Israel comes begging for a cool 20 billion - but you better tighten your belt

[kaiser soze]

If anything they deserve sanctions for their vicious humanitarian violations



Israel seeks $20 billion in US military aid

Defense Minister sees no immediate threat in Egypt but fears repercussions of Mideast unrest. In Wall Street Journal interview, he says military upgrade can turn Israel into regional stabilizer

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4039147,00.html

Why the $$ - oh, just because.

And conservatives will have no problem with this - because you know, it'll get them Jesus Points - suckers.

[TimDoolan]

Martin Luther King on Anti-Zionism (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/king.html)

[kaiser soze]

Hey if you have problems with how I feel about it - go ahead give them my share from your pockets.

Ya see the funny thing about me is this - I do not support the persecution of religious people who pursue spirituality peacefully but yet I cannot accept any 1 religion as the real deal nor as the true religion for all.

Yes I feel for the Jewish people and what they suffered through in the past - but that doesn't give them carte blanche to do the same to others.

I cannot support either side in that hell hole, there are no good guys nor bad guys who displace, hurt, and kill others.

I also think it would be a really ugly move for our country to continue to give away money while digging us deeper into a hole. Eventually we won't have anything left to give.

[Schmeltz]

MLK got that one wrong. He was only human, after all. And at any rate, in the decades since his death Zionism has taken on an even more extremist and xenophobic character than that which first informed the terrorists of the Irgun and Stern Gang. If MLK saw how the Israelis ghettoize Palestinians with checkpoints and separation walls I have no doubt he'd change his tune. Besides, Palestinians, as Arabs, are technically Semites too.

Something tells me the Obama administration will have no problem with continued support for Israel, and to be honest I don't think it has as much to do with Jesus-freak Republicans as with international realpolitik. For Obama to stand up and say that the USA is too broke to support its strongest ally in a region rife with political upheaval and civil war would be a powerful admission of a diminished American role in world affairs. Moreover, I suspect it would only encourage Knesset hardliners to dig themselves in deeper and isolate themselves further from moderates in their own citizenry and in the region at large. So, cash flow problems aside, it's probably not on the table.

If Obama has any guts, and unfortunately the story of his administration seems to indicate otherwise, he'll inform the Israeli Ministry of Defense that he who pays the piper calls the tune, and while Israel can count on the support of its American allies, they can't just come in hat in hand and expect a blank cheque for military aid. This looks like a bit of a gamble on the Israeli side, like Netanyahu's trying to see where all the cards lie given the unrest in the Middle East generally. It could even hint that he's a little worried that whoever comes out on top in Egypt and elsewhere will be less accommodating when it comes to his more distasteful policies. Obama and Clinton should tell Netanyahu that ceasing Israeli settlement activity, lifting the Gaza blockade, and generally behaving in a halfway humanitarian fashion would do a lot more to stabilize the region than any amount of American dollars. But that would take the balls that this administration doesn't seem to have.

[TimDoolan]

MY post was not directed at anyone and it was very random, no bad intent