Wasserman Schultz Rebukes GOP Candidates for Zeroing Out Aid to Israel

Jason Attermann — November 17, 2011 – 11:35 am | Election 2012 | Foreign Policy | Israel | Republicans Comments (1) Add a comment

Democratic National Committee Chair Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) rebuked the leading GOP presidential candidates for threatening to zero out foreign aid, including U.S. aid to Israel. She wrote in an email to Democratic Party supporters on Wednesday:

Here’s something I never thought I’d hear an American presidential candidate pledge to do:

Cut all foreign aid for Israel to zero.

[T]hat’s exactly what happened at the Republican debate on Saturday, when Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry raced each other to the extremes of Tea Party isolationism, saying they’d ‘start everything at zero’ in the foreign aid budget and force Israel and every other ally to make their case for receiving American assistance.

It’s outrageous and dangerous - and it shows a critical ignorance of how a president needs to act. It is never responsible to raise doubts about our commitment to the security of a key ally like Israel….

Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates have spent a lot of time lately saying how much they support Israel - and openly questioning President Obama’s commitment to the Jewish state.

But a stance like this tells us two really important things:

1) These guys are so eager to please the most extreme elements of their Tea Party base that they’d forget about one of the most loyal allies our country has.

2) They fundamentally don’t understand our current foreign policy agreements, like the commitments we’ve made to Israel that establish certain levels of aid for years to come.

At the end of the day, foreign aid is a tiny fraction of the federal budget—less than one percent—that goes a long way to support our national security and economic goals abroad. The cuts these candidates propose wouldn’t make a dent in the deficit, but they would wreak absolute havoc on our foreign policy and America’s standing in the world.

In typical fashion, the Romney campaign tried to say two different things to two different audiences, releasing a statement to try to walk back his words—saying he was referring only to Pakistan. But one look at the transcript shows otherwise: ‘One of the things we have to do with our foreign aid commitments, the ongoing foreign aid commitments, I agree with Governor Perry. You start everything at zero.’

While his campaign is already trying to wiggle out of it, Romney himself has been conspicuously silent on the matter. He might be hoping he can get away with pandering to the Tea Party isolationists, but we won’t let him.

According to Haaretz, Wasserman Schultz said immediately following Saturday’s debate:

I’m aghast that the leading Republican contenders for President tonight, including Mitt Romney, pledged to zero out the foreign aid budget including the traditional and vital support the U.S. has provided the Jewish state of Israel for its security. I cannot think of a more irresponsible, risky or deplorable position towards our most important friend and ally. That Mitt Romney and these candidates would sacrifice the security of the state of Israel for an applause line at a debate and to appeal to the far right wing Tea Party faction of the Republican base, shows that not a single one of them has what it takes to be Commander-in-Chief.

It is a moral and security imperative for the U.S. to aid in the security of the state of Israel and to defend it from those who would do it harm. Barack Obama understands that and has made Israel’s security a priority; proposing and securing $3 billion in foreign aid to Israel; proposing and securing $205 million in funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system for Israel and authorizing the sale of bunker buster bombs previously denied by former President George W. Bush. Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican field clearly do not understand the vital need for the U.S. to consistently stand by our friend and ally, Israel and not only when it’s politically popular.

Click here to sign NJDC’s petition supporting aid to Israel. 

 

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