Friday, February 15, 2008

Israel's Presidential Candidates

"The Threat Is Real"

".... What is surprising, however, is the U.S. political establishment’s insistence on maintaining a detrimental relationship with one state in particular: Israel. Unlike any other state, only Israel can be sure of U.S. military, economic and diplomatic support, year after year, decade after decade, regardless of its international and domestic policies, regardless of whom it invades and whom it occupies. This “special relationship,” as JFK called it, provides Israel with military and economic superiority in the region that allows it to continue its war-mongering unchecked. Specifically, Israel receives about $4.3 billion in direct foreign assistance (economic and military aid) per year, the majority of it coming in grants, not loans and totaling over $154 billion by 2005 — a sum far greater than that received by any other state. In per capita figures, U.S. taxpayers subsidize every Israeli with more than $500 per year, compared to the meager $20 per year that each Egyptian receives. Diplomatically, U.S. support of Israel has included 42 vetoes of U.N. Security Council resolutions that indicted Israel between 1972 and 2006 — more than all the vetoes of all the other Security Council states combined.

Democrats and Republicans alike have blindly supported Israel for decades, rarely if ever debating why this should be U.S. foreign policy. Just look at the front-runners in the 2008 presidential race.

Sen. Hilary Clinton remarked at Princeton in January 2006: “the security and freedom of Israel … has been a hallmark of American foreign policy for more than 50 years and we must not — dare not — waver from this commitment.”

Her Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, echoed her words at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in March 2007: “We must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance.”

From the “other side” of the political spectrum, Sen. John McCain adds: “In addition to her moral commitment to Israel’s security, America must provide Israel with whatever military equipment and technology she requires to defend herself.”

.... Put bluntly, they all want to be the next President of the United States of America. They are all acutely aware that in order to win the presidency, they must support Israel unconditionally. If they do not, the Israel Lobby will run their campaigns into the ground, and they know it."