America’s unconditional support for Israel is driven largely by its influence on the US electoral process, a political activist from California says.
“The military assistance and the economic aid and the help that the United States gives in the United Nations to protect Israel with its veto power… comes largely from domestic politics, not because this benefits the United States,” Paul Larudee, co-founder of the Free Palestine Movement, said on Thursday.
“It is because it benefits the person who is running for office in the United States and this is because Israel has taken control, to a large degree, of the electoral process and the processes of government,” Larudee told Press TV.
US and Israeli officials are discussing Tel Aviv’s request of an increase in the overall size of the current military aid package from $3 billion to around $5 billion a year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US President Barack Obama for the first time in a year at the White House on Monday, and spent much of their time discussing ways to expand US military assistance to Israel.
Before leaving for Washington, Netanyahu said he hoped to lay the groundwork for a new and more robust 10-year military aid package to Israel.
The aid package is separate from the annual US funding of nearly $500 million which is spent on Israel’s missile programs in recent years. It is also on top of US warfare equipment held in Israel, valued at $1.2 billion.
Larudee emphasized that all this assistance is because Israel exerts huge influence on US politicians.
“Israel, to a large extent, can determine what US policy is with respect to the Middle East and in some other matters as well,” he said.
This is despite the fact that Israel’s policy “has been to destroy and kill Palestinians as much as possible from the beginning and to make them disappear,” the activist noted.
The United States assists Israel with its “ethnic cleansing” in the occupied territories because “Israel is a major factor in internal domestic American politics,” he stressed.
“In order to get to elective office in the United States, you need to show your love and support for Israel,” he concluded. “Nobody ever won elective office by showing love and support for the Palestinians.”
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/11/12/437327/US-Israel-military-aid-Palestine-
“It is because it benefits the person who is running for office in the United States and this is because Israel has taken control, to a large degree, of the electoral process and the processes of government,”
Large degree?
Nicely understated.