Since Israel’s inception and after its government’s sinister role in displacing and expelling tens of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 from their homeland in what is called the Nakba (catastrophe), the United States has militarily bankrolled and supported the occupier state.
Any critique or condemnation of the abuse, ethnic cleansing or killing of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank or other areas was and is quickly met with the familiar and typical charges or accusations of being “anti-Semitic.”
Any mere mention of pulling back or withholding of any portion of the billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars sent each year to Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians was and is met with criticism.
Even having the nerve to express any sort of sympathy toward the suffering of the Palestinian people and their right to exist in their homeland was and is immediately met with scorn or is dismissed.
Every year, whether under the administration of a Democrat or Republican U.S. president, and regardless of which party holds the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives or Senate, one thing was and is constant—America’s checkbook for Israel remains open.
Israel is also the leading buyer of U.S. weapons. Since 1948, the U.S. has provided over $300 billion in total assistance to Israel. Constantly providing aid and resources to Israel was the one issue that seemed to always garner bipartisan support and agreement on “both sides of the aisle.”
There were very few outspoken voices of dissent among U.S. politicians. Those who dared to speak out, like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Muslim and Black woman of Somali descent, were immediately attacked, many times by their own party.
However, a shift is seemingly happening.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has warned America about how the rest of the world is viewing Israel and its actions in the Middle East. During an April 9, 2009, interview on WVON 1690 AM—The Talk of Chicago, with host Cliff Kelley, Minister Farrakhan provided divine insight then.
That is applicable today amid the renewed genocide by Israel of the Palestinians that has been ongoing since October 7, 2023. More than 73,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since then.
“America and Israel are supposedly ‘friends,’ but America has refused to say something to her friend. Israel, right now, is seen in the world as a ‘pariah state’; and America has lost influence in the world simply because she has looked the other way when the Israeli Defense Force has committed massacres against the Palestinian people. What happened in Lebanon and Gaza has damaged the image of Israel throughout the world,” the Minister said.
“America has leverage with Israel that she is afraid to use. And this goes to the strength of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), which is comprised of powerful men and women of influence. … Why don’t the members of Congress speak when they know that the things that Israel is doing will hurt them, and hurt America as well?
It is because they are afraid that if they go against what is seemed to be beneficial to Israel, they will lose their position? That means that these people are no longer the representatives of the American people. They are the representatives of the money interests that they fear; that control them,” Minister Farrakhan pointed out.
A recent vote in Congress could signal a change or shift on the horizon. More than half of the Democratic Caucus voted recently in Congress on an amendment introduced by GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky that would have cut nearly $3.3 billion in funds for Israel currently allocated in the 2027 defense funding package.
Although the amendment was defeated in a vote of 314-104, it could be a sign that public sentiment toward Israel and its crimes against humanity is getting the attention of politicians who have been elected to represent and serve the will of their constituents. In the vote, 103 Democrats voted to cut aid.
“While the amendment did not pass, it put lawmakers on record on the issue after Israel joined the Trump administration in beginning a war with Iran and as its unpopular war in Gaza approaches the three-year mark in October.
At least two dozen people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the last two days, The Associated Press reported, despite a ceasefire,” according to NBCNews.com after the July 15 vote.
The outlet also noted that according to a Gallup tracking poll from earlier this year, “U.S. public opinion on the long-standing Middle East conflict is shifting.” The poll indicated that “Americans said for the first time that they were more sympathetic to Palestinians (41%) than Israelis (36%).”
While some are optimistic about the number of Congresspersons who voted to stop aid to Israel, the fact is, it still passed, and each passing day, Palestinians are continuing to be slaughtered and the poor in America, whose social safety net programs have been cut, are continuing to see their tax dollars flow out of the country to the Occupier State.
Whether members of Congress will continue pushing to vote to cut the purse strings to Israel remains to be seen. And others are not so sure those voting to cut the aid is because they have true sympathy for the suffering Palestinians and are raising questions about what could be their ultimate motives.
Dr. Stacey Patton, a college professor and author pointed out that after what she called, “decades of treating Israel like and untouchable sacred cow,” she hoped that despite the recent vote, that people “don’t think that these Dems should be getting courage medals.” She said that this is because tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.
The outspoken award-winning journalist posted on her Facebook page, “Israel is continuing the killing. Families have been starved, displaced, mutilated, and erased while Democrats kept on voting for the weapons, repeating the talking points, and hiding behind ‘Israel has a right to defend itself.’”
She continued, “They did not lead or act before the horror became politically inconvenient. They waited until the bodies piled so high that supporting the slaughter started costing them votes.”
She attributed the vote by some to the unexpected rise of New York’s mayor, who is young, Muslim and outspoken on Israel and Palestine.
“I also think they’re stunned by Zohran Mamdani. They watched Mamdani openly confront Israel, reject AIPAC’s politics, call the slaughter in Gaza what it is, and still win. Then they watched candidates he backed defeat establishment Democrats tied to the old pro-Israel consensus,” Dr. Patton continued.
“Mamdani is helping set a new trajectory inside the Democratic Party, and Palestine is central to it. These Democrats can see that the electorate, especially younger voters, is moving in a different direction.
They understand that unconditional support for Israel may now cost them their seats. So this ain’t some moral awakening. What they’re doing is political self-preservation.”
While it may be too early to tell if this shift continues to the point of the U.S. cutting or stopping aid to Israel to continue is reign of terror and genocide, it is clear that many in America and the world are paying attention.