Blog post by AVO
In case you did not hear the news, the United States Congress last week approved a ten year military aid package to Israel worth 3.8bn annually.
While I'm not going to delve into the specifics of this deal, I would like to discuss the general idea of state to state financial aid.
So I’ve been doing a lot of research into this and there’s just a ton of information that I could almost write a book, so I’m really cutting it short into a blog.
The issue of foreign aid is one of the more appealing aspects of nonintervention libertarianism. There are so many moral considerations and underlying concepts that I’ll just have to skim over; use the comment box for any questions.
Millennials my age, always hear about which countries we’re helping. Whether its humanitarian aid, foreign military bases, naval ships in every ocean - or whatever - we’ve been so accustomed to thinking of who will benefit from these actions and never truly questioning whether the underlying premise is even legitimate.
The founders of the United States understood the slippery slope of foreign intervention (financial interventions must be included) and its contribution to the demise of civilizations. It is precisely because of this that they therefore preached, “Commerce with all nations, alliances with none, should be our motto” (Thomas Jefferson).
These military and trade alliances more often then not become entangling and can lead to conflicts of interest - often times leading to costly wars that do not better the lives of everyday Americans
Unfortunately, this is is exactly what has been happening over the last 60 years.
Ask yourself how your life and security are better off as direct correlations to the wars in Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iraq 2 (and these are just the major conflicts).
If it has bettered life for you and your community, I would love to hear how, so make use of the comment box.
The point is these undeclared wars have been expensive, non-Constitutional, killed thousands of young people and gained us many enemies the world over.
Also the way we’ve propped up many foreign regimes by supplying military personnel, cash and food supplies has the same deleterious effects and this is where I would like to focus.
Plainly said, as an American, I would like to see every foreign aid dollar halted; as a Jew, I would like to see Israel have a little self respect and take itself off the proverbial American teat.
Being realistic, I know these ideals are a far way from becoming reality and we should devise a realistic plan to slowly realize both these with as few major consequences as possible. Our congress should make incremental but significant cuts every year across the board in foreign aid - with Israel being the last to go because of its extreme strategic significance.
Many aid packages can be converted quite beautifully into mutually beneficial trade deals and must adopt such a tone.
As far as I know at this moment, Israel is the only country that invites US forces for advanced training drills and there’s no reason that can’t be included in a mutually beneficial package deal.
Also, let’s not forget that Mr Binyamin Netanyahu criticized Israel for its reliance on American handouts the first time he was prime minister and promised to wean Israel off, So Bibi, what has changed?
Global terror wouldn’t be what it is today had the US not gotten itself tangled in these devastating wars. I couldn’t explore this topic of Israel’s reliance on the U.S. without mentioning Rav Meir Kahane.
As a child I was very intrigued by his ideas and read his material voraciously, I heard from most adults (my father included) things like ‘well he had some good ideas but the Rabbis came out against him so we can’t support him’...
Yet I never ever heard anybody take his ideas head on without name calling or resorting to logical fallacies.
R Kahane would criticize the almost universal support for American welfare in Israel, Hareidim included, as a lack of Trust in God, and the desecration of his name.
I would venture to say that this was somewhat prophetic and the Jewish state - and perhaps the American Jewish community as well - may be facing a major backlash in the near future.
If you just check out the White Power and Nazi online forums then peel back what they’re saying, you begin to get at their true anger, and I must say that money going to Israel is major fuel for their fire.
Obviously, the Arab media almost always mentions this close alliance as a reason to hate either America or Israel; they like having it both ways.
I am definitely NOT giving credence to these hate groups nor would I suggest we take their feelings into account but I would like to point to the Hand of God so to speak, as a warning to my brethren, of the long term consequences of bad policies...
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