Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author’s permission.
I have a modest proposal: Stop all U.S. aid to Israel. Why does Israel need billions and billions in aid, mainly so they can buy U.S. weaponry? If they need it, they can pay for it. And if they’re going to use U.S. weapons to kill massive numbers of innocent Palestinians in Gaza, America shouldn’t sell them the weapons no matter what Israel is willing to pay.
Am I anti-Israel? Anti-semitic? Only if IDF General (and war hero) Matti Peled was.
Here’s what Israeli general Matti Peled had to say about U.S. aid to Israel:
“Until 1974, Israel had not received foreign aid money and we did fine. Receiving free money, money you have not earned and for which you do not have to work, is plain and simply corrupting.” His son, Miko Peled, then added that his father consistently argued “that the weapons the U.S. sold [or gave] to Israel were corrupting the country and were being used to maintain the occupation and oppression of the Palestinians.”
Miko Peled wrote that his dad consistently said “It is bad for Israel, it is morally wrong, and it is illegal” (cited on page 68). Again, was General Matti Peled, IDF war hero, anti-Semitic? A self-hating Jew? Of course not. He was a moral, principled, courageous person who fought against Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. His son Miko continues that fight.
Miko Peled recounted his dad’s position in “The General’s Son: Journey of An Israeli in Palestine,” published in 2012 by Just World Books. I first learned of the Peled family’s activism against Israeli oppression of the Palestinian people in an interview between Miko Peled and Chris Hedges in January of this year. I highly recommend both that interview and Miko Peled’s book.
William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views.
He may have “fought against Israel’s oppression of Palestinians” but he was still an occupier. “Bad for Israel” is no longer a useful criteria if it ever was.
Biden just said he’ll never stop giving Israel arms. That means the only solution if for the Arab world – and perhaps the whole world – to end the Israeli state by military force and expel the occupiers.
BDS
All US foreign aid is based on robbing Americans in order to benefit foreigners, and US special interests.
In the case of Israel, you have that aid supporting an Apartheid regime engaged in genocide.
End all US aid to Israel.
The government is not the problem. The problem is the MIC, Big Banking, AIPAC. Robbery in plain sight.
Seeing as how the government is actually doing the robbing, through both taxation and inflation, the government is the problem.
The government is the problem, in addition to the MIC, Big Banks and AIPAC.
Spot on!
Libertarians are the problem. We need a new ideology: Distributism! Libertarians are in the way.
Ah, yes — people with precisely zero power, rather than the people with all the power, are the problem. It wasn’t the 49ers who lost the Super Bowl, it was the people working at the concession stands.
Libertarians may not have political power but they would be the problem if they did, they believe private enterprise is the answer to everything and would take no action against companies profiting off of peoples’ and environment’s expenses.
How do you think “private enterprises” get things at other peoples’ expense other than in voluntary exchange?
Hint: The answer starts with the letter “g” and ends with the letters “overnment.”
Libertarians believe in letting private enterprises be the government and calling all the shots.
They would take no action against companies like Amazon that treats its workers poorly and charges return fees. They would take no action against companies like E-Bay that refuse to give refunds or exchanges and no action against the Better Business Bureau which should be called the Worse Business Bureau, it accepts hush money from companies like E-Bay.
That’s a very long way of saying that you have no earthly idea what the hell libertarians believe.
The managerial elite is the problem. There’s often not much difference between big government and big business.
Weird. Immediately after this uber-libertarian comment, you pronounced libertarians “the problem.” You should probably make up your mind.
Distributism!
Stolypin might be the Russian example.
The ideal is distributed private ownership, a large middle class, and very little government.
“Stop all US aid.” Period.
But Ron Paul style free trade is an acceptable form of aid.
Reparations in the form of UBI could be good.