Take Action: No Mention of Aid to Israel in Budget, Thank President Obama

Last Thursday, President Obama sent his FY2010 budget outline to Congress and we were pleasantly surprised to see that it contained no mention of military aid to Israel.

Last Tuesday, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to explain his budget outline. His only reference to Israel was a reiteration of his Administration’s priority “To seek progress toward a secure and lasting peace between Israel and her neighbors”.

Does this mean that President Obama will not include $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel when he delivers his actual detailed budget request to Congress in April as expected? That’s highly doubtful.

But the absence of any mention of it in the budget outline or the President’s address to Congress does mean that military aid to Israel is becoming a political liability, something that is now downplayed and no longer trumpeted.

If our analysis is correct, then what accounts for this shift? Undoubtedly it is our growing movement to hold Israel accountable for its misuse of U.S. weapons to commit horrific human rights abuses against Palestinians.

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