← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Zoroaster
Thread ID: 3467 | Posts: 83 | Started: 2002-11-10
2002-11-10 15:24 | User Profile
[url=http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm]http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm[/url]
11/10/2002
U.S Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact
Summary Benefits to Israel of U.S. Aid Since 1949 (As of November 1, 1997)
Foreign Aid Grants and Loans $74,157,600,000
Other U.S. Aid (12.2% of Foreign Aid) $9,047,227,200
Interest to Israel from Advanced Payments $1,650,000,000
Grand Total $84,854,827,200
Total Benefits per Israeli $14,630 Cost to U.S. Taxpayers of U.S. Aid to Israel
Grand Total $84,854,827,200
Interest Costs Borne by U.S. $49,936,680,000
Total Cost to U.S. Taxpayers $134,791,507,200
Total Cost per Israeli $23,240
Special Reports:
U.S. Aid To Israel: The Strategic Functions U.S. Aid to Israel: What U.S. Taxpayer Should Know U.S. Aid to Israel: Interpreting the 'Strategic Relationship' The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers: True Lies About U.S. Aid to Israel
THE STRATEGIC FUNCTIONS OF U.S. AID TO ISRAEL By Stephen Zunes
Dr. Zunes is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco
Since 1992, the U.S. has offered Israel an additional $2 billion annually in loan guarantees. Congressional researchers have disclosed that between 1974 and 1989, $16.4 billion in U.S. military loans were converted to grants and that this was the understanding from the beginning. Indeed, all past U.S. loans to Israel have eventually been forgiven by Congress, which has undoubtedly helped Israel's often-touted claim that they have never defaulted on a U.S. government loan. U.S. policy since 1984 has been that economic assistance to Israel must equal or exceed Israel's annual debt repayment to the United States. Unlike other countries, which receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982 has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the U.S. government to borrow from future revenues. Israel even lends some of this money back through U.S. treasury bills and collects the additional interest.
In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private U.S. funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country. Nor do these figures include short- and long-term commercial loans from U.S. banks, which have been as high as $1 billion annually in recent years.
Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign- aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.
U.S. Aid to Israel: What U.S. Taxpayer Should Know
by Tom Malthaner
This morning as I was walking down Shuhada Street in Hebron, I saw graffiti marking the newly painted storefronts and awnings. Although three months past schedule and 100 percent over budget, the renovation of Shuhada Street was finally completed this week. The project manager said the reason for the delay and cost overruns was the sabotage of the project by the Israeli settlers of the Beit Hadassah settlement complex in Hebron. They broke the street lights, stoned project workers, shot out the windows of bulldozers and other heavy equipment with pellet guns, broke paving stones before they were laid and now have defaced again the homes and shops of Palestinians with graffiti. The settlers did not want Shuhada St. opened to Palestinian traffic as was agreed to under Oslo 2. This renovation project is paid for by USAID funds and it makes me angry that my tax dollars have paid for improvements that have been destroyed by the settlers.
Most Americans are not aware how much of their tax revenue our government sends to Israel. For the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the U.S. has given Israel $6.72 billion: $6.194 billion falls under Israel's foreign aid allotment and $526 million comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Information Agency and the Pentagon. The $6.72 billion figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totalling $3.122 billion the U.S. pays on money borrowed to give to Israel. It does not include the cost to U.S. taxpayers of IRS tax exemptions that donors can claim when they donate money to Israeli charities. (Donors claim approximately $1 billion in Federal tax deductions annually. This ultimately costs other U.S. tax payers $280 million to $390 million.)
When grant, loans, interest and tax deductions are added together for the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, our special relationship with Israel cost U.S. taxpayers over $10 billion.
Since 1949 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $83.205 billion. The interest costs borne by U.S. tax payers on behalf of Israel are $49.937 billion, thus making the total amount of aid given to Israel since 1949 $133.132 billion. This may mean that U.S. government has given more federal aid to the average Israeli citizen in a given year than it has given to the average American citizen.
"U.S. Aid to Israel: Interpreting the 'Strategic Relationship"' by Stephen Zunes
"The U.S. aid relationship with Israel is unlike any other in the world," said Stephen Zunes during a January 26 CPAP presentation. "In sheer volume, the amount is the most generous foreign aid program ever between any two countries," added Zunes, associate professor of Politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.
He explored the strategic reasoning behind the aid, asserting that it parallels the "needs of American arms exporters" and the role "Israel could play in advancing U.S. strategic interests in the region."
Although Israel is an "advanced, industrialized, technologically sophisticated country," it "receives more U.S. aid per capita annually than the total annual [Gross Domestic Product] per capita of several Arab states." Approximately a third of the entire U.S. foreign aid budget goes to Israel, "even though Israel comprises just . . . one-thousandth of the world's total population, and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes."
U.S. government officials argue that this money is necessary for "moral" reasons-some even say that Israel is a "democracy battling for its very survival." If that were the real reason, however, aid should have been highest during Israel's early years, and would have declined as Israel grew stronger. Yet "the pattern . . . has been just the opposite." According to Zunes, "99 percent of all U.S. aid to Israel took place after the June 1967 war, when Israel found itself more powerful than any combination of Arab armies . . ."
The U.S. supports Israel's dominance so it can serve as "a surrogate for American interests in this vital strategic region." "Israel has helped defeat radical nationalist movements" and has been a "testing ground for U.S. made weaponry." Moreover, the intelligence agencies of both countries have "collaborated," and "Israel has funneled U.S. arms to third countries that the U.S. [could] not send arms to directly, . . . Iike South Africa, like the Contras, Guatemala under the military junta, [and] Iran." Zunes cited an Israeli analyst who said: "'It's like Israel has just become another federal agency when it's convenient to use and you want something done quietly."' Although the strategic relationship between the United States and the Gulf Arab states in the region has been strengthening in recent years, these states "do not have the political stability, the technological sophistication, [or] the number of higher-trained armed forces personnel" as does Israel.
Matti Peled, former Israeli major general and Knesset member, told Zunes that he and most Israeli generals believe this aid is "little more than an American subsidy to U.S. arms manufacturers," considering that the majority of military aid to Israel is used to buy weapons from the U.S. Moreover, arms to Israel create more demand for weaponry in Arab states. According to Zunes, "the Israelis announced back in 1991 that they supported the idea of a freeze in Middle East arms transfers, yet it was the United States that rejected it."
In the fall of 1993-when many had high hopes for peace-78 senators wrote to former President Bill Clinton insisting that aid to Israel remain "at current levels." Their "only reason" was the "massive procurement of sophisticated arms by Arab states." The letter neglected to mention that 80 percent of those arms to Arab countries came from the U.S. "I'm not denying for a moment the power of AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee], the pro-Israel lobby," and other similar groups, Zunes said. Yet the "Aerospace Industry Association which promotes these massive arms shipments . . . is even more influential." This association has given two times more money to campaigns than all of the pro-Israel groups combined. Its "force on Capitol Hill, in terms of lobbying, surpasses that of even AIPAC." Zunes asserted that the "general thrust of U.S. policy would be pretty much the same even if AIPAC didn't exist. We didn't need a pro-Indonesia lobby to support Indonesia in its savage repression of East Timor all these years." This is a complex issue, and Zunes said that he did not want to be "conspiratorial," but he asked the audience to imagine what "Palestinian industriousness, Israeli technology, and Arabian oil money . . . would do to transform the Middle East. . . . [W]hat would that mean to American arms manufacturers? Oil companies? Pentagon planners?"
