It's the Budget Stupid!
By Mike Evans
What seems to have completely escaped the American press in their analysis of Ehud Olmert's acceptance of the UN cease-fire agreement is that without US willingness to continue to supply financial aid to Olmert's government they have no choice but to stop their pursuit of Hezbollah.
According to finance minister Avraham Hirchson, the war has cost Israel some $1.6 billion so far. He has indicated he will ask the government to cut $650 million from the 2006 state budget to help pay for the war.
With the US State Department's insistence that Israel honor a cease-fire agreement with the terrorist organization Hezbollah, Ehud Olmert understands clearly the implication. No cease-fire agreement, no more bullets.
Everyone seems to understand that the war that has filled the news reports is, in fact, a proxy war being waged between America and Iran. Iran is supplying Hezbollah through Syria. America is supplying Israel.
US aid to Israelfor the current fiscal year (FY ‘06) amounts to $2.28 billion in military and $240 million in economic grants, for a total of $2.52 billion. And this was before the war began.
With a third of the country unemployed as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks and Israel's major source of income, tourism, effectively shut down since the intifada began, Israel simply cannot prosecute the war without America's tangible financial support.
Some in the press has made it look as though Olmert's government is vacillating. They have written of Israel's lack of focus. They have spoken in terms of a muddied mission with no clear sign of goal.
What they fail to recognize is that Israel is focused like a laser, willing to take the battle in the Middle East to Tehran itself if called upon, willing to spill the blood of young Israeli soldiers in the battle against terrorism. Israel is not vacillating.
America is.
The cease-fire brokered by a corrupt United Nations and a liberal US State Department is one more action birthed out of the moral confusion which seems to have gripped the American people in regards to the war on terrorism.
If it is true, as virtually all now agree, that the war being waged in Lebanon is in fact the front in a war being fought between two contrasting civilizations with Iran playing the role of tyrant and America playing the role of Western democracy... A question is raised.
Who just backed down?
In case you missed it, it wasn't Iran, Syria, or Hezbollah.
Nor was it Israel, though many in the press seemed to believe such as the case.
It was America.
By withholding our support from Israel and demanding that they agree to a cease-fire (Which amounts to a victory for Hezbollah and the radical government of Iran) the United States of America just blinked first.
And don't think the terrorists missed it.
Not only did America blink first, they did so at the worst possible moment. August 16, 2006 was the planned day for the repeat of a terrorist attack worse than 9/11.
August 31, 2006 is the deadline the UN Security Council has given Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. The same day the G-8 conference began, Hezbollah, at the direction of Iranian government kidnapped the Israeli soldiers and set the present hostilities into motion, thus effectively distracting world attention from their nuclear ambitions.
What would possess George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and John Bolton to weaken their resolve, embolden their enemies and eviscerate their only democratic ally in the Middle East at the most critical moment in the conflict?
Midterm elections? Oil prices for votes? Moral confusion? World opinion? If the answer to any of these possibilities is "yes" then we have already lost the war on terrorism. It's only a question of time before freedom gives way to tyranny.
Be assured those who are devoted to the West's destruction are not moved by such petty concerns
What seems to have completely escaped the American press in their analysis of Ehud Olmert's acceptance of the UN cease-fire agreement is that without US willingness to continue to supply financial aid to Olmert's government they have no choice but to stop their pursuit of Hezbollah.
According to finance minister Avraham Hirchson, the war has cost Israel some $1.6 billion so far. He has indicated he will ask the government to cut $650 million from the 2006 state budget to help pay for the war.
With the US State Department's insistence that Israel honor a cease-fire agreement with the terrorist organization Hezbollah, Ehud Olmert understands clearly the implication. No cease-fire agreement, no more bullets.
Everyone seems to understand that the war that has filled the news reports is, in fact, a proxy war being waged between America and Iran. Iran is supplying Hezbollah through Syria. America is supplying Israel.
US aid to Israelfor the current fiscal year (FY ‘06) amounts to $2.28 billion in military and $240 million in economic grants, for a total of $2.52 billion. And this was before the war began.
With a third of the country unemployed as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks and Israel's major source of income, tourism, effectively shut down since the intifada began, Israel simply cannot prosecute the war without America's tangible financial support.
Some in the press has made it look as though Olmert's government is vacillating. They have written of Israel's lack of focus. They have spoken in terms of a muddied mission with no clear sign of goal.
What they fail to recognize is that Israel is focused like a laser, willing to take the battle in the Middle East to Tehran itself if called upon, willing to spill the blood of young Israeli soldiers in the battle against terrorism. Israel is not vacillating.
America is.
The cease-fire brokered by a corrupt United Nations and a liberal US State Department is one more action birthed out of the moral confusion which seems to have gripped the American people in regards to the war on terrorism.
If it is true, as virtually all now agree, that the war being waged in Lebanon is in fact the front in a war being fought between two contrasting civilizations with Iran playing the role of tyrant and America playing the role of Western democracy... A question is raised.
Who just backed down?
In case you missed it, it wasn't Iran, Syria, or Hezbollah.
Nor was it Israel, though many in the press seemed to believe such as the case.
It was America.
By withholding our support from Israel and demanding that they agree to a cease-fire (Which amounts to a victory for Hezbollah and the radical government of Iran) the United States of America just blinked first.
And don't think the terrorists missed it.
Not only did America blink first, they did so at the worst possible moment. August 16, 2006 was the planned day for the repeat of a terrorist attack worse than 9/11.
August 31, 2006 is the deadline the UN Security Council has given Iran to suspend uranium enrichment. The same day the G-8 conference began, Hezbollah, at the direction of Iranian government kidnapped the Israeli soldiers and set the present hostilities into motion, thus effectively distracting world attention from their nuclear ambitions.
What would possess George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and John Bolton to weaken their resolve, embolden their enemies and eviscerate their only democratic ally in the Middle East at the most critical moment in the conflict?
Midterm elections? Oil prices for votes? Moral confusion? World opinion? If the answer to any of these possibilities is "yes" then we have already lost the war on terrorism. It's only a question of time before freedom gives way to tyranny.
Be assured those who are devoted to the West's destruction are not moved by such petty concerns
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