Funding the Israel war machine at the expense of a peaceful Middle East.

Excellent article, Brian.

We're just doing our part to further entrench Israels apartheid regime in occupied Palestine and to further it along it's intended destruction of Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

I don't agree with the military aid Israel gets. But we are also in bed with Saudi Arabia too.

I fail to see what your point is Jeff. You support the further militarisation of the Middle East? You support the continuing instability of the Middle East, caused in part by the US support for the Israeli state, while at the same doing absolutely nothing to allay Muslim concerns that the US is following a strictly pro-Israeli agenda?

I don't understand your point either Elizabeth. The arms deal with Saudi Arabia has a two-fold benefit. Firstly it aids the US economy by securing jobs while at the same time it keeps the oil flowing for the US.

The arms deal with Saudi Arabia increases the availability of weapons in the middle east. HALF of the insurgents in Iraq, killing OUR soldiers are from Saudi Arabia. Those weapons (although not intentionally) will end up killing our soldiers. Bush doesn't care, he only wants to keep the money and the oil flowing regardless of the blood flowing with it.

And the arms deal with the Saudi's INCLUDES more money for Isreal so they are definitely linked.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977069466

Jeff, even though Israel' accomplishments are well known to me it is like a parent showing uncontrolled favor to one of their children. It creates loads of disparitiy in the family.

Your article has certainly sparked controversy, Brian.

Although I do agree with you on many of your posts, there's one thing that I think is misunderstood in regards to Israel. Israel is the only country in the middle east that has freedom of religion, freedom of speech, is a democracy, has freedom of sexual orientation (An international gay pride festival was held there too), and has muslims, jews, and christians as part of its government. Unfortunately, the country is small and is surrounded by neighbors who are simply Anti-Jewish. As a result, the Israeli military is one of the best in the world since a foreign fighter can enter Israeli airspace for less than a minute in order to be within striking distance of major Israeli cities. As a result, Israel has learned that it cannot be passive and must err on the side of being a bit too hawkish so as to defend its people. Indeed, there are Arab civilians who may suffer from Israeli backlash against terrorist actions. The question is, what is the alternative? Much worse.

While I would always support Israel's ability to defend herself, I believe the country has the ability and obligation to support itself. That does not mean she should stand alone amidst a sea of other nations without promise of assistance should it ever be warranted. The Israeli people pay a dear price for the support money we give them. They are made to feel a puppet when we pull the financial strings. This is not good for either of us.

Maybe it is Islam that ought to be reforming itself and making friends with the rest of the world so that we do not have to declare war on their militant minority or give military aid to their enemies at all.

What other countries hold land where no one else can set foot without threat of execution just for being human (Mecca)?

What other countries send out proclaimations that it is OK indeed God will reward you for murdering people who draw cartoons against their religion?

In what other countries is it illegal and punishable by death to practice the non-state religion or to even be a Jew and set foot in the country.

I could go on and on ... but I must say one think about the posts on here, I have yet to see very many of the really disgusting unconditionally Pro-Islam, Anti-semitic statements which almost everyone including those who make them already know are hateful and wrong.

Personally I think there is something wrong with writing this article and leaving out that there was more money in the current aid package for Islamic countries anyway, Saudi Arabia, Egypt - that in itself shows not only bias, but a deliberate twisting of the truth.

How is it a twisting of the truth Bruce? Which country is the largest recipient in the aid package? The purpose of aid to other Muslim states is to protect US interests in the region. It is no great humanitarian gesture by the US. The sole purpose of the aid to Israel is to protect the Israeli state. Do you honestly believe that if another secular goverment took over in Egypt that the US would care? As long it is not an Islamic government the United States is not concerned who runs predominantly Muslim countries.

Why does the US insist on spedning billions on Israel and on illegal, immoral wars when millions live in poverty in the United States. You should be ashamed about your lack of concern for your own citizens than your apparent disgust that anyone might criticise the United States and Israeli governments.

Rather than spending money on insulting Muslims on a daily basis by propping up this human rights pariah it should spend the money on it's own citizens and making friends with the world rather than making enemies.

Brian, you should be ashamed at your pathetic arguments. If you want to support Muslim extremism and the end of Israel be honest about it, there's a whole Middle East full of radical Muslims that will agree with you. Be honest that the next step would be Europe, and finally America. Be hones that you support assassinating people who write books or draw cartoons you don't like, and that you think people who do so are great guys that deserve their 40 virgins.

The question is how does the rest of the world relate to a culture like that? I think the US is doing the best job it can given the circumstances, and you are arguing using lies and misstatements, probably about a bunch of stuff you really have no understanding of and were just brainwashed from birth to hate.

I was not brought up to hate anything Bruce. You have decided to put words in my mouth. I said to channel the money spent into propping up a human rights abuser and into REAL weapons of mass destruction would be spent better on domestic aid, at the very least. Do you see anything remotely negative about that?

Between the two of us the only one who is expressing hatred is you. I'm not implying that you have a hatred of Muslims in general, but you do seem to have animosity towards Islam. Al Qaeda and the Taleban and their demonic brothers can blow themselves up as much as they want but as Bush and the neocons have proven, if you sow hatred, you promote even greater hatred. The vast majority of Muslims are good people, just like the majority of Christians, Jews atheists and people of all faiths.

The US should focus on promoting peace not on promoting war which is all it seems to do at the minute.