"An increasing number of Israelis are pointing out" that these funds are not in Israel's best interest. Quoting Peled, Zunes said, "this aid pushes Israel 'toward a posture of callous intransigence' in terms of the peace process." Moreover, for every dollar the U.S. sends in arms aid, Israel must spend two to three dollars to train people to use the weaponry, to buy parts, and in other ways make use of the aid. Even "main-stream Israeli economists are saying [it] is very harmful to the country's future."
The Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot described Israel as "'the godfather's messenger' since [Israel] undertake[s] the 'dirty work' of a godfather who 'always tries to appear to be the owner of some large, respectable business."' Israeli satirist B. Michael refers to U.S. aid this way: "'My master gives me food to eat and I bite those whom he tells me to bite. It's called strategic cooperation." 'To challenge this strategic relationship, one cannot focus solely on the Israeli lobby but must also examine these "broader forces as well." "Until we tackle this issue head-on," it will be "very difficult to win" in other areas relating to Palestine.
"The results" of the short-term thinking behind U.S. policy "are tragic," not just for the "immediate victims" but "eventually [for] Israel itself" and "American interests in the region." The U.S. is sending enormous amounts of aid to the Middle East, and yet "we are less secure than ever"-both in terms of U.S. interests abroad and for individual Americans. Zunes referred to a "growing and increasing hostility [of] the average Arab toward the United States." In the long term, said Zunes, "peace and stability and cooperation with the vast Arab world is far more important for U.S. interests than this alliance with Israel."
This is not only an issue for those who are working for Palestinian rights, but it also "jeopardizes the entire agenda of those of us concerned about human rights, concerned about arms control, concerned about international law." Zunes sees significant potential in "building a broad-based movement around it."
The above text is based on remarks, delivered on. 26 January, 2001 by Stephen . Zunes - Associate Professor of Politics and Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at San Francisco University
The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers: True Lies About U.S. Aid to Israel
By Richard H. Curtiss
For many years the American media said that "Israel receives $1.8 billion in military aid" or that "Israel receives $1.2 billion in economic aid." Both statements were true, but since they were never combined to give us the complete total of annual U.S. aid to Israel, they also were lies--true lies.
Recently Americans have begun to read and hear that "Israel receives $3 billion in annual U.S. foreign aid." That's true. But it's still a lie. The problem is that in fiscal 1997 alone, Israel received from a variety of other U.S. federal budgets at least $525.8 million above and beyond its $3 billion from the foreign aid budget, and yet another $2 billion in federal loan guarantees. So the complete total of U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel for fiscal 1997 was $5,525,800,000.
One can truthfully blame the mainstream media for never digging out these figures for themselves, because none ever have. They were compiled by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. But the mainstream media certainly are not alone. Although Congress authorizes America's foreign aid total, the fact that more than a third of it goes to a country smaller in both area and population than Hong Kong probably never has been mentioned on the floor of the Senate or House. Yet it's been going on for more than a generation.
Probably the only members of Congress who even suspect the full total of U.S. funds received by Israel each year are the privileged few committee members who actually mark it up. And almost all members of the concerned committees are Jewish, have taken huge campaign donations orchestrated by Israel's Washington, DC lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or both. These congressional committee members are paid to act, not talk. So they do and they don't.
The same applies to the president, the secretary of state, and the foreign aid administrator. They all submit a budget that includes aid for Israel, which Congress approves, or increases, but never cuts. But no one in the executive branch mentions that of the few remaining U.S. aid recipients worldwide, all of the others are developing nations which either make their military bases available to the U.S., are key members of international alliances in which the U.S. participates, or have suffered some crippling blow of nature to their abilities to feed their people such as earthquakes, floods or droughts.
Israel, whose troubles arise solely from its unwillingness to give back land it seized in the 1967 war in return for peace with its neighbors, does not fit those criteria. In fact, Israel's 1995 per capita gross domestic product was $15,800. That put it below Britain at $19,500 and Italy at $18,700 and just above Ireland at $15,400 and Spain at $14,300.
All four of those European countries have contributed a very large share of immigrants to the U.S., yet none has organized an ethnic group to lobby for U.S. foreign aid. Instead, all four send funds and volunteers to do economic development and emergency relief work in other less fortunate parts of the world.
The lobby that Israel and its supporters have built in the United States to make all this aid happen, and to ban discussion of it from the national dialogue, goes far beyond AIPAC, with its $15 million budget, its 150 employees, and its five or six registered lobbyists who manage to visit every member of Congress individually once or twice a year.
AIPAC, in turn, can draw upon the resources of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, a roof group set up solely to coordinate the efforts of some 52 national Jewish organizations on behalf of Israel.
Among them are Hadassah, the Zionist women's organization, which organizes a steady stream of American Jewish visitors to Israel; the American Jewish Congress, which mobilizes support for Israel among members of the traditionally left-of-center Jewish mainstream; and the American Jewish Committee, which plays the same role within the growing middle-of-the-road and right-of-center Jewish community. The American Jewish Committee also publishes Commentary,one of the Israel lobby's principal national publications.
Perhaps the most controversial of these groups is B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League. Its original highly commendable purpose was to protect the civil rights of American Jews. Over the past generation, however, the ADL has regressed into a conspiratorial and, with a $45 million budget, extremely well-funded hate group.
In the 1980s, during the tenure of chairman Seymour Reich, who went on to become chairman of the Conference of Presidents, ADL was found to have circulated two annual fund-raising letters warning Jewish parents against allegedly negative influences on their children arising from the increasing Arab presence on American university campuses.
More recently, FBI raids on ADL's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices revealed that an ADL operative had purchased files stolen from the San Francisco police department that a court had ordered destroyed because they violated the civil rights of the individuals on whom they had been compiled. ADL, it was shown, had added the illegally prepared and illegally obtained material to its own secret files, compiled by planting informants among Arab-American, African-American, anti-Apartheid and peace and justice groups.
The ADL infiltrators took notes of the names and remarks of speakers and members of audiences at programs organized by such groups. ADL agents even recorded the license plates of persons attending such programs and then suborned corrupt motor vehicles department employees or renegade police officers to identify the owners.
Although one of the principal offenders fled the United States to escape prosecution, no significant penalties were assessed. ADL's Northern California office was ordered to comply with requests by persons upon whom dossiers had been prepared to see their own files, but no one went to jail and as yet no one has paid fines.
Not surprisingly, a defecting employee revealed in an article he published in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs that AIPAC, too, has such "enemies" files. They are compiled for use by pro-Israel journalists like Steven Emerson and other so-called "terrorism experts," and also by professional, academic or journalistic rivals of the persons described for use in black-listing, defaming, or denouncing them. What is never revealed is that AIPAC's "opposition research" department, under the supervision of Michael Lewis, son of famed Princeton University Orientalist Bernard Lewis, is the source of this defamatory material.
