I love honest journalism. Joshua Mitnick in the Christian Science Monitor on the neverending scandal: Why one-fifth of the Congress spent their summer recess in Israel, the “virtual airlift” of Congresspeople to Israel by AIPAC affiliate American Israel Education Foundation.
While such visits are routine, the unusual size of this year’s delegation reflects several factors ranging from the UN vote and rising criticism of White House policy toward Israel, to the bumper crop of freshman representatives who don’t have to spend the summer campaigning for reelection. AIPAC wants to use the visit to make the case to newcomers for continued US foreign aid of about $3 billion at a time of fiscal austerity.
“The question isn’t so much going away with a different attitude, it’s going away with more information,” says David Kreizelman, who heads AIPAC’s office in Israel. “They have to go back to their constituents who are saying, ‘We want [government help] and you are voting to give money to Israel.’ “
And remember what my congresswoman, Nan Hayworth, wrote to her constituents?
It can certainly be said that the cost of deployment of an Iron Dome unit is far lower in dollars than the cost of the damage from a terrorist rocket. The savings in lives is, of course, incalculable. Iron Dome is an example of how smart technology can help us to defeat evil without bloodshed. We need to do a lot more of this in a lot of places in the world, and we can, but if we’re going to afford it we need to manage our American resources better.
