A solid majority of Americans would redirect $38 billion the Obama Administration pledged to Israel toward other priorities.
The Obama administration last week signed an executive agreement with Israel pledging $38 billion ($3.8 billion per year) in foreign aid for fiscal years 2019- 2028. The majority of the proposed spending is for Foreign Military Financing to provide Israel advanced and upgraded jet fighters, to continue developing Israel’s missile defense systems and to purchase other U.S. weapons. Although the White House has released a Memorandum of Understanding fact sheet, the actual MOU has not been made publicly available.
An IRmep poll fielded by Google Consumer Surveys reveals 80.8 percent of the US adult Internet user population says they would redirect the proposed spending toward other priorities. Caring for veterans (20.6 percent) was their top priority, followed by education spending (19.6 percent) and paying down the national debt (19.0 percent). Rebuilding US infrastructure was favored by 15.2 percent, while funding a Middle East peace plan received 5.5 percent of support.
Only 17.6 percent said the $38 billion of pledged foreign aid should be spent on Israel.
It could be spent caring for veterans | 20.6% | |
It could be spent on education | 19.6% | |
It could pay down the US national debt | 19.0% | |
It should be spent on Israel | 17.6% | |
It could be spent rebuilding infrastructure | 15.2% | |
It could fund a Mideast peace plan | 5.5% | |
Other | 2.5% |
Survey developed by: IRmep
Survey fielded by: Google Surveys 9/14/2016
Representative Sample size: 1,005 Statistically significant
Raw survey data from Google (Download)