But this is not AIPAC's most controversial activity. In the 1970s, when Congress put a cap on the amount its members could earn from speakers' fees and book royalties over and above their salaries, it halted AIPAC's most effective ways of paying off members for voting according to AIPAC recommendations. Members of AIPAC's national board of directors solved the problem by returning to their home states and creating political action committees (PACs).
Most special interests have PACs, as do many major corporations, labor unions, trade associations and public-interest groups. But the pro-Israel groups went wild. To date some 126 pro-Israel PACs have been registered, and no fewer than 50 have been active in every national election over the past generation.
An individual voter can give up to $2,000 to a candidate in an election cycle, and a PAC can give a candidate up to $10,000. However, a single special interest with 50 PACs can give a candidate who is facing a tough opponent, and who has voted according to its recommendations, up to half a million dollars. That's enough to buy all the television time needed to get elected in most parts of the country.
Even candidates who don't need this kind of money certainly don't want it to become available to a rival from their own party in a primary election, or to an opponent from the opposing party in a general election. As a result, all but a handful of the 535 members of the Senate and House vote as AIPAC instructs when it comes to aid to Israel, or other aspects of U.S. Middle East policy.
There is something else very special about AIPAC's network of political action committees. Nearly all have deceptive names. Who could possibly know that the Delaware Valley Good Government Association in Philadelphia, San Franciscans for Good Government in California, Cactus PAC in Arizona, Beaver PAC in Wisconsin, and even Icepac in New York are really pro-Israel PACs under deep cover?
Hiding AIPAC's Tracks
In fact, the congressmembers know it when they list the contributions they receive on the campaign statements they have to prepare for the Federal Election Commission. But their constituents don't know this when they read these statements. So just as no other special interest can put so much "hard money" into any candidate's election campaign as can the Israel lobby, no other special interest has gone to such elaborate lengths to hide its tracks.
Although AIPAC, Washington's most feared special-interest lobby, can hide how it uses both carrots and sticks to bribe or intimidate members of Congress, it can't hide all of the results.
Anyone can ask one of their representatives in Congress for a chart prepared by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress, that shows Israel received $62.5 billion in foreign aid from fiscal year 1949 through fiscal year 1996. People in the national capital area also can visit the library of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Rosslyn, Virginia, and obtain the same information, plus charts showing how much foreign aid the U.S. has given other countries as well.
Visitors will learn that in precisely the same 1949-1996 time frame, the total of U.S. foreign aid to all of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined was $62,497,800,000--almost exactly the amount given to tiny Israel.
According to the Population Reference Bureau of Washington, DC, in mid-1995 the sub-Saharan countries had a combined population of 568 million. The $24,415,700,000 in foreign aid they had received by then amounted to $42.99 per sub-Saharan African.
Similarly, with a combined population of 486 million, all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean together had received $38,254,400,000. This amounted to $79 per person.
The per capita U.S. foreign aid to Israel's 5.8 million people during the same period was $10,775.48. This meant that for every dollar the U.S. spent on an African, it spent $250.65 on an Israeli, and for every dollar it spent on someone from the Western Hemisphere outside the United States, it spent $214 on an Israeli.
Shocking Comparisons
These comparisons already seem shocking, but they are far from the whole truth. Using reports compiled by Clyde Mark of the Congressional Research Service and other sources, freelance writer Frank Collins tallied for theWashington Report all of the extra items for Israel buried in the budgets of the Pentagon and other federal agencies in fiscal year 1993.Washington Report news editor Shawn Twing did the same thing for fiscal years 1996 and 1997.
They uncovered $1.271 billion in extras in FY 1993, $355.3 million in FY 1996 and $525.8 million in FY 1997. These represent an average increase of 12.2 percent over the officially recorded foreign aid totals for the same fiscal years, and they probably are not complete. It's reasonable to assume, therefore, that a similar 12.2 percent hidden increase has prevailed over all of the years Israel has received aid.
As of Oct. 31, 1997 Israel will have received $3.05 billion in U.S. foreign aid for fiscal year 1997 and $3.08 billion in foreign aid for fiscal year 1998. Adding the 1997 and 1998 totals to those of previous years since 1949 yields a total of $74,157,600,000 in foreign aid grants and loans. Assuming that the actual totals from other budgets average 12.2 percent of that amount, that brings the grand total to $83,204,827,200.
But that's not quite all. Receiving its annual foreign aid appropriation during the first month of the fiscal year, instead of in quarterly installments as do other recipients, is just another special privilege Congress has voted for Israel. It enables Israel to invest the money in U.S. Treasury notes. That means that the U.S., which has to borrow the money it gives to Israel, pays interest on the money it has granted to Israel in advance, while at the same time Israel is collecting interest on the money. That interest to Israel from advance payments adds another $1.650 billion to the total, making it $84,854,827,200.That's the number you should write down for total aid to Israel. And that's $14,346 each for each man, woman and child in Israel.
It's worth noting that that figure does not include U.S. government loan guarantees to Israel, of which Israel has drawn $9.8 billion to date. They greatly reduce the interest rate the Israeli government pays on commercial loans, and they place additional burdens on U.S. taxpayers, especially if the Israeli government should default on any of them. But since neither the savings to Israel nor the costs to U.S. taxpayers can be accurately quantified, they are excluded from consideration here.
Further, friends of Israel never tire of saying that Israel has never defaulted on repayment of a U.S. government loan. It would be equally accurate to say Israel has never been required to repay a U.S. government loan. The truth of the matter is complex, and designed to be so by those who seek to conceal it from the U.S. taxpayer.
Most U.S. loans to Israel are forgiven, and many were made with the explicit understanding that they would be forgiven before Israel was required to repay them. By disguising as loans what in fact were grants, cooperating members of Congress exempted Israel from the U.S. oversight that would have accompanied grants. On other loans, Israel was expected to pay the interest and eventually to begin repaying the principal. But the so-called Cranston Amendment, which has been attached by Congress to every foreign aid appropriation since 1983, provides that economic aid to Israel will never dip below the amount Israel is required to pay on its outstanding loans. In short, whether U.S. aid is extended as grants or loans to Israel, it never returns to the Treasury.
Israel enjoys other privileges. While most countries receiving U.S. military aid funds are expected to use them for U.S. arms, ammunition and training, Israel can spend part of these funds on weapons made by Israeli manufacturers. Also, when it spends its U.S. military aid money on U.S. products, Israel frequently requires the U.S. vendor to buy components or materials from Israeli manufacturers. Thus, though Israeli politicians say that their own manufacturers and exporters are making them progressively less dependent upon U.S. aid, in fact those Israeli manufacturers and exporters are heavily subsidized by U.S. aid.
Although it's beyond the parameters of this study, it's worth mentioning that Israel also receives foreign aid from some other countries. After the United States, the principal donor of both economic and military aid to Israel is Germany.
