Former AIPAC Head Chides Gingrich, Romney, and Perry over Foreign Aid

David Streeter — December 6, 2011 – 5:32 pm | Election 2012 | Foreign Policy | GOP Presidential Candidates 2012 | Israel Comments (0) Add a comment

Former American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Executive Director Tom Dine chided Republican presidential candidates former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and Texas Governor Rick Perry for their calls to start all foreign aid to zero. Dine wrote in Haaretz:

The recent political pledge made by Republican presidential contenders Rick Perry, Newt Gingrich, and Mitt Romney to ‘zero out’ foreign assistance appropriations and start over would be a direct assault on our security relationship with Israel. Anyone who has a clue about our relationship with Israel understands that a robust, wide-ranging foreign aid program is not only vital for Israel’s security, but also greatly benefits our interests in the region and around the world.

The subsequent insistence by the Perry-Gingrich-Romney troika that Israel would somehow be exempt from this policy of slash-and-burn budgeting could only be read as a disturbing misunderstanding of the vital role foreign economic assistance and security aid play in U.S. diplomacy, or worse, a deliberate attempt to distort the issue in order to score cheap political points….

Fearing the reaction from voters concerned about Israel’s security, all three candidates later insisted they were not proposing to end or dramatically slash Israel’s aid, but efforts to walk back their comments smacked of political opportunism, not thoughtful policy.

For several decades, the United States has played a vital role in supporting Israel’s security, and in 2007, the United States committed to providing Israel with $30 billion in security assistance over the next decade. The policy advocated by the Gov. Romney, Gov. Perry, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would break that trust.

When there are calls for the zeroing out of foreign aid - a program that makes up less than one per cent of the annual U.S. federal budget - it is the job of top Executive and Legislative branch leaders to remind Congress and the public that support for a robust foreign aid program not only serves the Jewish state of Israel, but the interests of the United States around the world….

The current crop of Republican presidential candidates claim they would ‘restore’ U.S. leadership of the Free World, but seem willing to end programs that are critical to that role.

Now is not the time to retreat from America’s leadership role, nor is it time to resort to political gimmicks that isolate Israel and harm American interests. Our security remains on the line - and so does that of our democratic friend and ally Israel.

Click here to read Dine’s full piece. 

 

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