Israel launched a missile attack into a private house in a crowded residential neighborhood in the middle of the night, knowing for certain that innocent women and children sleeping in their homes would be killed. The attack killed 14, almost all women and children, and wounded 100. Israel says that it did this to stop the suicide bombings by Palestinians. Ariel Sharon called the killing of 14 Palestinian women and children "One of our major successes". George W. Bush did not condemn the attack, although he called it "heavy handed".
This is only the most recent example of what has been going on in Israel. The US Government says that it opposes terrorism, but still keeps sending billions of dollars to the world's biggest terrorist, Ariel Sharon.
It is to be noted that Osama bin Laden used the financial support which Bush gives to Sharon as his excuse for the attack on the World Trade Center. Bush does not seem to notice the fact that the USA sending billions of dollars to kill Palestinian babies established a plausible excuse to kill a mere 3,000 persons in the World Trade Center.
Why does not Bush condemn the killing of Palestinian babies? The answer is simple. Christian fundamentalists (not Jews, but Christians) support the killing of Palestinians. This is a point little understood. Christian Fundamentalists led by Jerry Falwell (who was involved in the kidnapping of my daughter, by the way) believe that the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ will occur in Israel. Therefore, the Falwell Organization pushes the US Government to send money to Israel, even though Falwell is personally an anti-Semite. Christian Fundamentalists are the politically dominant group in America, and that is the reason why Bush and other politicians keep supporting Israel.
However, I perceive a shift in the tide. When I ventured to Lynchburg, Virginia recently, I noted that several Christian Fundamentalists were opposed to the killing of Palestinian babies and wanted the Jews to make peace with the Palestinians. Bush has not yet detected this shift and has not embraced this idea. Instead, Bush wants Arafat, but not Sharon, to be changed.
The Libertarian position is and has always been that the USA should stop all foreign aid. Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes.
"In addition to nearly $3 billion in direct aid, Israel usually gets another $3 billion or so in indirect aid: military support from the defense budget, forgiven loans, and special grants. While some of the indirect aid is difficult to measure precisely, it is safe to say that Israelšs total aid (direct and indirect) amounts to at least five billion dollars annually."
The solution is simple: Cut all foreign aid, to everybody. We can get elected on that.
Next Issue: The Office of Homeland Security. There is another name for this: The Gestapo. We need to oppose this strongly.
Next Issue: Enron and Worldcom: Bush says that we need to take strong measures against corporate fraud, but Bush has not offered to serve his own time in prison. Just about everybody is beginning to realize that the prime beneficiaries of corporate fraud were Bush and Cheney. Enron and Worldcom were not free market enterprises. They were entitles created through government regulation. Both the Republicans and the Democrats participated in this. Clinton was perhaps only slightly less guilty than Bush. This creates the possibility that a third major party could emerge: The Libertarian Party.
However, the Libertarians have a problem. The party tends to be dominated by personalities on the lunatic fringe of one issue or another. We need to find a way to deal with this problem, so that Libertarians can get a broader base of support.
Sam Sloan