By far the largest component of German aid has been in the form of restitution payments to victims of Nazi attrocities. But there also has been extensive German military assistance to Israel during and since the Gulf war, and a variety of German educational and research grants go to Israeli institutions. The total of German assistance in all of these categories to the Israeli government, Israeli individuals and Israeli private institutions has been some $31 billion or $5,345 per capita, bringing the per capita total of U.S. and German assistance combined to almost $20,000 per Israeli. Since very little public money is spent on the more than 20 percent of Israeli citizens who are Muslim or Christian, the actual per capita benefits received by Israel's Jewish citizens would be considerably higher.
True Cost to U.S. Taxpayers
Generous as it is, what Israelis actually got in U.S. aid is considerably less than what it has cost U.S. taxpayers to provide it. The principal difference is that so long as the U.S. runs an annual budget deficit, every dollar of aid the U.S. gives Israel has to be raised through U.S. government borrowing.
In an article in the Washington Report for December 1991/January 1992, Frank Collins estimated the costs of this interest, based upon prevailing interest rates for every year since 1949. I have updated this by applying a very conservative 5 percent interest rate for subsequent years, and confined the amount upon which the interest is calculated to grants, not loans or loan guarantees.
On this basis the $84.8 billion in grants, loans and commodities Israel has received from the U.S. since 1949 cost the U.S. an additional $49,936,880,000 in interest.
There are many other costs of Israel to U.S. taxpayers, such as most or all of the $45.6 billion in U.S. foreign aid to Egypt since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979 (compared to $4.2 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt for the preceding 26 years). U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, which is pegged at two-thirds of U.S. foreign aid to Israel, averages $2.2 billion per year.
There also have been immense political and military costs to the U.S. for its consistent support of Israel during Israel's half-century of disputes with the Palestinians and all of its Arab neighbors. In addition, there have been the approximately $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees and perhaps $20 billion in tax-exempt contributions made to Israel by American Jews in the nearly half-century since Israel was created.
Even excluding all of these extra costs, America's $84.8 billion in aid to Israel from fiscal years 1949 through 1998, and the interest the U.S. paid to borrow this money, has cost U.S. taxpayers $134.8 billion, not adjusted for inflation. Or, put another way, the nearly $14,630 every one of 5.8 million Israelis received from the U.S. government by Oct. 31, 1997 has cost American taxpayers $23,240 per Israeli.
Richard Curtiss, a retired U.S. foreign service officer, is the executive editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
2002-11-10 18:10 | User Profile
Thank you very much for this post, Zoroaster.
This may well be the most important topic ever posted here at OD. Everyone who reads this needs to take some time and email this article to everyone in their contact lists and do what little they can to inform others.
Reading these hard numbers make me have to do a real gut check about patriotism and support for my country, especially when I take into consideration the looming unjust war in Iraq.
2002-11-10 19:14 | User Profile
Dear God our country is not our own. Americans have no idea.
2002-11-11 06:28 | User Profile
PJB wanted to "end foreign aid." Since most foreign aid goes to Israel, it's clear that this was a code word for not taxing Americans to aid Israel.
Our country indeed is not our own. It hasn't been for a long time.
I think that the best we can do is to LEGALLY minimize the taxes we pay to our Marxist masters, both direct and indirect. On the direct side, being self employed, raising our own food, owning our own businesses, employing our own family members and neighbors - all of these can legally reduce the taxes we pay. On the indirect side, we need to live free of advertising, an area controlled by the IP. We should avoid flashy brands, and buy store brands or generics where possible. We should cut our cable subscriptions.
I accept that my country is occupied. I've accepted that ages ago. The Empire will collapse, and the strategy is to create a social bullwork that we control that will come to the fore as the Empire fades. We need to live our own lives, love our own people, create our own institutions, and slowly spread the message to those who can hear.
Which is why I post here on OD.
Walter
2002-11-11 07:11 | User Profile
**We should cut our cable subscriptions. **
Roger that...a portion of those cable subscription fees work their way back to Hollyweird. Your local cable company doesn't get channels for free, ya know.
Also, stop buying CDs pressed by RIAA members, and stop watching movies made by the MPAA.
(Or if you must get a fix of pop culture, buy them used.)
Why finance your own destruction?
2002-11-11 20:42 | User Profile
Exactly, Walter.
2002-11-15 07:10 | User Profile
Originally posted by AntiYuppie@Nov 11 2002, 22:53 **I strongly suspect that the cited figures are greatly underestimating the amount of money and aid that goes to Israel under the table, or in the form of military technology given away or sold at significant discount.
In other words,
Total Cost to U.S. Taxpayers $134,791,507,200
is just the tip of the iceberg.**
I was told by a colleague yesterday that the US-Israel Double Tax Treaty allows a US tax deduction for gifts to Israeli charities. He told me that similar provisions exist only in our treaties with Canada and Mexico.
I haven't checked that out, but it would be an additional indirect benefit to our 51st state.
Walter
2002-11-16 17:29 | User Profile
The amount extorted from U.S. Taxpayers, $134.8 billion, was estimated five years ago. Add to that the $2 billion annually going to Egypt as a result of the Camp David Agreement during the Carter Administration, plus the hidden costs in grants, loans and interest payments, an updated account of what can only be described as criminal extortion of the U.S. Treasury may be as high as $250 billion.
-Z-
2002-11-19 01:23 | User Profile
"We must eliminate them, if they are not to eliminate us." - Dr. Joseph Goebbels, 1942
2002-11-20 18:07 | User Profile
You know, I've asked several Israel-firsters and other Zionist types a) what exactly has the U.S. gained from its yearly tribute to that "sh*tty little country?" (to quote a French diplomat; see the French ain't all bad!) and b) what does the U.S. stand to gain?
I've never gotten an answer that didn't simply quote the Bible.
I myself think the answers are:
a) Nothing but trouble b) Nothing but trouble
2002-11-28 11:22 | User Profile
[url=http://www.nydailynews.com/11-27-2002/news/wn_report/story/38999p-36818c.html]http://www.nydailynews.com/11-27-2002/news...99p-36818c.html[/url]
Israel's 14B war tab
Seeks U.S. aid before Iraq attack
By KENNETH R. BAZINET DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Israel wants $4 billion in new military aid and up to $10 billion in loan guarantees from Washington in part for assurances that Israel will show restraint if attacked by Iraq, sources said yesterday. "This is similar to the loan guarantees of a decade ago," an Israeli source told the Daily News, referring to financial incentives it received in exchange for restraint during the Gulf War in 1991.
A pro-Israeli lobbyist familiar with the talks said, "Israel isn't the only country asking for compensation. ... It's a soft negotiation. It's saying we understand your needs, you need to understand our needs."
But the White House downplayed the link between the payment and Israeli restraint.
"This is not directly related to compensation in the event of attack," said spokesman Ari Fleischer.
"They [Israeli officials] described the economic impact on Israel of the ongoing war on terrorism ... as well as the impact of continuing uncertainty in the region," he said. "In this context, the officials indicated that Israel is preparing a proposal for assistance."
Israeli officials reasoned during talks this week that defensive preparations for another possible war between the U.S. and Iraq has cost them millions at a time when Israel's economy is tanking. The Palestinian uprising also has helped to thin Israel's treasury.
Israel already receives $2.9 billion annually in U.S. grants and loan aid - Washington's biggest yearly handout to any nation.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's chief of staff Dov Weisglass, Finance Ministry Director-General Ohad Marani and Ambassador to the U.S. Danny Ayalon made the request Monday in a meeting with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Sharon has said Israel reserves the right to respond if attacked, and President Bush has said he recognizes that right.
