Israel: Our tax dollars can't buy their security

Re: “US, Israel sign $38 billion, 10-year military aid deal,” (TNT, 9/15).

It is time to tell Israel: “We have supported you generously for decades, but now you are a thriving economy. We congratulate you, but ask you to realize that we have pressing needs for our own citizens: aid to homeless American families and children in poverty, national parks, infrastructure, security.”

Israel has its own billionaires. Congressman Derek Kilmer’s office informs me that much of the money comes back to us as Israel purchases weapons here. I am not in favor of subsidizing the U.S. arms industry indirectly. If we want to subsidize our economy, let’s spend it on food production, health care and manufacturing. Israel has its own lucrative arms industries, sells weapons world wide.

I understand Israel’s longing for security, and Congress would buy it if they could. But planes, tanks and bombs will not defeat desperate Palestinian teenagers with knives and rocks.

There are now almost as many non-Jews as Jews living between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Israelis should learn to get along with Palestinians, to ask why they feel desperate, or else commit to living in insecurity.

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Israel: Our tax dollars can't buy their security."