Americans getting sick of funding Israel: Jim W. Dean

American people are sick of their government funding Israel when they do not require a missile system if they were not a threat to anybody, an analyst tells Press TV.

Israel has boasted about its Iron Dome short-range missile system, which is mainly funded by the United States, calling it Israel’s cutting-edge missile technology. According to a White House fact sheet, US President Barack Obama has said that “despite tough fiscal times”, he “fought for and secured full funding for Israel” in fiscal year 2012, including $3 billion in Foreign Military Financing.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jim W. Dean, managing editor and columnist with Veterans Today (Atlanta), to further discuss the issue of US financial support for Israel.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview with Jim W. Dean.

Press TV: Looking at Ehud Barak basically boasting Israel’s military capabilities as far as collaboration with the US goes, this is a regime which has waged two wars on the population of Gaza. It has launched the war on Lebanon, it is currently occupying land of Palestinians, Lebanese land, as well as Syrian land.

Now, isn’t that a double standard so to speak where the US preaches human rights and respect for international law and yet collaborates and even spends tax payer money to prop up a regime like the one in Israel?

Dean: Well, I would even go further and call it a quadruple standard. The American people, there is the shifting winds [that] are turning against the blind support against Israel from the grass roots level, AIPAC [The American Israel Public Affairs Committee] is in town now and of course the Congressmen and Senators who do double duty as American Congressmen but also Congressmen for Israel.

They still have their luck there. So they will have their dog and pony show where they have them all show up at the AIPAC Convention
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So it is going to be hard to do the cutback on the votes. We will see if they are really funding cutback a little bit that will show even more of a cutback.

But American people are really sick of funding Israel when they do not need a missile defense if they were not a threat to anybody. The only reason they need a missile defense is if they want to preemptively attack someone and they do not want to have a retaliation.

And the cheapest way for them to get out of doing that, is just don’t attack anyone.

Press TV: Right. Looking at the numbers coming in, millions of tax payers’ dollars are going to Israel on a daily basis while Americans are right now being forced to live on food coupons and government-provided assistance just to get by from day to day. And even that is going to be cut thanks to bickering between Democrats and Republicans.

However, right now, AIPAC is meeting to ensure that the military aid given to Israel is not cut and in fact, it is increased.

What do you make of that?

Dean: Well, that is just Israeli supremacy. Once again, what happens to cutbacks in Americans, to veterans and PTST [Posttraumatic Stress Disorder] and all of the wounded warriors and the brain injuries and the cutbacks for the VA [Veterans Affairs], that does not concern Israel.

These people are not Jews. They are not Israelis. We do not care what happens to them. What they did to help us does not matter any more. We want our money. And that is all it is. And they are at the top of the list.