Israel did not fire back when it was bombarded with Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War, earning loan guarantees from then-President George Bush.
But this time there will be limits to Israel's patience.
"If there are dirty weapons - chemical or biological - we can't sit back this time," an official of the ruling Likud Party told The News.
Other hands out
Israel joins a handful of other countries asking for U.S. compensation in the event of war.
Russia wants assurances that its contracts with Saddam Hussein for a piece of the Iraqi oil industry will be honored. U.S. sources have said the Russians have been promised that those agreements will remain in force if Saddam is toppled.
Turkey has asked for economic aid, trade deals to boost sales of its goods in the U.S. and Washington's backing for admission into the European Union.
The EU economic consortium will consider expanding its ranks at a Dec. 12-13 summit, and Bush has pledged his support for Turkey.
Jordan also is looking for an undisclosed amount of financial aid from the U.S. if war breaks out with Iraq.
Jordan was not a part of the coalition that liberated Kuwait from Saddam's grip in the Gulf War but signaled its support for the UN resolution leading to weapons inspections set to begin today in Iraq.
Originally published on November 27, 2002
2002-12-02 10:03 | User Profile
VERY informative post, Zoroaster. Thank you.
Aid to the Racist, Apartheid state of Isntreal must be stopped. American lives and solidarity are at stake.
2002-12-08 22:44 | User Profile
from the December 09, 2002 edition - [url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p16s01-wmgn.html]http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p16s01-wmgn.html[/url]
Economist tallies swelling cost of Israel to US By David R. Francis | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by today's population, that is more than $5,700 per person.
This is an estimate by Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington. For decades, his analyses of the Middle East scene have made him a frequent thorn in the side of the Israel lobby.
For the first time in many years, Mr. Stauffer has tallied the total cost to the US of its backing of Israel in its drawn-out, violent dispute with the Palestinians. So far, he figures, the bill adds up to more than twice the cost of the Vietnam War.
And now Israel wants more. In a meeting at the White House late last month, Israeli officials made a pitch for $4 billion in additional military aid to defray the rising costs of dealing with the intifada and suicide bombings. They also asked for more than $8 billion in loan guarantees to help the country's recession-bound economy.
Considering Israel's deep economic troubles, Stauffer doubts the Israel bonds covered by the loan guarantees will ever be repaid. The bonds are likely to be structured so they don't pay interest until they reach maturity. If Stauffer is right, the US would end up paying both principal and interest, perhaps 10 years out.
Israel's request could be part of a supplemental spending bill that's likely to be passed early next year, perhaps wrapped in with the cost of a war with Iraq.
Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid. It is already due to get $2.04 billion in military assistance and $720 million in economic aid in fiscal 2003. It has been getting $3 billion a year for years.
Adjusting the official aid to 2001 dollars in purchasing power, Israel has been given $240 billion since 1973, Stauffer reckons. In addition, the US has given Egypt $117 billion and Jordan $22 billion in foreign aid in return for signing peace treaties with Israel.
"Consequently, politically, if not administratively, those outlays are part of the total package of support for Israel," argues Stauffer in a lecture on the total costs of US Middle East policy, commissioned by the US Army War College, for a recent conference at the University of Maine.
These foreign-aid costs are well known. Many Americans would probably say it is money well spent to support a beleagured democracy of some strategic interest. But Stauffer wonders if Americans are aware of the full bill for supporting Israel since some costs, if not hidden, are little known.
One huge cost is not secret. It is the higher cost of oil and other economic damage to the US after Israel-Arab wars.
In 1973, for instance, Arab nations attacked Israel in an attempt to win back territories Israel had conquered in the 1967 war. President Nixon resupplied Israel with US arms, triggering the Arab oil embargo against the US.
That shortfall in oil deliveries kicked off a deep recession. The US lost $420 billion (in 2001 dollars) of output as a result, Stauffer calculates. And a boost in oil prices cost another $450 billion.
Afraid that Arab nations might use their oil clout again, the US set up a Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That has since cost, conservatively, $134 billion, Stauffer reckons.
Other US help includes:
ââ¬Â¢ US Jewish charities and organizations have remitted grants or bought Israel bonds worth $50 billion to $60 billion. Though private in origin, the money is "a net drain" on the United States economy, says Stauffer.
ââ¬Â¢ The US has already guaranteed $10 billion in commercial loans to Israel, and $600 billion in "housing loans." Stauffer expects the US Treasury to cover these.
ââ¬Â¢ The US has given $2.5 billion to support Israel's Lavi fighter and Arrow missile projects.
ââ¬Â¢ Israel buys discounted, serviceable "excess" US military equipment. Stauffer says these discounts amount to "several billion dollars" over recent years.
ââ¬Â¢ Israel uses roughly 40 percent of its $1.8 billion per year in military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of US weapons, to buy Israeli-made hardware. It also has won the right to require the Defense Department or US defense contractors to buy Israeli-made equipment or subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar the US gives to Israel.
US help, financial and technical, has enabled Israel to become a major weapons supplier. Weapons make up almost half of Israel's manufactured exports. US defense contractors often resent the buy-Israel requirements and the extra competition subsidized by US taxpayers.
ââ¬Â¢ US policy and trade sanctions reduce US exports to the Middle East about $5 billion a year, costing 70,000 or so American jobs, Stauffer estimates. Not requiring Israel to use its US aid to buy American goods, as is usual in foreign aid, costs another 125,000 jobs.
ââ¬Â¢ Israel has blocked some major US arms sales, such as F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. That cost $40 billion over 10 years, says Stauffer.
Stauffer's list will be controversial. He's been assisted in this research by a number of mostly retired military or diplomatic officials who do not go public for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic if they criticize America's policies toward Israel.
2002-12-08 23:18 | User Profile
Malachi,
Thanks for posting this...it oughtta be good for some backpedaling and spinmeistering from the Israel lobby's apologists.
It will be hard for them to squelch a story in a respected mainstream newspaper, but I predict the mainstream media will do its best to bury this.
With the domestic economy tanking, it's going to be harder to justify foreign aid to the US taxpayers, so this kind of news is downplayed to the greatest extent possible by TPTB.
I wonder what all the politicians and media hacks will do when the whole economic house of cards comes crashing down.
2002-12-09 18:30 | User Profile
A related thread on a Christian Science Monitor article revealing that Israel costs us more than the equivalent of two Vietnam Wars:
[url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?act=ST&f=4&t=4781]http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php...t=ST&f=4&t=4781[/url]
2002-12-09 19:55 | User Profile
I wonder what all the politicians and media hacks will do when the whole economic house of cards comes crashing down.
At that point, these previously "useful idiots" will no longer be useful, and therefore no longer matter.
Meanwhile, the parasites will have disengaged their chitinous hooks from this dried husk of a nation and moved on to a new host, if any can find one.
Of course, that may be pretty difficult. Israel is right out. They won't last a month without Uncle Schmuel's constant transfusion. Russia's tapped out, Europe's getting pretty hostile, South America's a lost cause for them, and I don't think Japan or China's gonna take them no matter how loudly they wail, "poisecution!"
