House votes to give twice as much money to Israeli military than UN Green Climate Fund

Speaking Security Newsletter | Advisory Note for Organizers and Candidates, n°99 | 29 July 2021

If you find these notes useful, you can support this newsletter here and SPRI, here. Sharing these newsletters also helps. Thank you!

Situation

Last night the House voted to give Israel $3.3 billion in unconditional military aid through the bill that funds the State Department and other international programs.

Aya Saed @saedaaya

After the atrocities we witnessed in East Jerusalem this summer, the House of Representatives just passed a foreign policy spending bill that gives $3.3 billion in unrestricted aid to Israel. So proud to work for one of three Democratic members who voted against it.

It only provides $1.6 billion to the UN Green Climate Fund, which supports climate adaptation/emissions mitigation in developing countries.

Evaluation

There’s nothing in US law that says the contribution to the Fund couldn’t have been higher. At the same time there are three US laws that say military aid to Israel should be zero based on the country’s human rights abuses (Foreign Assistance Act, Arms Export Control Act, Leahy Law).

Additionally, enacting billions in military aid to the apartheid state requires undermining international institutions (like the UN) and whatever international norms that they support. Climate aid, particularly funds delivered to the UN Green Climate Fund, do the opposite of undermining international institutions/initiatives.

Needless to say this disparity also doesn’t do much for US credibility. Another reason: Obama pledged $3 billion to the UN Green Climate Fund in 2015 (at the 2014 G20 Leaders Summit) but only gave $1 billion total by the time he left office. Trump didn’t provide any funding.

So with $2 billion left on the table, Biden requested $1.2 billion (short $800 million) in his budget request. Instead of the House closing that gap, it still shorted the previous agreement by $400 million. The IDF, meanwhile, gets fully funded (per Obama’s non-binding MOU with Israel in 2016).

Thanks for your time,

Stephen (@stephensemler; stephen@securityreform.org)

Find this note useful? Please consider becoming a supporter of SPRI. Unlike establishment think tanks, we rely exclusively on small donations.