How much money did Israel's lobbyists pay our government?

Question

to turn a blind eye to their obvious human rights violations this time?

Answer 1

Ohh no, you have it backward. We paid them to kick Hezbollah's butt.

Answer 2

Let's say, for sake of argument, that they payed 50% of the entire US national budget. What has the US Congress done in return?

Not sent US troops into a third war/conflict in the Middle East? As if Iraq and Afghanistan leaves us plenty of troops to send into yet another conflict.

Sold arms to Israel? As we have since it was founded, and as we do to every other ally, including ones who have been engaged in equally horrible wars.

You say "turn a blind eye to their obvious human rights violations". What authority does the US have to do anything about what another sovereign nation is doing? The US can't charge Israel with violation of US law. They're a different country. And we can't really afford the troops to invade Israel the way we invaded Iraq. And even if we had the troops, do you really think we should side with Hamas and Hezbollah, acknowledged terrorist organizations, against a democratic ally?

Let's ignore the utter lack of legal authority for the US to do anything. Where does the US get the moral authority? We capture people and hold them in detention camps, in violation of our own Constitution. We invade Iraq and topple its government, because we think they should have a different form of government. And while there, we kill tens upon tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians -- several orders of magnitude more than Israel has killed. And that's ignoring that unlike the US in Iraq, Israel didn't start its war.

Why does it matter how much money lobbyists might have contributed to Congress? There's nothing that Congress has the legal (or moral) authority to do about the situation except for declaring war against Israel. Or refusing to sell them arms, in which case they'll just buy weapons from someone else.

What could Congress have done? And what could it have done that wouldn't have ended up helping Hamas and Hezbollah in their goal to destroy Israel. Either Congress supports Israel, or they support the terrorists trying to wipe Israel off the face of the map.

Why does it matter whether Israeli lobbyists gave Congress any money at all? What else could Congress have done without being utterly hypocritical? So Congress has passed a few non-binding resolutions. That's the equivalent of cocktail party chatter and utterly meaningless.

It's a simple choice. Either stand back and do nothing (pretty much what we've done so far), or actively support Israel (which you seem to oppose), or actively support the terrorists by harming Israel. So, what do you think we should be doing?

Answer 3

Holly,

Israel doesn't pay cash to anybody.
They own everybody in the US of A.
We, as taxpayers, foot the bill.
So, Israel is making decisions on our
behalf, and has been doing so for years
and years. This time around, they've
gone too far, and there are too many
witnesses that have seen what they
truly do. What will the outcome be?
Israel will continue to do whatever
pleases them to do, and our government
will always kow-tow, and hush-hush it all.
Sad but true.

Answer 4

Grow up.

Hezbollah has been amasing missiles for years.
Hezbollah has been murdering people at the border for years.
Lebanon did nothing to stop them.
What choice did Israel have?

Answer 5

Not enough because you found out the truth.

Answer 6

if you mean protecting themselves against terrorist? nothing. if you mean anything else Our realities are very different