The U.S. is starting talks on a new military aid deal for Israel as support for the country hits an all-time low. Israel’s supporters are feeling the pressure and pushing for cosmetic changes, but don’t fall for it. We need a full arms embargo
Israel’s standing among the U.S. public is at an all-time low after Americans have witnessed two- and-one-half years of live-streamed Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, fueled by tens of billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer-provided weapons and diplomatic cover.
Last August, a Quinnipiac poll found that 60 percent of all Americans, including 75 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of independents, opposed U.S. military funding for Israel while only 32 percent supported it.
Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to recognize the unpopularity of asking U.S. taxpayers to further subsidize weapons to Israel. In an interview with 60 Minutes earlier this month, Netanyahu suggested transitioning from “aid” to a “partnership.”
This was not a surprise. Netanyahu had announced earlier this year that he wanted to “taper off” formal U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons, known as Foreign Military Financing (FMF), to Israel over the next decade, in favor of increased co-production and co-development of weapons between Israeli and U.S. weapons manufacturers. This proposal garnered the backing of pro-Israel stalwart Sen. Lindsey Graham and aligns with proposals for strengthening the U.S.-Israeli relationship put forward by The Heritage Foundation and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), two pro-Trump think tanks with a hard-edged anti-Palestinian animus and clear pro-Israel agendas.
However, American taxpayers should be aware of the bait-and-switch nature of these proposals, especially as the U.S. and Israel now enter into negotiations for a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will outline the parameters of the bilateral military relationship over the next decade. (more...)
The time for a U.S. arms embargo on Israel is now
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