Associated Press
via The Washington Post
7/27/2012
President Barack Obama said Friday he is releasing an additional $70 million in military aid for Israel, a previously announced move that appeared timed to upstage Republican rival Mitt Romney’s trip to Israel this weekend.
The stepped-up U.S. aid, first announced in May, will go to help Israel expand production of a short-range rocket defense system. The system, known as Iron Dome, has proved successful at stopping rocket attacks fired at Israeli civilians from close range, including from Gaza.
Obama announced the new military assistance as he signed a bill in the Oval Office expanding military and civilian cooperation with Israel.
As he sought to underscore his commitment to Israel, the president first said the increased aid totaled $70 million, then said the number was actually $70 billion, even though the smaller figure is correct.
Obama said the bill underscores the United States’ ”unshakable commitment to Israel.”…
The article continues at The Washington Post.
Related: Mandate for Palestine still matters 90 years later.
…the Mandate is the multilateral binding agreement which laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in the geographical area called Palestine, the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an entitlement unaltered in international law.
The Mandate was not a naive vision briefly embraced by the international community. The entire League of Nations – 51 countries – unanimously declared on that July 24th, 1922: “Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”
Washington went a step further: in September of that year, President Warren Harding signed the Lodge-Fish Joint Resolution, which had passed both Houses of Congress without dissent, which read, “Favors the establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people.”…