I did not put any words in your mouth Brian just extrapolate your comments to their illogical end.

I do have an animosity towards Islam, and if you do not understand that by this point what can I say. I am a former Christian in that I was raised as a Christian, but if there was a Christian country doing anything remotely like what Islam is doing today in manyt areas of the world I would feel exactly the same.

That you do not understand what is happening in the world is clear. It does not matter if someone is a good person if the system that they live under turns then into a murdering terrorist. Islam terrorizes its own citizens. It isolates them, first women. It isolate them from the rest of the world as well. It controls their actions by measuring against what it mandates that Allah wants a good Muslims to do.

The US has made mistakes, but not in the motivation behind our actions.

I think it is useless to waste time with you, someday I hope you get it.

You are deluded Bruce. It is not "Islam" that is causing the problem it is warped followers of Islam, just as Bush, the fundamentalist Christian and his kind have their own warped beliefs.

You are further deluded if you believe that the US has only noble objectives when pursuing it's foreign polcies. Capitalism is what US administrations are about not the mythical "freedom and democracy" they brainwash people with.

I hope YOU get all that some day.

> It is not "Islam" that is causing the problem it is warped
> followers of Islam, just as Bush, the fundamentalist
> Christian and his kind have their own warped beliefs.

Brian, if your religion was attacked, whether or not it
was wackos you might be most likely to get sucked into
supporting it, especially if your religion was totalitarian
Islam and you had no choice.

That you see Islam and Christianity as relatively equal
is only a sign that you have not been paying attention
of that you are trying to put one over on the people
who have.

The US does not need any more noble objective that
survival to act in its best interest. I'd rather be offering
people capitalism than either the knife or Islamic
conversion.

I write in general agreement with the article. In response to the first comment, I can only ask, if Israel is so successful and fit for praise then why does it need our aid? Relatedly, the millenia have produced many great nations, but the greatness of a nation is never alone sufficient to defend monetary and military support. The nation must exist for the GDP or military benefit of our state. For the purposes of developing this point, I offer a few words:

The Israeli-Palestinian debate has never emerged from the murky backwaters of moralism. On the Right, Christian and Zionist apologists portray the Israeli-American alliance as a moral imperitive, founded in our common Judaic-Christian (i.e. European) heritage and democatic values. On the Progressive Left, the Israeli occupation is blamed for the erosion of economic and civil liberities in the Palestinian territories.

Neither of these positions should be of any concern to American foreign policy and the millions of American citizens whose duty it is to shape that policy. If Israel finds its demise in an imperialist struggle to recapture the ancient dream of a bronze age people, then so be it. If the would-be Palestine is gobbled-up piece meal by the slow creep of Jewish expansion on the West Bank, then so be it. Americans need to realize that it is our nation that is the great people. We cannot exercise a sentiment that even remotely resembles patriotism when we speak first of the interests of other nations and only later consider what intersts remain for our own consumption.

To be blunt, the Israelis and the Palestinians are two insignificant peoples presently at loggerheads over what is, by any reasonable standard, a dried up, filthy strip of land. Could we, for once, set aside our moral posturing (i.e. charges of anti-semitism, non-combatant targeting, etc) and simply treat these peoples as geopolitical assets or liabilities, nothing more nothing less? Could it be that we shun this instrumental perspective because of our various brands of moral favoritism? Is it possible to reconcile these moral favoritisms with a patriotic sentiment that puts American interests before those of any other nation? Can this alliance be characterized as anything other than one of the most unproductive and one-sided in world history?

Undeniably, the dominant moral favoritism in American foreign policy has tracked the interests of the Israeli lobby. It may well be that one can explain how the U.S. has gained any net utility from casting its lot with a nation that is only the size of metropolitan Cairo. The decades and millions spent in single-minded support of Israel no doubt have improved returns on that rather odd bet. But its wisdom is still far from apparent. If any journalist wishes to be serious on this matter, he/she need only try to spill a few words on how America is likely to gain or lose measurably (not morally or faithfully) from our present alliance. How has the alliance aided us in Iraq? How has it been of any aid to our interests in Afghanistan?

Lastly, I would say that in pursuing this national inquiry we must, most of all, remember that this is a dialogue on national policy, and that it is analytically of singular significance for the individual. Electoral politics is of no matter. Each individual facing these questions--that is all questions affecting national security--must be made to answer them from the perspective of what is good for the nation (America), not from the perspective of their party, their church, or their secret nation of foreign allegiance. Those who choose to follow these other dictates of conviction should be openly chastised as having chosen to ally themselves with parochial or foreign interests over those of the nation.

If you believe in the US giving aid only for it's own benefit, I do believe you have "wasted" a fortune in Africa. You should revel in the suprising prosperity of your country, and it's ability to render aid to others.
Also, the US was rendering aid to Israel for quite some time because it afforded it to not send troops into the Middle East. Obviously in the last decade that has changed, but the US does trust that Israel will be fighting alot of battles that it and NATO would have to as well. The last thing Western leaders want is a unified Arab region, the next to last thing is an Arab region at war. These conflicting agendas will continue to haunt the disappointingly conflicting and overlapping policy the West inflicts upon itself.

Stop US tax dollars going to Israel. Israel, like al-Qaeda, has become emeshed in a bloody crusade with no end in site. Our tax dollars should not be supporting the baby-killer Israelis. Write your representative today and urge him or her to stop al-Qaeda and Israel.