Advocates of foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel are patting themselves on the back after the passage of a $95 billion bill that includes $61 billion to Ukraine and $26 billion to Israel. They’re saying that such aid demonstrates how good, caring, and compassionate America is.
In the case of Israel, the aid supposedly demonstrates that America is not 100 percent antisemitic because the aid to Israel helps to cancel out the thousands of college protesters who are protesting the Israeli government’s military killing machine in Gaza, which, it is said, automatically means that the protestors are antisemitic.
Is it possible for an American to oppose the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza without being considered antisemitic? Not according to proponents of foreign aid to Israel. They say that if one opposes foreign aid to Israel or opposes the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, that automatically means that one hates Jews.
This notion of goodness, care, and compassion is an interesting one. It holds that when the government uses taxpayer money to fund a foreign entity, the aid reflects the goodness, care, and compassion of the IRS agents who collect the taxes, the federal bureaucrats who distribute the aid, the military contractors who furnish the weaponry to foreign regimes, and also the goodness, care, and compassion of the American people.
What about those Americans who oppose foreign aid to both the Israeli and Ukrainian governments? I suppose there would be a split in thinking. Some would argue that such Americans cannot possibly be considered good, caring, and compassionate. Others would argue that once the U.S. government approves the aid, every Americans should receive credit for being good, caring, and compassionate simply because they are American citizens, voters, or taxpayers.
What about those Americans who don’t vote or don’t pay taxes? I suppose there would be another split in thinking regarding them. Some would say that they should get credit for being good, caring, and compassionate because they are American citizens. Others would say that they should not receive any credit given that they are not actively participating in the system.
Suppose an American supports both U.S. foreign aid to Israel and U.S. humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. What then? Can that person be considered to be good, caring, and compassionate? Or would he be considered to be only partially good, caring, and compassionate for supporting aid to Israel while, at the same time, supporting aid to Israel’s enemies?
Suppose an American opposes U.S. foreign aid to Israel and supports U.S. foreign aid to Gazans. Wouldn’t that make him antisemitic and a bad person for his opposition to foreign aid to Israel but a good, caring, and compassionate person for supporting aid to Gazans? Or would his antisemetic opposition to aid to Israel cancel out any goodness, care, and compassion arising out of his support for aid to Gaza?
What if a person opposes U.S. foreign aid to everyone in the world? Would that make him a person who is totally lacking goodness, care, and compassion? Would it also mean that he is antisemitic, anti-Catholic, anti-Protestant, anti-Muslim, anti-atheist, and, well, anti-everything? Moreover, would his opposition to foreign aid in general make him pro-Russian, pro-China, pro-Gaza, pro-Iran, pro-Muslim, pro-communist, or pro-terrorist?
What if a person opposes foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine but supports people voluntarily sending their own money to Israel and Ukraine? Should he be considered antisemitic for opposing U.S. aid to Israel. Should he also be considered a person who is lacking goodness, care, and compassion?
One last point: Doesn’t that $61 billion foreign aid bill add another $61 billion to the federal government’s $34 trillion debt? Aren’t American taxpayers on the hook for that debt? What if an American citizen objects to the aid package to Israel and Ukraine on that basis? Does that mean that he lacks goodness, care, or compassion or that he is antisemitic?
Wow! U.S. foreign policy can sure get complicated.