Friday, September 16, 2016

The glaringly implicit proviso in the military-aid package for Israel

Yes, it looks like the Most Equal Comrade swallowed hard and looked past his personal animosity toward Benjamin Netanyahu, but there's more to the picture:

. . . before we applaud the Obama administration for helping to strengthen Israeli security, we must first look at the president’s key caveat. 
“It is because of this same commitment to Israel and its long-term security that we will also continue to press for a two-state solution to the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite the deeply troubling trends on the ground that undermine this goal,” Mr. Obama said. “As I have emphasized previously, the only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine.”
While National Security Advisor Susan Rice insists the aid deal is separate from the issue of a two-state solution, others consider Obama’s statement a not-so-subtle message. Aaron David Miller, a Middle East scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said Obama’s remarks prove he needs to “justify” the White House’s assistance to Israel. 
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict stretches back years and has been one of the many sources of contention between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 
The other disagreement, of course, is the nuclear deal, which Netanyahu warned would pave Iran’s path to a nuclear deal. He even made his case directly to Congress last year. Obama ignored him and now the administration is admitting the deal may indeed have boosted Iran’s confidence in harassing the U.S.
Materially, it's a good thing for one of post-America's five best allies. (Who are the other four? What a great parlor game! I'll get it started: the UK, Japan, Australia, Poland. Other contenders: Canada, South Korea, Italy, Taiwan.) But the West-Hater pressure to legitimize the Palestinian Authority is clearly still there.

30 comments:

  1. I love Canada, but they're pretty sick and tired of our shit. And I don't blame them.

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  2. I would have ignored Netanyahu too, if only for the way he tried to get his way. That was a travesty. And a quite unnecessary embarrassment for our twice freely elected Commander in Chief. Netanyahu needs a Dale Carnegie course. I'm not alone. Only 45 per cent of Americans viewed Netanyahoo favorably in the last poll taken back in 2015. 63% of Americans said it was a bad move for congressional leadership to extend the invitation without giving President Barack Obama a heads up that it was coming. Only 33% said it was the right thing to do. But of course you'll now default to the low info post-American crapola mode.

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  3. Man, it sends chills up my spine to consider how much you want to see major Weatern cities incinerated. That's just plain warped, not to mention foul.

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  5. You are the only person EVER in my life to call me warped and foul. All over your beloved Netanyahu who hijacks our Congress. That was warped and foul, man.

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  6. It is nominally the largest commitment of aid that the United States has ever given to any country.

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  7. Come tax day, bow your head and pray. Then hope that all the programs you are against that give aid to our own countrymen fail and are defunded.

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  8. And what other country is going to stand with Israel to that degree?

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  9. Re-read my comment carefully. I didn't call you foul. Just your viewpoint.

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  10. I couldn't get past the contention that I want to see major Western cities incinerated. If that happens, the whole world gets incinerated. I happen to love life and all things bright and beautiful. Wherever they may be.

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  11. Nativist Hallucination. Interesting Idea.

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  12. Nativist hallucinations? Peace negotiations and throwing money at intransigence. Nothing has worked so far in this region. I hope that Israeli soldiers are prepared to die first before our men and women have to for their cause.

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  13. Incinerated cities is what Prime Minister Netanyahu has been warning us about. In fact, he seems to be the only Western leader truly concerned about it. The others are busy signing an "agreement" with Irsn and pretending it's making their countries safer.

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  14. What do they plan to do with largest pledge of military assistance in US history? Draw our blood along with our treasure? And you spit on the terms. Ghastly!

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  15. Some reports put Netanyahu's initial aid request as high as $45 billion. In the end, political imperatives may have driven both sides toward an agreement.

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  16. Anyhow, your ilk might have to STFU about it all, but you won't. Even the vile Trump has finally admitted Obama was born here.

    As with all issues facing the United States, the American public is split along partisan lines. Among Democrats and independents, a majority (57 percent and 59 percent, respectively) say it’s too much or way too much, while only 5 percent and 17 percent say it’s too little or way too little, respectively.

    Republicans, on the other hand, were split evenly (40 percent each) in saying the aid is too much/way too much, or too little/way too little.

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  17. That adds up to a whole lot of warped or foul views, since you said that is separate from their low info lives.

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  18. But I see the wisdom of mortgaging our children's future to the Israeli defense fund. The ball is in their court to either get out a big can of whoop ass or actually try to work out a peace agreement themselves. I'd guess that the failure of Iran to live up to their end of the nuke agreement has also spurned us to let Israel take care of this mess themselves, with our help, of course. I would truly hope they will now stop playing the anti-Semitism card now, at least insofar as the US is concerned. Go gettum Nettie!! Sorry we couldn't give you all you asked for. Now you are hitting each taxpayer's pocketbook here and likely taking away from many other domestic programs here stateside. That ought to make a good Jew proud!

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  19. Oh, horse shit. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the unfunded liabilities of the "entitlement" programs, which absolutely must be put on a private footing for our government to avoid bankruptcy.

