This is a follow on to the December 11 post concerning Trump’s lie about cutting off aid to Ukraine because he was concerned about corruption in that country.
Then why is there no plan, or even any discussion, on cutting off aid to Israel?
The United States gives a huge amount of aid to Israel. In fact, over the years, from 1949 American given to Israel military, economic and other forms of aid totaling more than 130 billion dollars. (1)
And since the time that Netanyahu became Prime Minister in 1996 America has given a very steady three billion dollars in aid every year. And even with that Netanyahu is not shy about asking for even greater amounts. In 2015 Netanyahu requested of Barack Obama (surprising, given the less than friendly relationship between the two leaders) that America up the aid to five billion dollars.(2) And at a time when Israel was not engaged in any actual armed conflicts but America was struggling with fighting in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
If Trump is so worried about good government among our allies then he should have a lot to worry about with possible corruption in Israel.
Netanyahu has been prime minister since 1996, and he has been under investigation for various kinds of corruption for three years.
In November, Netanyahu became the first ever sitting Israeli prime minister to be formally charged with criminal wrongdoing. He was indicted on multiple counts of breach of trust, fraud and bribery, and if convicted on the bribery charges could face as much as ten years in prison. (3)
Partly because of the charges against him, Netanyahu, has been unable to win a large enough majority in the last election to form a government. This was the second election this year that Israel has had to hold.
Sounds serious! Israel is an important ally of the U.S.. We give them tons of economic and military aid, and partly due to the corruption charges against Netanyahu there is actually no one to lead the government. Trump must be at least considering an aid cut off?
I am sure that he is not even thinking about. Trump is not interested in ending corruption, with or without a cut in military aid. He is a corrupt man who creates corruption and tries to exploit it.
No. There’s no dirt to be gained and no money to be made, and that is the easy answer.
References:
(1) Jewish Virtual Library, “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel (1949 to present)
(2) The Times of Israel “In a bid for more aid, Netanyahu invokes costs of America’s wars” Raphael Ahren, 11/10/2019
(3) Middle East Eye, “Netanyahu has been indicted. What’s next?” Middle Eastern Eye Staff, 11/22/2019
