Introduction: the Policy Problem under Consideration
When it comes to foreign policy, there are many different issues in foreign policy that the government needs to address—from tensions regarding missile treaties with Russia to wars in the Middle East to money given to the state of Israel, which has been recognized by the United Nations as a violator of human rights for its treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank (Human Rights Watch, 2018). Of these, America’s special relationship with Israel is perhaps the most unsettling. Israel receives more than $3 billion in foreign aid from the U.S. every year, which is one-fifth of the entire foreign aid budget of the U.S., and the U.S. is further committed to giving $38 billion in military financial aid over the next several years (Sharp, 2018). Essentially, the U.S. is helping to fund a human rights violator by continuing to give billions of dollars every year to an apartheid state in the Middle East. A policy change is clearly needed on this issue if America is going to be able to have any moral high ground to condemn other dictators of states where it claims human rights abuses are conducted—like in Syria. If the U.S. is going to condemn human rights violations in one state it should condemn them in all—not look the other way because of a “special relationship” that exists.
The special relationship that exists between the U.S. and Israel has been well documented in the past (Mearsheimer & Walt, 2007). The AIPAC lobby has been identified by Rep. Ilhan Omar as playing a part in corrupting the democratic principles and government of the U.S. by using money and campaign funds to essentially “buy” politicians to vote in favor of legislation that benefits Israel. Omar was censored by her colleagues and peers for making this argument, which shows the extent to which one is not permitted to criticize Israel in the U.S. In some U.S. states, it is even illegal to protest Israel’s actions by boycotting the state while holding a public job. This shows how beholden to a foreign state that engages in human rights violations the U.S. actually has become.
To change the current policy towards issue, a new policy should be established, one that is based on the idea of ending all foreign aid to Israel. This would be a sign that the special relationship between Israel and the U.S. is no longer fundamentally tenable, considering the human rights violations of the former and the intention of the latter to condemn human rights violators, as it has done in Syria and other states. Ending all foreign aid to Israel would also be a good first step in cleaning out the American political spectrum; a second step would be to oblige AIPAC to register as a foreign lobby in order to increase transparency for the lobby, so that it has to show how it actually spends its money.
Underlying Intentions of the Policy
The underlying aim of the policy change is to address the elephant in the room that is America’s special relationship with Israel. The social justice aspect of this policy change is evident in the fact that the United Nations has condemned Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, its blockades, its attacks (the use of white phosphorous on children and the firing of guns on unarmed Palestinians), its bulldozing of Palestinian homes on the West Bank, and the erection of Israel settlements on land that does not legally belong to the state of Israel. By ending foreign aid to Israel, the U.S. would be siding with the UN against these and other human rights violations committed by Israel in the recent past against Palestine.
By continuing to fund Israel’s military expansion, the U.S. is siding with Israel and essentially supporting an apartheid state that engages in ethnic cleansing....
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