Not when someone has a gigantic smoke machine. And that is exactly what J-Street builds.
From a J-Street mailing:
Let’s make sure US aid is being used for Israel’s defense, and not the demolition of Palestinian homesAs I have reported previously, there already is an audit process in place to see where every dollar of US aid is spent in Israel.
Join us in backing a new effort in Congress to ensure that US military assistance is being used in compliance with current US law, for Israel’s defense and not in connection with the displacement of Palestinians.
....[W]e’re strongly backing a new congressional letter, initiated by Reps. Ro Khanna, Anna Eshoo and Steve Cohen, pushing for greater accountability in ensuring that US aid to Israel is only being used for legitimate defense purposes -- and that equipment purchased with our tax-payer dollars is not being used to displace Palestinians.
Over a dozen members have already joined the Khanna-Eshoo-Cohen letter, expressing concern over the dramatic rise in demolitions this year.
The members ask -- pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act -- for the administration to report back to Congress on whether US-supplied equipment has been used for such demolitions and whether such use constitutes a breach of any existing restrictions.
Does J-Street have any evidence that Israel is somehow bypassing the existing controls and spending US money on other things? If you read the many reports from the Congressional Research Service about aid to Israel, there doesn't seem to be any. US aid is earmarked for specific, targeted programs from the F-35 fighter to anti-rocket defense systems.
In other words, the US government is clearly not giving Israel bulldozers., nor is it handing Israel any checks it can spend on bulldozers.
If there is zero evidence of misuse of funds, and an existing audit mechanism to ensure that there is no misuse of funds, why ask for an investigation into misuse of funds?
There is no fire, and there is no smoke, except from J-Street's massive smoke machine meant to obscure rather than reveal the truth.
And speaking of transparency - this new congressional letter J-Street refers to is not public. They are asking us to tell out members of Congress to sign a letter we are not privy to see ourselves!
You know who did see the letter? Al Monitor! For some reason, Arab news outlets have more visibility into a Congressional letter than US citizens.
And J-Street - supposedly agitating for more transparency in aid to Israel - is cool with telling people to support a letter sight unseen, except for Arab media.