The Jerusalem Post is reporting [1]that House Republicans have proposed $680 million over the next three years for the purpose of supporting Israel’s “Iron Dome” short range defense system against rocket attacks.
Over the past few years Israel has suffered under the brunt of numerous rocket attacks coming out of “Palestinian” territories. Ironically, these attacks are sometimes being launched from property that the Jewish state surrendered on the basis that doing so would bring peace. The Iron Dome defense system is reported to have an 80% success rate and has likely saved many innocent lives.
While some might suggest that the United States should not be funding projects such as this it is clearly to the nation’s advantage to support Israel in its defense and fight against a common enemy. The Jewish state is a valuable bulwark against Islamism and is an ally with which the United States has always held a special affinity. Likewise, we should bear in mind that it was the United States that foisted the fallacious “land for peace” nonsense on the Jewish people and encouraged Israel to pursue that particular course of action.
President Obama has not yet said whether or not he will support the funding request, although he has said that he will support an “appropriate” amount that hopefully will be enough to help Israel sustain a successful Iron Dome program. There will certainly be a significant amount of pressure on the President to ensure that an adquate amount of funding is going into support for Israel. In light of his more ambivilent attitude toward the Jewish state, he will need to make a convincing show of support in order to quell the doubts that are being expressed by many Jewish and Christian voters.
However, after four years of taking a stance toward Israel that is nothing short of a Xerox copy of a European diplomatic hack, what makes anyone think that this President is serious on following through with his promises to American supporters of Israel?