical."[37]

AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is consistently ranked in the top two most powerful lobbies in Washington.[38] And it is only one arm of the much larger, multi-faceted, and well-financed Israel lobby.[39]

According to Congressman Jim Moran, "AIPAC is very well organized. The members are willing to be very generous with their personal wealth. But it's a two edged sword. If you cross AIPAC, AIPAC is unforgiving and will destroy you politically. Their means of communications, their ties to certain newspapers and magazines, and individuals in the media are substantial and intimidating. Every [Congress] member knows it's the best-organized national lobbying force."[4

Senator Joseph Lieberman proudly stated, "Any attempt to pressure Israel, to force Israel to the negotiating table by denying Israel support, will not pass in Congress… Congress will act against any attempt to do that."[41]

It's true: The US Congress, along with the executive branch, overwhelmingly support virtually any action or wish of the Israeli government, no matter how at odds with US national interest or security,[42] primarily because of the power of the Israel lobby.[43]

Even when two AIPAC employees were indicted on espionage charges in 2005, and it was determined that they had obtained classified US government information illegally and passed it to Israeli agents, the charges were quietly dropped on technicalities.[44] AIPAC fired both employees and issued a statement that they were fired because their actions did not comport with AIPAC standards.[45] One of the fired employees, Steven Rosen, filed a lawsuit for defamation, claiming his actions were, in fact, common practice at AIPAC.[46]

When Israel attempted to sink a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Liberty , in 1967, killing 34 Americans and injuring over 170, it still failed to put a dent in aid to Israel.[47] Indeed, aid quadrupled the following year.[48]

Though Congressmen receive payments and support from the lobby in exchange for their loyalty, the American taxpayer is left footing the bill. As detailed above, the total cost has run from a bare minimum of $112 billion since 1948 (the cost of foreign aid alone) to $1.6 trillion or more, factoring in Defense appropriations, oil crises, the sinking of the USS Liberty , the heightened risk of terrorism, lost trade and co-opted technology, and countless other factors. If the Iraq war and the increased risk of a war with Iran are factored in, the cost skyrockets even higher.

Critics point out how much brighter our future would be if we had invested these billions or trillions in veteran rehabilitation and care, education, job creation, social security, housing, environmental clean-up and prevention, roads, bridges, health care, and scientific and health research. Or if Americans had simply held onto their tax dollars and used them as they saw fit, in our own economy. If some of the higher estimates are closer to the mark, our support for Israel could easily have covered the $700 billion TARP bailout with a great deal left over for massive stimulus spending and/or tax breaks.

If Israel were using these funds for a good purpose, one could debate whether the price was worth it. But Israel uses most of the money to prolong a 45-year military occupation (which regularly involves gross violations of international law),[49] commit egregious human rights violations,[5 and destroy billions of dollars worth of Palestinian homes and infrastructure[51] (resulting in still more U.S. tax money being sent to Palestinians to rebuild demolished homes, hospitals, and schools), while building illegal Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian land.[52]

It makes the prospect of peace ever more distant, creates dangerous hostility to the US, placing Americans in peril, and puts the US Congress in violation of the Arms Export Control Act,[53] all for the sake of campaign contributions.

There is no good reason to keep throwing good money after bad in a failed, ill-founded policy. It's long past time for a fundamental rethinking of the American government's blank check to Israel.


This report was produced by If Americans Knew analysts, particularly Pamela Olson, a President's Scholar at Stanford University 1998-2002 with a major in Physics, a minor in Political Science, and 1600 GRE scores. Before coming to IAK, Olson lived and worked in the West Bank; worked as a researcher in Moscow, Siberia, and China; and was a research analyst at the Institute for Defense Analysis. She is the author of Fast Times in Palestine.

 

[rico x hood]

At the end of the day, the real culprit in this whole situation isn't the Jews, Zionists, Israelis, Palestinians, or Muslims. It's religion. Religion is the cause of all this ********.

 

[7thave btn 31stn33rd st]

I don't understand why regular American citizens are not up in arms at the gross over expenditure towards Israel.

Zionism isn't limited to Jews. Christians are equally contributing (probably more so than Jews because they want to fulfill their own biblical prophecy). The US govt and media have done a great job associating Palestinian/Arabs with Al-Qaeda, or any Middle Eastern looking person with terrorism.

 

[plansb]

Zionism isn't limited to Jews. Christians are equally contributing (probably more so than Jews because they want to fulfill their own biblical prophecy).

 there was actually an episode of Vice last season that touched on this, specifically evangelical christians, if i recall correctly

 

[three00zeex]

eracism I've used hhrd.org. They do a lot of good work.

 

[copped]

 

[leavemeglazzies]

So sick of Israel...hope they one day get the big head towards America so we can set they ***** straight

Yeah, America will stop supporting Israel once the Jews in Israel willingly convert to Christianity in order that the second coming of Christ can commence. Any day now...

 

[ballahb]

Zionism isn't limited to Jews. Christians are equally contributing (probably more so than Jews because they want to fulfill their own biblical prophecy).

 there was actually an episode of Vice last season that touched on this, specifically evangelical christians, if i recall correctly

 

[useref15]

First Israeli citizen was killed near the Erez crossing. I bet that makes everyone in here happy now.