Three Billion for Israel—Anything for Cory?

Elegance, grace, and genuine high drama are rare in politics. Rarer still is political theater so gripping that people sense a great occasion actually unfolding. The incandescent Corazon Aquino, President of the Philippines, deeply thrilled us when she visited Washington recently, but the magical spell she cast was quickly broken by embarrassed squirming. All this over her request for $200 million in aid for the Philippines. Yes, said the House of Representatives, speaking with its heart. No, said Senate Majority leader Robert Dole. No money. Gramm-Rudman. Perhaps from Central America's portion? Perhaps from Israel's $3 billion in foreign aid? Silence. Embarrassment. Confusion.

Cory Aquino's visit was staged for drama. Staged from real life, with tyranny, corruption, and murder, much of it uncomfortably involving the United States. Her husband was murdered by a corrupt tyrant, Ferdinand Marcos, America's long-time friend. Who could have imagined the turbulent events to follow, culminating in the drama of the richest country in the world unable, for several days, to find a mere $200 million to help Cory build her economy and fight communist insurgents.

Israel, of course, didn't say, "Take the money from our $3 billion foreign aid award." Nor did any politician in Washington dare to suggest it. After all, Congressional elections are only a few weeks away. Yet the grotesque disproportion of giving everything to Israel, year after year, and nothing at all for the enormously deserving Corazon Aquino was obvious. Acutely embarrassing, in fact.

The American people don't like foreign aid, but they didn't like Senator Dole's "no" on help to Cory either. Hadn't she won her election despite Marcos' unfair tactics and in the face of great personal danger? Hasn't she worked to restore real democracy to the Philippines and to depose a corrupt dictator? Hadn't she at least tried political means to ease a communist insurgency that had only grown worse under military pressure? Hadn't her speech before a Joint Session of Congress brought tears to people's eyes? Was she not as strong as steel, but possessing the demeanor of a sweet and gentle nun? By God, she deserves help!

Bob Dole is a tough man. Was he touched by all this? Something finally moved him, but we will probably never know exactly what. Was it a timorously-worded Washington Post editorial of October 2 describing the current foreign aid bill as "bent out of shape" by the 40 percent proportion going to Israel and to Egypt for keeping the peace with Israel. Was it the editorial's reminder that if Dole was looking for funds to transfer, "The big money is in the Middle East." The dread word "Israel" was not mentioned in connection with raising money for the Philippines. Given the reticence with which American journalists treat the subject, however, the Post's advice, plain as day, was to get it from Israel.

Dole and the U.S. Senate finally came up with the extra $200 million for Cory Aquino. Had they not found the money somewhere else, the spotlight on Israel's $3 billion lion's share of the world-wide 1987 U.S. foreign aid program would have intensified. Did that move shrewd politician Robert Dole to act? Perhaps that motivated the Post too. It makes no difference. The Post, and anyone else involved, gets a pat on the back.

We're glad you got your money, Corazon Aquino. And, however unintentional it may have been, we thank you for highlighting, if only briefly, the bloated level of U.S. assistance to Israel, which, with one-tenth of one percent of the world's population, receives some 30 percent of U.S. world-wide assistance.

—By Andrew I. Killgore

Andrew I. Killgore, former US. Ambassador to Qatar, retired after 32 years in the Foreign Service. He is now a political and economic consultant in Washington, DC, and also President of the American Educational Trust.