Brian Babin on Foreign Policy

Foreign aid should reflect US interests

A: No.

Q: Should the US have diplomatic relations with Vietnam?

A: No.

Q: Should the US recognize and extend full diplomatic relations to Taiwan?

A: Yes.

Q: Should the US continue funding for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty?

A: No.

Q: Radio Marti & TV Marti?

A: Yes.

Q: Radio Free Asia?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support the deployment of US troops to the former Yugoslavia?

A: No.

Babin indicated the following positions regarding US economic aid to foreign countries.
• Foreign aid should only be given when extraordinary circumstances and disaster threaten the lives of civilian populations.
• Foreign aid should be given to countries only when it is in the security interests of the US.
• Foreign aid should be eliminated from any nation with documented human rights abuses.
• The US should participate in UN peacekeeping missions only when vital US interests are directly threatened.

Move US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem; recognize as cap.

Congressional Summary: States that it is US policy to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel, and that the US Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem by 2017.

Supporters reasons for voting YEA: (Times of Israel ): Congressional legislation would force the Obama administration to change longstanding US policy and move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The bill challenges presidential authority on a key foreign policy question. The bill strikes the language in the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that gave the president waiver authority to delay the move. Every president since Bill Clinton has signed a presidential waiver every six months in order to keep the embassy in Tel Aviv, citing concerns that a move to Jerusalem would upset the prospects for a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1980, but the US, like all other countries, maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv.

Opponents reasons for voting NAY: (The Morning Call, April 16, 1984) The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) have begun a "multifaceted protest" opposing moving the US. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Israel annexed East Jerusalem from Jordan after capturing it in the 1967 war but assured free access to religious shrines. The nations of the Arab League argue that the Israelis are in Jerusalem as an "army of occupation" and they have never recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. One compromise would be the placement of the American Consulate in Jerusalem with the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv. Secretary of State George P. Shultz cautioned that a relocation "would fan Islamic extremism, possibly inciting a wave of violence against our citizens, diplomats and installations in the region."