2002-12-16 19:43 | User Profile
[url=http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=241003&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y]http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/Sh...sID=0&listSrc=Y[/url]
Monday, December 16, 2002 Tevet 11, 5763 Israel Time: 21:33 (GMT+2)
Bush favors special aid to Israel
By Aluf Benn
U.S. President George W. Bush supports conferring special American aid to Israel to help the country cope with its current economic difficulties.
While Bush, in a discussion with Jewish leaders last week, did not go into details about Israel's recent assistance request to his administration, participants in the conversation said there appears to be little doubt about the president's commitment to granting the aid.
A delegation of senior Israeli officials will leave for Washington soon to discuss the request with U.S. counterparts. Israel has asked for $4 billion in a special defense grant as well for American agreement to confer loan guarantees of between $8 billion and $10 billion.
This special assistance would be added to the United States' annual aid package to Israel, which is comprised of $2.16 billion in defense assistance and $480 million for economic-civilian spheres.
In the same conversation with Jewish leaders, Bush said the administration's Middle East policy is based on his June 24 speech, and is not obligated by efforts being made in various government branches to formulate a "roadmap" for implementing proposals made in the speech.
Bush's comments stand in opposition to signals recently sent out by some State Department officials to Israeli officials suggesting that the roadmap proposals are entirely consistent with Bush's speech.
Under the roadmap formulations, a provisional Palestinian state would be established by 2003, and this state would launch talks with Israel to attain a final status agreement by 2005.
The State Department wanted to finalize the roadmap proposals during a meeting of foreign ministers from the Quartet, which is scheduled to be in Washington Friday.
But complying to a request made by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the White House has agreed to defer final action on the roadmap proposal until after January's general elections and the formation of a new Israeli government.
2002-12-18 14:14 | User Profile
For Wednesday, December 18, 2002
The Price Of Israel Charley Reese
The Christian Science Monitor published in its Dec. 9 edition a story about Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist, who said recently that the total cost of U.S. support for Israel since 1973 is $1.6 trillion, or twice the cost of the Vietnam War.
This is relevant because the Israelis have just demanded from the U.S. taxpayers another $4 billion to cover the cost of their oppression of the Palestinians as well as an $8 billion loan guarantee.
Ladies and gentleman, there isn't a state in the union that is not facing a financial crisis, and if the U.S. government caves in yet again to the Israeli lobby on this matter, it will be prima facie evidence of mass insanity or of the worse corruption since the administration of Ulysses S. Grant.
Stauffer made his speech in a lecture commissioned by the U.S. Army War College for a conference at the University of Maine. He has converted past aid into 2001 dollars and counts this cost as follows:
Israel has been given $240 billion (remember, this is current dollars), while Egypt has been given $117 billion and Jordan $22 billion as bribes for signing a peace treaty with Israel.
In 1973, when the Arabs attacked Israel in an effort to recover territory taken by Israel in the 1967 war, U.S. support for Israel triggered the oil embargo. This, according to Stauffer, kicked off a recession that cost $420 billion of output; the boost in oil prices cost $450 billion; the necessity to build a strategic oil reserve, another $134 billion.
He points out that the United States has already guaranteed $10 billion in commercial loans to Israel and $600 billion in housing loans, and he expects the U.S. Treasury will end up paying for all of these. He goes on and on listing more costs, direct and indirect. Israel, for example, is the only recipient of foreign aid allowed to spend a sizeable percentage of the money on Israeli products rather than American. It's the only country from which our defense contractors are required to buy a certain amount of Israeli-made equipment. It is the only foreign country that gets its aid in a lump sum and then invests it in U.S. bonds so that taxpayers not only make an annual gift to Israel but also have to pay Israel interest on that gift.
The fact is that the Israeli government and its powerful lobby have taken advantage of the good-heartedness of the American people. The American people are generous, but never generous enough to satisfy Israeli demands for more of our people's hard-earned tax dollars.
It is one thing to provide emotional support. It is one thing even to guarantee coming to the defense of another country if it is attacked. It is quite another to undertake the permanent subsidy of a foreign country, something our federal government does not even do for its states. We have all kinds of problems in the United States that need attention. It's time to tell the Israelis "We can no longer afford you."
I highly recommend that you read the complete story in the Monitor. It should open your eyes to a problem that will not be fixed unless the American people make their voices heard in Washington.
If we are going to be forced to subsidize a foreign country, I would rather it be France. We can at least get a decent meal in France and enjoy the art treasures collected there. Furthermore, France would not involve us in its quarrels.
It's America's policy of absolute support for Israel and Israel's cruel treatment of the Palestinians that are a big part of our problem with terrorism. We stand convicted in the eyes of the Muslim world of practicing a double standard by condoning Israel's human-rights violations and protecting it from international sanctions. That, too, is a terrible price the American people can no longer afford to pay.
2002-12-19 14:42 | User Profile
[url=http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=%5CForeignBureaus%5Carchive%5C200212%5CFOR20021218c.html]http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus....R20021218c.html[/url]
Israel Asks For Billions To Offset Cost of US Military Strike By Julie Stahl CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief December 18, 2002
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel has reiterated its request for billions of dollars in U.S. aid to offset expenses incurred in fighting its war against terrorism over the last 27 months. It says the money will also help it prepare for a likely U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, a senior official said here on Wednesday.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz presented the request for some $12 billion in military aid and loan guarantees during meetings with top administration officials in Washington on Tuesday. According to Israel radio, Israel wants $4 billion in military aid and the rest in the form of loan guarantees.)
Mofaz, who met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George Tenet, was in the U.S. in part to coordinate U.S.-Israeli moves in the event of a U.S.-led strike against Iraq.
According to reports, the U.S. has promised to give Israel several days' advance warning before it attacks Iraq. Israel is preparing itself for the high probability that Baghdad will retaliate by attacking Israel.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's spokesman Dr. Ra'anan Gissin said the military aid would be in addition to the more than $2 billion that Israel receives annually in military and economic aid from the U.S.
It is to be used for current security needs generated by 27 months of war on terrorism and particularly for the extra defense expenses used to prepare the country for an expected U.S. strike against Iraq, he said.
"We hope it will be expedited," Gissin said. "[There was] definitely a favorable attitude."
Gissin said the billion is actually a "line of credit" which Israel will use to purchase military equipment from the American defense industry, thus creating work for thousands of Americans. Only about 2-3 percent might be used to purchase goods in Israel, he said.
The loan guarantees would require the U.S. to vouch for Israel in order for it to obtain low-interest, long-term loans for development projects.
Work on road map postponed
The U.S. has also decided to suspend discussion on the so-called "road map" to Israeli-Palestinian peace until after Israeli general elections on January 28, 2003, Gissin said.
"It's not going to happen until after the election," Gissin said.
The "road map" was given to Sharon on his last visit to Washington. It calls for an end to violence, and it is intended to lead the two sides back to the negotiating table so they may come up with a final solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Both sides have reservations about it, however. The U.S. had asked Israel and the Palestinians to present comments and recommendations on the original document by this month.
