Why has the Jewish community suddenly gone silent while America’s most sophisticated weapons are going to Mideast Arab nations?
In years past, U.S. Jewish groups protested loudly that introducing more arms into the region would only encourage aggression.
But now these Arab countries are suddenly our allies. Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, and other Arab countries have stood behind U.S. efforts to destabilize Iraq.
Defense Secretary William Cohen last week pledged to sell $3.2 billion worth of state-of-the-art fighter planes, tanks and Patriot missiles to Egypt, as well as sophisticated air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
The government argues that if the United States doesn’t supply these weapons, then the Russians, Chinese, French or British will.
Does that justify our government’s actions? The message seems to be that if we don’t help escalate the arms race, some other government will. We’ve been there, done that and suffered the consequences. Yet we seem doomed to repeat our mistakes.
Our government argues that Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel and deserves our cooperation. But as foreign policy analyst Mitchell Bard told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Who does Egypt need weapons to defend themselves against?”
As far as the other Arab beneficiaries are concerned, they’ve shown no love toward Israel. Supposedly, they need weapons to protect themselves from Iraq and Iran. But isn’t the U.S. presence in the gulf sufficient protection?
All of these Arab countries could as easily be taken over by the likes of Iranian religious fundamentalists or dictators such as Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. U.S. arms didn’t protect the Shah of Iran from being deposed, and they ultimately won’t protect any other Arab leader if the will of the country turns fundamentalist.
Before the Clinton administration can deliver these arms, Congress must approve. We still have time to let members of Congress know that we object.
The Mideast is already a tinder box. Let’s not add fuel to it.