Thursday, November 21, 2013

Time to Stop American Aid

By Moshe Feiglin




Transcript of Video
Honorable Chairman,
This week, we can add the Brill shoe factory and its workers to the list of damages from what is called American ‘aid’. Who, of all those who served in the army, doesn’t remember the mythological Brill shoes? As a member of the Economic Committee, I can say that prior to the Brill closure, there was the Ogen Plast factory, which created dry storage sheets for military vehicles. That factory also closed because of the so-called American aid.
The time has come, honorable Chairman, and we must initiate a serious discussion both in the Economic Committee and here in the plenum on the damages of the procedure called American aid: on the security damage and on Israel’s security and political independence as a result of the less than 4% of American aid. There is no reason to add more words; this issue is simple and clear. How many of us wouldn’t give up 4% aid in order to stop getting orders from his/her mother-in-law, for example?
I am talking about much more than that. I am talking about the ethical aspect of a country that is financially sound – one of the strongest in the Western world - continuing to receive aid from a country that, while it is much larger and stronger than us, is mired in economic distress much greater than what the State of Israel is experiencing. Taking this money is in and of itself a moral question. Ultimately, the US aid also wreaks financial damage and causes rapidly rising unemployment. 10 years have already gone by since the PM promised both houses of the Congress that Israel would stop taking US aid. Thank you. 

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