Reconsider Aid to Israel: Resources Better Used at Home

Waleed Haleem, Class of 2014
April 26, 2012
Filed under Quill

Have you ever wondered at times what the United States does with its money? I can tell you what they have done with $115 billion: it has been sent to Israel since World War II. If you do the math, that is 67 years, and every year the United States gives Israel $1,716,417,910.44. My reaction was probably similar to many of yours: why in the world are we wasting money on another country’s military?

According to congressional service in 2007, the Bush Administration and the Israeli government agreed to a 10-year, $30 billion military aid package that gradually will raise Israel’s annual Foreign Military Financing grant from a baseline of nearly $2.55 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2009 to approximately $3.1 billion for FY 2013 through FY 2018. For FY 2013, the Obama Administration is requesting $3.1 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to Israel.

What the United States needs to do is stop funding Israel, because not only is the money helping make matters worse, it could be better spent on things back home.

This money could help students such as myself pay for college; it could help make my community a better place to live in, and support my local police department to crack down on crime and gang related issues. The money could be allocated to the Department of Education, helping rebuild schools and financing the tools and resources necessary to make the education system better here at home and raise test scores in middle and high schools across the country.

Israel has numerous times broken International Law and completely ignored demands from the United Nations that they stop. When I do something that I am not supposed to do, I face consequences, but Israel gets a friendly phone call or letter asking them to please stop and the United States continues funding without hesitation. Israel must face consequences for ignoring international laws and ignoring the United Nations, such as sanctions from the U.S. and cutting of military funding.

Israel has been nothing but a headache to the United Sates and right now has put the United States in a situation we don’t really need to be in. The fact of the matter is the money that will be spent on Israel could be used for much better causes here at home. Just think of how our economy is doing today.