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Commentary:
This author has never seen eye-to-eye with JPost columnist Larry Derfner and his virulent left-wing, seemingly anti-religious mindset.
But this is probably the one time (before the Ge’ula Shlaima) when we stand in agreement — over American foreign aid. Can the Ge’ula be far behind? Wow, Major Yom Tov — imagine that, Larry Derfner agreeing with a position of R’ Me’ir Kahane z”l who campaigned hard, in the years prior to his assassination, for a cessation of all American foreign aid to Israel.
In the late 1980’s Kahane hammered home again and again that US Foreign Aid was the root of all evil, of Israel’s subserviant status to the US. This author and other advocates against foreign aid have called it Israel’s “Banana Republic” status.
Freeing Israel from the bondage of US foreign aid would force mushrooming growth in Israel’s military exports industry, restrained until now by American restrictions on who and where they can sell which weaponry, which is rooted in the dependence of American foreign and military aid money. Freeing Israel from the bosom of American foreign aid money would force independence and cessation of leftist governmental leaders’ practices of running to take cover under the American cloak and justifing national self-destuction as “American pressure and expectations” while abandoning every other ally she [Israel] ever had; from Pollard, to the South Lebanonese, the Druse, the US Congress, and even President Bush himself.
Yes, this author is proud to pronounce his agreement, just this once, with columnist Larry Derfner. MB
Welcome to a Wealthy Country, by Larry Derfner (Jerusalem Post)
Excerpts;
Dear Mr. President,
Knowing your habit of reading every newspaper column that starts “Dear Mr. President,” I have a special request on the occasion of your visit. I guarantee you won’t hear it from anyone you meet in this country: Please stop giving us money.The $3 billion a year – keep it. We don’t need it. We can use it, of course, but we don’t need it, and foreign aid – which is nothing but welfare on an international scale – should be given only to those who need it most. Like to countries in Africa, like to the billions of people in the world dying of starvation and disease.
Not to a country like Israel, which, as the nations of the world go, is solidly upper-middle-class. I’m sure you’ll agree that upper-middle-class people shouldn’t get welfare, so why should upper-middle-class countries?
Maybe you’re not aware how prosperous Israel has become – you’re going to Jerusalem, which is a pretty poor city, and the Galilee, which is nothing special economically. You ought to go to Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ra’anana – check out the hi-tech parks, the neighborhoods of multimillion-dollar homes, the luxurious shopping malls. Look at the way people dress, look at the new cars and jeeps they drive. Look at the Security Olympics we’re putting on for your visit – the money we’re spending to protect you could feed Sierra Leone for several years.
Did your hosts tell you how well our economy is doing? The average Israeli salary is up to $23,000 a year, the economy grew by 5% for the fourth year in a row, unemployment is down, inflation is virtually non-existent, and not only isn’t there a budget deficit, there’s a surplus. The government isn’t even spending all the money it’s got.
AND ON TOP of this, we’re cutting taxes. Israelis are paying lower and lower taxes, and what are American taxpayers doing? Giving us more and more welfare. For each of the next 10 years, American foreign aid to Israel is going up from $2.4 billion to $3 billion. That’s another $30 billion total, added to the roughly $100 billion overall that the US has given us until now.
So thank you, thank you, thank you, but we don’t need America’s help anymore. We used to be a fairly poor country, sort of lower-middle-class, kind of shabby, but now?
Before you leave Ben-Gurion Airport tomorrow, why don’t you take a look at Terminal 3, the one we built a few years ago for international flights. Or go to the new Airport City industrial park. This country is booming, Mr. President.
MR. PRESIDENT, I’m sure your hosts have enjoyed teaching you a few Hebrew words, and you’ve enjoyed learning them. I’d like to introduce you to a Yiddish word that’s been part of colloquial Hebrew as long as anyone can remember, and not by accident.
The word is shnorrer. It means beggar, or moocher, somebody who’s always asking for money. Mr. President, Israel is a shnorrer country, and we’re only getting worse. We used to shnor $2.4 billion a year from your country, now we’re shnorring $3 billion, and I, for one, am ashamed. When I see the new high-rises in Israel and the new sedans and fancy suits and spas and over-the-top weddings and airplanes filled with Israelis going overseas – I’m ashamed. Disgusted.
So please, please, please, Mr. President, keep the money. Spend it in a good place. I’m telling you, we’ll be absolutely fine – better, in fact. It’ll be good for our character.
Thank you so much for your generosity, thanks to the Congress, and above all, thanks to the American taxpayers. You’ve been instrumental, crucial, to our economic success. Now, after nearly 60 years of sovereignty, it’s time the State of Israel became independent.