The U.S. was to have presented a draft version of the road map to members of the "Quartet" - U.S., European Union, Russia and the United Nations - which are scheduled to meet in Washington this week.
But there still remain differences between the U.S. and other quartet members on the issue of supervising the territories and on the methods Israel is employing to fight terrorism, Gissin said.
2003-01-01 21:20 | User Profile
[url=http://www.ptimes.org/]http://www.ptimes.org/[/url]
Why does Israel want a U.S. war with Iraq?
Jaffer Ali*
There is no country in the world that yearns for the U.S. to go to war with Iraq more than Israel. They even pay public relations firms to promote this agenda in the media. What is behind Israelââ¬â¢s passion for wanting Americans to march off to war?
At first blush one might think it is because Iraq poses a threat to Israeli security. But no military analyst believes that Iraq could do much in the way of attacking Israel. They do not share a border with them and Jordan is not likely to allow Iraqi tanks to cross its border to attack Israel. Iraq does not have an air force. What missiles they have are generally ineffective, and Israel has all the firepower to repel any attack. As one Israeli military analyst said, ââ¬ÅWe donââ¬â¢t lose sleep over Iraqââ¬â¢s military threat to us.ââ¬Â
If Israel is not worried about Iraqââ¬â¢s military capabilities, why all the PR? The reason is rather simple: Israel pines for a role in the New World Order. Trying to find a place in the New World Order is a preoccupation for most countries in the world. Remember, President G.W. Bush stated clearly, ââ¬ÅYou are either with us or against us.ââ¬Â This has countries all over the globe trying to find a way to be ââ¬Åwith us.ââ¬Â
Israel is not therefore alone in this desire. In the past, it was easy for it to align with U.S. interests. There is a new global realignment taking place, and Israel is having a hard time finding a seat at the table. Plainly stated, their interests and the New World Order are at odds. And this means that Israeli interests and American interests are diverging. (U.S. interests and the New World Order are interchangeable phrases.)
After the collapse of the Soviet empire, Israel no longer was needed to be a bastion against Soviet expansion. Its service to the U.S. has been declining ever since. As the U.S. forged new and special relationships with Arab countries, Israel lost its exclusive role of ââ¬ÅU.S. allyââ¬Â in the Middle East. There are many entities in the region lining up to replace Israel in this regard.
Israelââ¬â¢s role in the Middle East was largely to help stabilize certain regimes that served U.S. economic interests. To do this, they would make their vast intelligence assets available to America. But the New World Order has a different operative plan than the post-Second World War U.S. plan that used Israel to promote its agenda.
The continued occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has become a destabilizing factor in the entire Middle East and in the even larger Muslim world. Israel is now a liability in the region and truly disrupts the New World Order. Its continued oppression of the Palestinian people is a time bomb that can only lead to chaos, not order.
Why is Israel at odds with the New World Order?
In 1991, when George W. Bushââ¬â¢s father ushered in the New World Order, Israel was the odd country out. There was no place for it anymore. The U.S. coalition in the Gulf War did not need Israel to accomplish its goals. In fact, Israel was an unwanted complication to the New World Order. Israel had no role to play.
Equally problematic for Israel is its reliance on the anachronistic ideology of Zionism. The modern intellectual roots of Zionism are founded in ethnic nationalism. This formed the basis of ethnic laws promoted by fascists, Nazis, segregated countries like South Africa and, of course, is the basis of Israel as a nation.
The New World Order is about globalization and internationalism, not ideologies that confer rights based upon ethno-nationalism. Israelââ¬â¢s raison dââ¬â¢Ãªtre is therefore opposed in principle to the New World Order.
In the New World Order, Israel HAS NO ROLE TO PLAY.
This leads to the answer as to why Israel pays certain American journalists to call for war...and why they pay PR firms to promote an agenda that inflames public opinion. Israel NEEDS a role to play, and what they pine for is a recurrent conflict between the U.S. and Islamic countries. If this can be accomplished, then Israel can assume a role in the Middle East as the bastion against Islamic extremism.
Even though Iraq is not considered an extremist Islamic State, a war between the U.S. and Iraq will undoubtedly increase the ire and enmity between the U.S. and Muslim world. This enmity is the breeding ground of extremism. Israel knows this. Israel is the beneficiary of this enmity because it can then, AND ONLY THEN, have a role to serve U.S. interests or its other name, the New World Order. Without a role serving the New World Order, Israel is in danger of becoming irrelevant and being cast aside. Most critics of Israel have historically misunderstood how Israel served U.S. interests in the past. That is why most Israeli critics miss how Israel no longer serves those interests.
Israel has understood its historic role and is frantic to find a way to serve those interests once again. Israelis ââ¬Åin the knowââ¬Â understand that their existence depends upon U.S. largesse. Alliances change. Interests always trump alliances.
Oh yes, one other thing. The U.S. promised a $10 billion aid package to Israel should they go to war with Iraq. No war equals no aidââ¬âjust another incentive for Israel to pine for the war; $10 billion is approximately 10% of its entire gross national product.
This is just what the Israeli economy needs because its American sponsor has neglected it. Israelis do not view their economic woes as benign neglect. They privately mutter about Washington not bailing their economy out. They understand full well that without finding a way to ally with U.S. interests, it may not survive as presently constituted. War between Iraq and the U.S. remains their number one goal.
*Jaffer Ali is a Palestinian-American businessman who writes on business ethics, management theory and political topics.
2003-01-02 11:28 | User Profile
[url=http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=578&ncid=578&e=17&u=/nm/20030101/ts_nm/israel_usa_dc]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...m/israel_usa_dc[/url]
Israel, U.S. to Open Talks on Aid Package Wed Jan 1, 4:59 PM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Adam Entous
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Israel is sending a delegation to Washington next week to open talks on a multibillion-dollar aid package, hoping to ease the process by agreeing not to use the funds for settlement activities in Palestinian territories, U.S. sources said on Wednesday.
The delegation, led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites)'s chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, will meet with top White House and Treasury officials considering Israel's request for $4 billion in military assistance and $8 billion to $10 billion in U.S.-backed loan guarantees.
"This is the just beginning of the process," one official said. Congressional aides say it could take months to get a final package through Congress.
The Bush administration denies aid would be tied to Israeli cooperation with any U.S. military campaign against Iraq. The United States wants Israel to stay out of the possible conflict, as it did when Baghdad fired Scud missiles at Israeli targets in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites).
The Bush administration is negotiating separate economic aid packages for U.S. allies Turkey and Jordan to help offset the economic shock of a possible war with Iraq.
Israel, battered by the global economic slowdown and two-year-old Palestinian uprising for independence, has asked Washington to expedite its request for the loan guarantees. Israel, which has never defaulted on its loans, would find it easier to raise funds with U.S. backing.
Hoping to avoid a political backlash in the United States, Israeli officials have told their American counterparts that their government would accept restrictions to ensure U.S. aid is not used for settlement activities in Palestinian areas. President Bush (news - web sites) has called on Israel to halt settlement activity in the occupied territories.
Israel's tentative proposal would require the government to spend proceeds from the loan guarantees within the "green line," or Israel's borders before the 1967 war. Any money from the overall budget spent on activities outside the green line would be deducted from the loan money, several sources said.
