Tuesday, April 28, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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The April 25 letter “Americans must be helped first” criticized President Donald Trump for sending $5 million to Palestinians to assist them during the coronavirus crisis instead of giving it to Americans.
Barring the obvious humanitarian reasons for why we should help people worse off than us, here are few more reasons why we should:
1) It’s democratic: According to a 2015 CNN Research poll, 81% of Americans believe giving foreign aid is more important than reducing the deficit;
2) It’s in the American tradition: Foreign aid measures are in line with past policy highlights, such as the Marshall Plan;
3) The global reputation of the United States increases with aid contributions;
4) It helps maintain peace and good relations globally, competing against China’s Belt and Road Initiative;
5) Foreign aid yields positive outcomes: In five years, Vitamin A initiatives halved the morality rates for child under 5 in Nepal;
6) It’s a safe way to push foreign policy. For example, it promoted the youth vote in Kyrgyzstan;
7) Less than 1% of our budget is spent on aid, 0.18% of our gross domestic product. This, comparatively, ranks the United States 22nd out of 28 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s 2018 list.
For the United States, $5 million is nothing. But to Palestinians, it’s everything. It is our moral civic duty to support these measures while also being in our best foreign policy interests.
