I can already hear the pro-empire, pro-intervention crowd making their announcement after a terrorist attack in the United States by a victim of the Israeli bombing in Gaza: “The attack had nothing to do with anger and hatred arising from the unconditional financial and military aid that the U.S. government has furnished the Israeli regime. Instead, the attacker was motivated by hatred for America’s freedom and values.”
Regardless of which side one comes down on in the current outbreak of never-ending hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians, there is one issue that should not be in dispute: The U.S. government should not be furnishing foreign aid to the Israeli government and, well, for that matter, to any other regime.
Isn’t foreign aid just another form of socialistic welfare, just like the bailouts of U.S. automobile companies? Under what moral authority does the U.S. government, operating through the IRS, seize the earnings of the American people to redistribute their wealth to anyone else, including the Israeli government, the Mexican government, automobile companies, banks, or any other welfare recipient?
Why shouldn’t Americans be free to do what they want with their own money? If Americans were free to keep everything they earned, they could donate as much money as they wanted to any foreign entity or anyone else, on a purely voluntary basis. Or they could refuse to do so.
What would be wrong with restoring that freedom to the American people? If such freedom was good enough for our American ancestors for more than 125 years, why isn’t it good enough for us?
Some Americans might argue, “But Israel couldn’t survive without the support of the U.S. government.” That might or might not be true, but that is not the responsibility of the U.S. government, either morally or constitutionally. If individual Americans feel strongly enough about the welfare of Israel, they would be free not only to donate their money to Israel but also travel overseas and join up with the Israeli armed forces, something that some Americans already do. Wouldn’t that encourage a sense of personal responsibility? Wouldn’t that be better than involving the U.S. government in a decades-long, intractable conflict that produces the perpetual threat of terrorist blowback against our nation, which is then used as the excuse for ever-increasing infringements on the civil liberties of the American people at the hands of the U.S. government?
Some people say that calling for the end of foreign aid to the Israeli government is evidence of anti-Semitism. That’s ridiculous and manipulative. After all, does calling for the end of foreign aid to Mexico and Colombia make someone anti-Hispanic? Does calling for the end of foreign aid to African countries mean that a person hates blacks?
No, U.S. foreign aid is simply an immoral form of welfare, one that is highly destructive to the best interests of our nation. Like all forms of socialist redistribution of wealth, it should be terminated immediately, not only to the Israeli government, not only to every other foreign regime, but also to every other welfare recipient feeding at the public trough.