Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington today to ask for a major increase in aid—from the current $3 billion per year to almost $5 billion per year beginning in 2017.
Cheeky, no? As a reminder, here are some highlights of the “special relationship” between Israel and the United States over the last seven years:
- In March 2010, in the midsts of the “peace process,” Israel announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in Arab East Jerusalem during a visit from Joe Biden
- In May 2011, Netanyahu lectured Obama in front of reporters during a press availability in the Oval Office
- Netanyahu meddled in the 2012 presidential election and appeared in a campaign ad for Mitt Romney
- As Kerry was working on the “peace process,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that the U.S. Secretary of State had a “messianic fervor” and “The only thing that can ‘save us’ is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.”
- Yet again, in 2013, Netanyahu called for the release of Jonathan Pollard, one of the most traitorous spies the US ever locked up
- In January, Netanyahu orchestrated an invitation from House Speaker John Boehner to address a joint session of the new Republican Congress without the knowledge of President Obama in order to lobby against the President’s foreign policy.
And of course, most recently:
That doesn’t even take into account that Israel, a first-world country, is already the biggest recipient per capita of US aid.
Or the fact that Israel has been subjecting millions of people to the longest-running occupation in modern history, making it one of the most disliked countries in the world.
But sure, Netanyahu, ask for the aid. Hell, why not ask for $20 billion/year? Thirty billion? Would Congress or the President say no?