Tag Archives: sequester

AIPAC Goes Public: It Intends To Exempt Israel From Sequester

5 Mar

The great Congressional Quarterly reporter Jonathan Broder has gotten AIPAC to go on the record with its plans to exempt Israel from sequestration. (I can’t provide link as CQ is by subscription only.)

He writes of the “battalions” of AIPACers who descended on Congress today to demand “tighter sanctions against Iran, relief for Israel aid from automatic spending cuts, and a new designation of the Jewish state as a ‘major strategic ally,’ a status that would help insulate Israel from any further aid cuts.

At the top of their agenda is convincing lawmakers to support a new Iran bill (HR 850) from House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., and supported by ranking Democrat Eliot L. Engel of New York, that would extend existing sanctions targeting Iran’s energy and financial transactions to include an even broader range of its commerce with the rest of the world. Several senators are working on a measure which is expected to be even more expansive.

The grassroots lobbyists also asked lawmakers to find some way to shield the $3.1 billion in annual U.S. aid to Israel from the automatic across-the-board spending cuts that took effect on March 1. Under the sequester, Israel stands to lose $155 million. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid.

Broder quotes an AIPAC official who says,  “We are saying that an alternative should be found to sequestration because it is bad policy. We believe it is essential for American and Israel security interests that the assistance be maintained and not reduced.”

Broder quotes House Foreign Affairs Committee chair. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, as seeking ways to exempt Israel but notes (here is a shocker) Brad Sherman (D-CA) disagrees:  “An exemption for Israel would raise questions. If there’s one exemption, what other exemptions will there be?”

So AIPAC  is demanding an exemption for Israel. And Brad Sherman thinks such an exemption would raise questions. (Knowing Brad, he is probably too busy plotting war with Iran to care about this issue).

What does it all mean?  There will be an exemption for Israel if it can be pulled off in the dark. Don’t count the lobby out. This is their specialty.

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Israeli Government, AIPAC Worry About A Backlash If Israel Is Exempt From Sequester: Let’s Create It

5 Mar

Check out this piece in the Jerusalem Post. It notes my prediction that AIPAC could suffer a “backlash” if  aid to Israel is exempted from sequestration but says that the lobby is “doubling down” on achieving it. 

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which opened its annual policy conference on Sunday, will take to Capitol Hill Tuesday for a morning of lobbying, including a push to provide Israel with its full $3.1 billion in military aid for 2013 and 2014, as well as $211m. in additional funding for the Iron Dome missile-defense system. AIPAC will also promote legislation designating Israel a “major strategic ally,” a new alliance status that may help it keep its aid.

 

The lobbying agenda did not reference funding for joint missile defense programs, which the Pentagon will consider when divvying up its budget cuts. The other two lobbying agenda items will be devoted to legislation on Iran, one in the House, and one in the Senate.

It then added: “Some critics worried that attempts to exempt Israel from painful budget cuts while the rest of the US was forced to absorb them would cause a political backlash.”

It is clear from the article that Israelis are worried about that backlash, almost as much as AIPAC is untroubled by it. It is hard to believe, but it’s a fact, that AIPAC and its associated lobbying organizations are far more hard line than even the Netanyahu government. AIPAC relishes going to war with a U.S. President because it is a show of macho power and helps fundraising efforts. The Israeli government, which has skin in what AIPAC considers a game, is more cautious. (Ultimately, the Long Islanders of AIPAC are safe regardless of what happens to Israel; they can always find another hobby. Israelis can’t.)

In any case, we need to exploit the nervousness Israel seems to be feeling about AIPAC’s sequester exemption. The special treatment for Israel that AIPAC is demanding is a metaphor for the whole US-Israel relationship but even more for AIPAC’s stranglehold over US policy. 

Naturally J Street is not opposed to exempting Israel as the Post article points out. It has red lines: its biggest one is never ever to seriously oppose AIPAC on anything. (Sometimes I wonder if AIPAC created J Street as a safe alternative to itself. It has turned out that way).

In any case. Let’s exploit the sequestration issue to (1) prevent AIPAC from taking money away from needy people here to give to the Israeli military and (2) to point out what AIPAC is. You fill in that blank. I’ve said it enough!

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Watch AIPAC Get Israel Exempted From Sequestration

9 Feb

On March 1, if the White House and Congress do not reach a deal, the automatic budget sledgehammer known as the “sequester” will cut $1.2 trillion out of government spending, equally divided between domestic programs and the military.

These cuts would be devastating but, at this point, they could very well happen.

Here is my question? Will AIPAC succeed in getting an exemption for Israel programs, the largest item by far on the foreign aid side?

Already AIPAC’s cutouts on the Hill are getting ready to save Israel’s aid. At the Hagel confirmation hearing last week, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY)  who combines Chuck Schumer’s zealousness in serving AIPAC with utter ignorance of foreign policy, asked Hagel point blank if he would ensure that Israel’s aid would be kept at current levels if the sequester takes place.  Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) has chimed in on the devastating effects sequestration would have on poor Marylanders and on Israel.

Our commitment to Israel and its security is unprecedented and unwavering. U.S. security assistance to Israel in the annual foreign aid and defense appropriation bills are the most tangible manifestation of American support to one of our strongest allies. These critical funds are especially vital during this time of tremendous turmoil in the Middle East, particularly as Iran is aggressively working to acquire a nuclear-weapon capability. Indeed, our military and intelligence cooperation with Israel has never been closer.

Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and, in this time of turmoil, we count on Israel as a strong, stabilizing force in that region. With the on-going civil war in Syria, an uncertain government in Egypt and the growing threat of a nuclear Iran, America’s support for Israel must continue.

This is not the time to financially cripple our own nation or that of our allies. Too many nations are watching for any weakness in our national resolve or lack of support for our allies. I believe sequestration would be a self-inflicted wound that would not only endanger our nation’s economic recovery, but also jeopardize our prestige and influence in the world.

The usual AIPAC blah blah,

It is hard to believe that AIPAC would dare exempt Israel from cuts that are going to impact every American or that it will exempt the IDF from cuts that will affect the US Armed Forces. Or that it will preserve the largest item in the foreign aid budget intact thereby forcing proportionately larger cuts on USAID programs to combat hunger, illiteracy and poverty in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

On the other hand, AIPAC is shameless and so are their wholly owned subsidiaries in Congress.

Let’s keep an eye on this. Letting AIPAC know that we are watching might prevent its latest run on the bank.

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