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  20. Oh horse shit! I knew you'd still want to not only cut social security and medicare but privatize them, when the huge surplus of funds which your hero Ronnie applauded and approved was spent on other things, probably a lot went to the military. People who were retired or near retired back in '08 when the market went bust were ruined for the rest of their retirement. And it WILL happen again. But, basically, we're forking over our unprecedented 38 Billion in military aid to Israel so they can put our money behind their mouth. Cool beans paying for Israel to protect their settlements in disputed territories.

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  21. And if we are that close to bankruptcy we should not be giving a dime away to other countries.

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    1. 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. Israel's unemployment rate of 5.8% is better than America's 7.3%, and Israel's net trade, earnings, and payments is ranked 30th in the world while the US sits in last place at a dismal 193rd. Yet, Israel receives more of America’s foreign aid budget than any other nation. 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.

      And foreign aid is just one component of the staggering cost of our alliance with Israel.

      http://ifamericansknew.org/stat/cost.html

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  23. 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. Because the US government operates at a deficit, it must borrow money in order to give it to Israel and then pay interest on it all year.

    Ibid

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  24. And here, I'll preempt you before you call her a jew hater and fascist commie pinko bitch. If Americans Knew was originally founded by an American freelance journalist, Alison Weir* (read her full bio and articles), who traveled independently throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip in February and March of 2001. Ms. Weir found a situation largely the reverse of what was being reported by the American media. Upon further examination of this issue – she read dozens of books on the topic – she found that the U.S. press portrayal was significantly at odds with information being reported by media throughout the rest of the world.

    “Ms. Weir presents a powerful, well documented view of the Middle East today. She is intelligent, careful, and critical. American policy makers would benefit greatly from hearing her first-hand observations and attempting to answer the questions she poses.”
    Tom Campbell,
    Former Congressman and Dean of Haas School of Business
    Disturbed that American citizens were being misinformed and uninformed on one of the most significant issues affecting them today, and discovering the problem to be systemic, she founded an organization to be directed by Americans without personal or family ties to the region who would research and actively disseminate accurate information to the American public.

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    1. Stanford Prof. Tom Campbell Named New Haas Dean

      Berkeley - University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl announced today (Wednesday, May 8) that he is recommending to the UC Board of Regents the appointment of Stanford Law School professor and former congressman Thomas J. Campbell as dean of the Haas School of Business.

      Campbell, 49, is to fill the vacancy left by Laura D’Andrea Tyson, who earlier this year became dean of the London Business School. UC Berkeley’s Haas School is the second oldest business school in the United States and provides top-ranked business and management programs.

      “Tom Campbell fits the Haas School’s mission perfectly, in the breadth of his experience and in his perspective. He is a legal scholar who holds a PhD in economics, is extraordinarily knowledgeable about business issues, is dedicated to public service and is an educator of considerable achievement,” said Berdahl.

      Campbell has been a law professor at Stanford University since 1983. He was elected five times to represent the Silicon Valley area of California in Congress. Among his legislative achievements were authorship of the 1998 Food Bank Relief Act and the 2000 Peace Corps Reauthorization Act.

      Campbell also was elected as a California state senator in 1993. During a two-year term, he earned ratings by the Sacramento-based "California Journal" as the most ethical state senator, the best overall senator and the state Senate's best problem-solver.

      "The chance to be dean at such a prestigious business school is a tremendous honor and opportunity. That it is at a public university enables me to combine both public service and education: the two career paths my life has followed. My wife already is in the Berkeley family, so this makes it unanimous," said Campbell.

      Stanford Law School Dean Kathleen M. Sullivan said today, “Tom Campbell is a brilliant choice to lead the Haas School of Business. He will bring to the job a rare combination of keen intellect, great energy, broad policy experience and impeccable integrity and fairness. We will miss him greatly as a colleague at Stanford Law School, but Stanford's loss is Berkeley's great gain.”

      A native of Chicago, Campbell earned his bachelor’s and master's degrees in economics at the University of Chicago, and a law degree from Harvard in 1976. He returned to the University of Chicago, earning a PhD in economics there in 1980. His dissertation was the first quantitative measurement of discrimination against women in federal civil service employment.

      He served as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White from 1977 to 1978 and, the year before that, for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge George E. MacKinnon. He practiced law at Winston & Strawn in Chicago until 1980, when he became a White House fellow in the Office of the Chief of Staff. He then served as executive assistant to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General and became the youngest person ever to be appointed director of the Bureau of Competition in the Federal Trade Commission, where he served from 1981 to 1983, when he joined the faculty of Stanford Law School.

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  25. Oh my Gawd, Californicator, dean of that Commie Pinko Business School too. OK, dissed and disqualified, right? Real low info too, right?

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  26. Just get er done, Israel! We've suffered too much because of you and your inability to get along in your region of the world. Could it be because you seized your land by terrorism and force? Oh, that's right, Jehovah gave that to you. And I presume you think He gave you this 36 Bil you spend enriching your own industry and commerce.

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  27. Well, see, this kind of thing turns into an utterly useless pissing match. I'll see your Weir and Campbell and raise you a Caroline Glick, David Singer and Annika Hernroth-Rothstein.

    Now, I'm done. You clearly can't be convinced that the West is worth saving.

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  28. I read Weir's full bio, right here: http://www.stoptheism.com/content/index.php?pid=127&cid=134

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