Despite Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu having recently told Congress that the State of Israel can defend itself – and although the U.S. has no formal alliance with that country – the influence of Israeli- and Jewish-interest organizations (such as AIPAC, ADL, JDL, AJC, CPMAJO, JINSA, MEF, and ZOA), and the disproportionately high numbers of Jewish-Americans in the banking industry and high political office has produced a climate in which $3 billion goes to Israel as military and economic aid, in addition to another $12 to $27 billion in taxpayer funds which evade mention in the official federal budget.
Aiding Israel (and thereby giving ideological support to its policies) simply cannot be reconciled with American values. How permitting the imprisonment of those who wish to have academic discussions of the facts surrounding the Holocaust supports the freedom of speech; how regulating mosques’ calls to prayer and dictating what is and is not Judaism through a corrupt, centralized institution supports the freedom of worship and religious tolerance; how routinely regimenting of Palestinian movement supports the freedom of travel; how bombing schools, hospitals, and mosques, massacring families, and then calling them terrorists for responding with a relatively minuscule amount of violence supports the protection of the innocent; and how murdering Americans in the Lavon Affair, the Kennedy assassination, the attacks on the U.S.S. Liberty and the U.S.S. Cole, and September 11th supports the safety of the United States is beyond me.
With Israel’s occupation of Palestine, deprivation of the natural and human rights of its people, and labeling of the Gazans’ democratically-elected Hamas government as a terrorist organization (as well as Israel's jailing and assassination of their elected representatives), it seems evident that Israel’s main reason for supporting democratic elections in the Palestinian territories is to exploit its own radicalization of the Palestinians in order to avoid peace negotiations, that Israel desires to retain its much-lauded status as “the only democracy in the Middle East”, and that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is for the people of the West Bank and Gaza to have their own State – alongside and recognized by Israel – and with full membership in the United Nations, having access to its human rights agencies and courts.
But this is no thoughtful and humane solution to the greater Israeli-Arab conflict as a whole. Those who advocate for Palestinian nationhood and recognition as a State by the international community should be cautioned that this may cause the self-determination of the Palestinian people to be subordinated to the power of their elected officials and the supranational U.N. governance, and that the acceptance of the continued existence of the State of Israel may cause an even more widespread conceptualization of Jewish freedom which excuses their rebellion against G-d and the nations of the Earth by exercising military and political sovereignty prior to the arrival of Mashiach (the Jewish Messiah) and without authorization of the rabbinic authorities of the communities.
If elected to the 113th Congress, I would vote against all federal aid to the State of Israel – as well as to the Palestinian authorities – saving $3 billion of the official budget annually, and eliminating between $12 and $27 billion in fraud each year. Additionally, I would urge members of the Senate to refrain from introducing, drafting, and supporting any and all agreements with the State of Israel which do not require the peaceful dismantlement of its political agencies to be completed within the next 220 years.
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