The Gifts You Give a Foreign Nation While Cutting Your Social Programs

Please consider calling your congressperson to express your anger at having to buy Israel’s gas and throwing enormous amounts of money at a foreign nation, while cutting programs for Americans.

Michael Oren: belting out Ha-tikvah in the White House (photo: Yossi Aloni) Photo courtesy: RichardSilverstein.com

(JAMESTOWN, RI) - Who says Congress cannot act quickly and in a bipartisan way? They certainly can, but not when trying to meet your needs. When it comes to meeting health care needs of citizens, getting prescription costs under control, reigning in oil companies from gouging the public, or providing for the poor or homeless, they are paralyzed. The stagnant economy has forced hard decisions such as which basic social services will be ravaged due to the lack of funds. Because of the inability of Congress to make decisions, compromise, or get anything done, its popularity ratings are only slightly higher than pedophiles, but take heart, when Congress really makes up its mind, it can act with lightning speed.

You want speedy action by your Congress; try this. Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United Sates, wrote an article in an Israeli newspaper discussing the need for Israel to invest in ten more Iron Dome Missile batteries. The ink was not dry on Oren's op/ed piece when the US Congress sprang into action offering to pay for the 10 Iron Dome Missile batteries. Why should Israel pay? Long time Israel supporter in the US Congress, Congressman Howard Berman (D) from California, rallied to Israel, by immediately introducing a bill in the US House of Representatives that would have US taxpayers pay for Israel’s 10 new batteries. Congressman Berman is the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, so there is little doubt with his clout and with strong bipartisan support, the money for this gift will take the high speed express track through the Congress. So as not to provoke US citizens, the bill carefully evades the cost of this gift to taxpayers, but most experts assume one battery will cost fifty million dollars, so Congressman Berman’s generosity to Israel will cost you about five hundred million. This is five hundred million dollars we do not have, so at some point Congress will have to decide which social programs for needy American citizens will be cut to make payment for this lavish gift.

This is not the first time you have generously donated to the Iron Dome cause for Israel. In May of 2011 you generously paid $205 million to help develop the original Iron Dome system for Israel. But it gets worse. Almost immediately after agreeing to fund the Iron Dome system to the tune of 205 million, Senator Eric Cantor (D-VA) casually announced there would be no aid to the raved and devastated town of Joplin, Missouri which was decimated by tornadoes. So Congress found 205 million dollars for Israel, but would not provide the residents of Joplin with any relief from their tragedy. Doesn’t it make sense that the Congress provides for Israel, but not for the devastated residents of Missouri while cutting social programs for US citizens?

To make matters worse, there is divided opinion as to the effectiveness of the Iron Dome Missile Defense System. Israel boasts that it was very effective against incoming missiles from Gaza, but very few people know those “missiles” are nothing more than pieces of very crude pipe that have garage welded fins on the back edge to act as stabilizers. The front of the “missile” is merely stuffed with gunpowder like material. The have a very limited range and those who launch them have absolutely no idea where they will go. There is no “guidance” system to these homemade pipe bombs and the proof of their effectiveness is their very limited ability to harm anyone. In the latest go round of pipes being launched from Gaza, no Israeli’s were killed, while Israel has killed at least 27 Palestinians. For propaganda purposes, Israel describes them as “missiles” and has their people run to bomb shelters repeatedly. Certainly these missiles pale compared to F-16’s with laser guided bombs and sophisticated Apache helicopters swooping down on people who are walled in with no weapons to resist. The Gaza situation resembles a futuristic survival movie with resistors fighting against the giant. This is truly the reincarnation of David and Goliath with one major difference. You are sacrificing your own social programs to provide Goliath with the weapons of war.

Irritated that while cutting programs for American citizens you are “giving” away another 500 million dollars to a foreign nation? That is just the tip of the iceberg. Next time you fill up your car with gas while muttering things under your breath because of the tremendous cost, consider this. Not only are you buying your gas, you are also paying for all of the fuel used by the Israeli military. We know, but only because of the Freedom of Information Act, that you have given Israel over one billion dollars worth of fuel since 2004. No one really knows the true cost because your government has decided this should not be “public” information, despite the fact fuel to Israel is paid for with “public” money. This program is just one of the many gifts to Israel that is not made known to citizens, for if they knew, they might be outraged and conclude Congress represents a foreign nation better than it takes care of its own citizens. In many cases that is precisely what they do.

Please consider calling your congressperson to express your anger at having to buy Israel’s gas and throwing enormous amounts of money at a foreign nation, while cutting programs for Americans.

Salem-News.com Writer Joe Clifford, lives in historic Jamestown, Rhode Island, and has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College where he earned an undergraduate and graduate degree. After a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study of US foreign policy, and then to writing, as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspired by the American misadventure in Vietnam. You can write to Joe at this address: jc21131@gmail.com