[Tristan Lall]

For what it's worth, I certainly don't mind it when these threads show up in the Chit-Chat forum. If there's a place for open discussion of non-robotic things on ChiefDelphi, this is it. So in principle, it suits me just fine that Matt posted this.

However, after having read the article, I don't think that it's at all fair to say that it "is completely true AND doesn't have anything to do with politics".

By the very nature of the American government, anything that has to do with the cost to the taxpayer is inextricably linked to politics. And similarly, foreign policy is determined in large part by politicians who don't always apply academic rigour and detachedness to their decisions. In short, it has a great deal to do with politics.

But that's not a problem in and of itself—discussion of politics is a healthy thing. And I also have to object to the criticism levelled at Matt that the Israeli members of the forum might be offended. I should hope that they would take criticism of their government at face value, rather than choosing to believe that those statements were intended as personal insults, or insults directed at their heritage or culture. We should be comfortable criticizing any government, when injustice is perceived, and we should be using facts and logic to do it.

Now, the big question: truth. I've got to say that while I'm not opposed to the conclusions reached in the article, I don't think that it's necessarily a credible source upon which to base that assessment. Indeed, the facts and figures are accompanied with a substantial dose of editorializing. It's the kind of writing that I'd expect from a poster on an internet forum, rather than something with an academic, neutral tone. It would help if they provided some more substantial references for their claims, since some of them seem to constitute rather pointed accusations.

In essence, to unreservedly call this the truth is a gross overstatement. But I think that there is the potential for significant truth behind the unfortunate veneer of political invective that permeates the article. I, for one, agree that the U.S. does provide a disproportionate amount of funding for Israeli interests—but I'm not convinced that the motivation is as simplistic as as outlined in the article. Implying that the source of most of the American policy is the covert action of lobbying groups (and specifically the AIPAC, which the Washington Report pointedly opposes) ascribes malice when the genuinely held beliefs of numerous politicians may principally be to blame. If they believe that they're doing the right thing, the lobbying is merely reinforcement of that belief, rather than the source of it. And the related discussion of what constitutes the "right thing" is both substantial and complex—this by no means the domain of absolute truth.

Lastly, just as a point of order, it would be helpful to simply link to the source, and comment on quotations derived from it.