|
Take
Action: No Mention of Aid to Israel in Budget, Thank President Obama
|
|
![]()
|
March 2, 2009
Last Thursday, President Obama sent his FY2010 budget outline to
Congress and we were pleasantly surprised to see that it contained no
mention of military aid to Israel.
To read the budget outline, click
here. (Skip ahead to p.87 for the section on the
Department of State and other international programs.) |
Last Tuesday, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to
explain his budget outline. His only reference to Israel was a reiteration of his
Administration's priority "To seek progress toward a secure and lasting
peace between Israel
and her neighbors". To read President Obama's remarks to
Congress, click
here.
Does
this mean that President Obama will not include $2.775 billion
in military aid to Israel
when he delivers his actual detailed budget request to Congress in
April as expected? That's highly doubtful.
But the absence of any mention of it in the budget outline or the
President's address to Congress does mean that military aid to Israel
is becoming a political liability, something that is
now downplayed and no longer trumpeted.
If our analysis is correct, then what accounts for this shift? Undoubtedly
it is our growing movement to hold Israel accountable for its
misuse of U.S.
weapons to commit horrific human rights abuses against Palestinians.
Since last Monday, together we have sent more than 7,000
letters to President Obama calling for an investigation into Israel's misuse of U.S.
weapons and a reconsideration of budget requests for more weapons.
More letters have been sent by supporters of the Muslim
American Society Freedom Foundation, Progressive
Democrats of America, United
for Peace and Justice, the Council
for the National Interest, and others, in a coordinated campaign
that we organized.
![]() |
On a related note, we
also attended a Capitol Hill briefing by Rep. Barney Frank
last Tuesday. Rep. Frank has a great proposal to cut
military spending by 25%. Unfortunately, when we challenged
him on reining in spending on military aid to Israel and holding it accountable for
its misuse of U.S.
weapons, he ducked our question. Watch the short video on
the left. |
Keep
up the pressure-it's working!-by taking action below.
TAKE ACTION
1. Thank
President Obama for not including military aid to Israel
in his budget outline. Send
a letter to the President today asking him to investigate Israel's prior misuses of U.S.
weapons against Palestinians and to reconsider his anticipated request
for additional weapons in his upcoming detailed budget. To send your
letter, please click
here.
2. Organize to
challenge U.S.
military aid to Israel
in your community. Even as we begin to see
glimmers of hope that the United States
is considering changing its policy of unconditional support for Israel
and holding it accountable for its human rights abuses of Palestinians,
we have to organize on a
long-term, sustained basis to make this happen.
Since February 2008, we have sent more than 1,000 organizing packets
to people and organizations all over the country to educate and
mobilize people in their communities to challenge military aid to Israel.
Check out our Google map below showing the locations where people are
organizing.
![]()
Sign
up today as a volunteer organizer with us and we'll send you an organizing
packet complete with postcards, petitions, and fact sheets.
Sign up today!
3. Learn more
about U.S. military
aid to Israel
and its dire impact on Palestinians. Watch our
recent Capitol Hill policy briefing, "Armed
and Dangerous: Weapons Transfers to Israel during the Bush
Administration," and download a PowerPoint presentation on the
topic by clicking
here.
![]()
Also, be sure to read
Amnesty International's report, "Fueling
Conflict: Foreign Arms Supplies to Israel/Gaza," released on
February 23. In the report, Amnesty International details
the role U.S.
weapons played in Israel's
recent war on the occupied Gaza Strip and calls for an arms
embargo.
Finally, check out this Huffington Post article by Robert Naiman of
Just Foreign Policy, entitled, "Conditioning
Part of U.S. Aid to Israel on Implementation of U.S. Policy."
4. Make a tax-deductible
contribution to support this work. If you value the work
that we do to challenge U.S.
military aid to Israel,
then please consider making a generous one-time
contribution or join our Olive Branch Club and
make a recurring monthly
donation.
|
|
|
