Scott Powers
The 3200 block of University Boulevard in east Orange County has become a battleground over U.S. support for Israel, fought with billboards.
This week a pro-Israel group called StandWithUs erected a billboard declaring, “The U.S.-Israel Relationship Creates Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs In America,” countering a billboard that went up in December, a half-block farther west, that denounces U.S. support for Israel. Both are located just east of Winter Park, across the street from Full Sail University, and just down the road from the University of Central Florida.
The first billboard was put up by a group opposing U.S.-Israel relations, IfAmericansKnew. It reads, “$10 MILLION A DAY TO ISRAEL? Our money is needed in America!”
StandWithUs has been putting up counter billboards to those from IfAmericansKnew and other groups opposing Israel for several years, though this is the first in Florida.
“Anti-Israel groups continue to misinform the public in an attempt to erode American support for Israel. Their ads hope that well-meaning viewers will conclude that the cessation of US support of Israel will result in peace,” Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, stated in a news release. “They fail to inform viewers that the funds are earmarked primarily for defense with contracts to US manufacturers thereby creating jobs in America. They fail to mention that Israel must defend itself militarily against Palestinian leaderships such as Hamas sworn to Israel’s destruction. As with all the anti-Israel campaigns we’ve encountered, context and facts are always left out.”
