It would be a good idea for journalists to be wary of any anti-Israel or left-leaning guests making claims about how much foreign aid the U.S. grants Israel each year, since on two occasions just Wednesday, CNN guests managed to pass off wildly overstated claims about how much the U.S. spends in supporting the Jewish state and only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
After recurring CNN guest Jason Johnson of The Root had already claimed on this morning's CNN Newsroom that the U.S. "gives the vast majority of its foreign aid to Israel," a few hours later on CNN's Wolf show, pro-Palestinian activist Diana Buttu claimed that Israel gets $38 billion a year. In reality, Israel receives about $3 billion a year out of a total of about $50 billion the U.S. allocates for foreign aid worldwide.
Her claim came as she tried to rationalize giving disproportionate attention to Israel's treatment of Arabs, even though Israel provides more basic human rights for Arab residents than do most of the authoritarian Arab countries in the region.
To his credit, substitute host Jake Tapper was trying to press his guest over the history of the Palestinians responding to Israeli concessions with more terrorism instead of overtures toward peace. At about 1:30 p.m. ET, Tapper posed:
The argument that people like (Israeli Education Minister) Naftali Bennett make is, "Look at what happened when we gave land to the Palestinians, we withdrew from Gaza, and they created a terrorist state with Hamas attacking Israel even after they had their own country." What's your response to that?
After Buttu complained about Israel's blockade against the Gaza Strip -- while ignoring that Egypt is also a participant in blockading Gaza -- Buttu vaguely claimed that President Barack Obama was giving Israel $38 billion, but it was not until moments later that she repeated the number and claimed that it was actually $38 billion in just one year.
Tapper brought up the issue of Arabs being mistreated in countries with Arab governments:
Why should Israel be held accountable for its treatment of the Palestinians as opposed to the way that so many Arab countries treat their citizens. I could point to any number of countries, and I'm sure you would likely agree, where they do not have rights. Why focus on Israel and not for instance the way that the Saudis treat their citizens or the Qataris or the UAE, etc.?
Buttu then made her ludicrous claim that Israel is given $38 billion in just one year:
Those are also problems. The difference is that that Israelis get $38 billion a year from the United States, first of all. And, secondly, the way that, the reason that Israeli continues to do this is because the world has turned a blind eye to it. I don't see that the world has turned a blind eye to all of these other human rights abuses.