When Israel received $10 billion of loan guarantees in the early 1990s as it sought to settle immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Bush's father, who was U.S. president at the time, imposed similar restrictions on settlement funding.
But no final decisions have been made and U.S. sources said the proposed economic aid package could run into opposition in the U.S. Congress unless stricter controls ensure the funds are not spent indirectly on settlement activities.
Israel is already the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid, receiving close to $3 billion in mostly military assistance each year. A new aid package would come on top of existing U.S. commitments.
========================================================================= The Pharisees, when Christ walked the earth, lavished Rome with tribute. In modern-day America, a nation tha believes it transcends history, the Republicrats lavish Tel Aviv with tribute.
The Pharisees, it seems, have turned the world upside-down.
-Z-
2003-01-03 15:51 | User Profile
[url=http://amconmag.com/01_13_03/buchanan7.html]http://amconmag.com/01_13_03/buchanan7.html[/url]
Click Here for details. Ariel Sharonââ¬â¢s Shakedown
by Pat Buchanan
ââ¬ÅTough Love for United,ââ¬Â exclaimed the Wall Street Journal, as it congratulated Uncle Sam for stiffing United Airlinesââ¬â¢ plea for $1.8 billion in loan guarantees. Rebuffed, the beloved old airline had to declare its bankruptcy.
Itââ¬â¢s all for the best, the Journal assures us, ââ¬Åmaybe this tough love rejection will start a new government precedent, or at least we can dream.ââ¬Â Fine. May we now expect the Journal to call on Mr. Bush to reject the $10 billion in loan guarantees demanded by Ariel Sharon? Donââ¬â¢t bet on it.
Yet, Sharonââ¬â¢s demand is astonishing in its audacity. California and New York face huge budget shortfalls. The U.S. Treasury is running a deficit nearing $200 billion. Yet, Sharon, who ignored Bush when the president publicly called on him to pull his army out of West Bank cities, is demanding that U.S. taxpayers fork over $4 billion in new military aid and agree to pay off $10 billion Israel intends to borrow should Israel decide to default.
Why should we do this? What does America get out of this? What has all the $100 billion in aid we have shoveled out to Israel bought us, other than ingratitude and the enmity of the Arab world?
While Israel has a first-rate military, it is of no use to us. In Desert Storm, Bush I had to bribe Yitzhak Shamir with $5 billion in aid, $400 million in loan guarantees, and Patriot missiles to stay out of the fighting, lest Israeli intervention dynamite our coalition. Journalists and diplomats alike, returning from the Mideast, attest that our almost-blind support of Israel is a major cause of the anti-Americanism that is sweeping the Islamic world.
When the price of Israel could be paid in dollars alone, $3 billion a year, most members of Congress chose to pony up rather than face the retribution of an Israeli Lobby that has in its trophy case the scalps of two chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, J. William Fulbright and Chuck Percy.
But now the price of the Israeli connection has begun to rise. U.S. weapons technology given to Israel has been sold to China. Only direct U.S. intervention prevented Israel from selling Beijing AWACS technology. The Patriot missile, the Phoenix air-to-air missile, the Lavi fighter, based on the F-16, have all been sold to Beijing.
In the Reagan era, Israel had the loathsome Jonathan Pollard, whom it suborned into treason, loot our innermost national security secrets, some of which are believed to have been traded to Moscow. Israel refuses to return the roomful of documents it stole and has pressured presidents for Pollardââ¬â¢s release so he can be brought to Israel where he is a hero.
Now Mr. Sharon has handed us Israelââ¬â¢s bill for abstaining from war with Iraq while President Bush is at maximum political risk. Not since 1957, when Dwight Eisenhower ordered Ben-Gurion to get his army out of Sinai, has a U.S. president faced down an Israeli Prime Minister.
To his credit, the presidentââ¬â¢s father tried. In 1991, having driven Iraq out of Kuwait, with his approval at 70 percent, Bush I was asked by Shamir for $10 billion in loan guarantees to bring a million Russian Jews to Israel. Bush assented, on one condition: Shamir must not settle them on the West Bank and must stop expanding settlements.
Shamir rejected the condition, and the Lobby went to work. Bush warned he would veto the guarantees. An Israeli minister called him an anti-Semite. While Shamir was defeated in June of 1992, Bush, his own election in trouble, eventually gave in and gave Israel the loan guarantees. Who was the Housing Minister who announced new settlements even as Bush I was denouncing them? Ariel Sharon.
Sharon now wants to repeat Israelââ¬â¢s victory over Bushââ¬â¢s father by making the son give Israel $4 billion in hardware and $10 billion in new loan guarantees as Sharonââ¬â¢s price for permitting us to crush Iraq while he holds Americaââ¬â¢s coat. It is a shakedown: Ariel Sharonââ¬â¢s big sting
What should Bush do? Tell Sharon the loan guarantees will not even be taken up until he begins to dismantle all the settlements he has begun to build since George W. took office. And if Sharon attempts to roll him in Congress, he, Bush, will go to the country and roll Sharon.
In short, stand up for U.S. national interests and declare Americaââ¬â¢s independence. Israel may be our ally in the war on terror. We are not Israelââ¬â¢s ally in its war on the Palestinians. Our commitment is to Israelââ¬â¢s security, not its settlements, which are the cause of the intifada.
Sharonââ¬â¢s opponent in Januaryââ¬â¢s election, General Mitzna, has agreed to negotiate with the Palestinians on the basis of Camp David and to begin withdrawals from the West Bank and Gaza. If Israeli politicians can stand up to Sharon, why cannot U.S. presidents? If members of the Knesset can refuse to follow the suicidal path of Sharon & Netanyahu, why is Congress so cowardly?
2003-01-03 19:22 | User Profile
At the cost of looking like an absolute loony, I only hope that Iraq does the world a favor and nukes the sh*t out of Israel even if it means the end of Iraq. The elimination of Israel as a state would be the greatest event since it's abominable creation and whoever destroys that horrible place will go down in history as the biggest hero of all time.
2003-01-06 10:04 | User Profile
I suspect, DRSLICEIT, that many non-Jews, perhaps a majority, would be secretly relieved if that American-made "Chucky Doll" of a nation, Israel, were to suddenly vanish. No doubt, the long-suffering Palestinians would be overjoyed.
-Z-
2003-01-06 15:33 | User Profile
Indeed, Zoroaster. THe relationship of Israel to the greater Jewish community is parasitic.
2003-02-26 04:51 | User Profile
[url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=6321]Israel urges U.S. help to bolster economy[/url]
This is posted in this forum folder but should be at least listed here I think.
2003-03-01 15:28 | User Profile
[url=http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=267686&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y]http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/Sh...sID=0&listSrc=Y[/url]
Saturday, March 01, 2003 Adar1 27, 5763 Israel Time: 17:17 (GMT+2)
U.S. likely to okay half of $4 billion in aid sought by Israel
By Nathan Guttman, Moti Bassok and Aluf Benn
Israel will not receive the entire $4 billion in special defense aid it has requested from the United States because of the war in Iraq, according to discussions held this week in Washington by the director-general of the Defense Ministry, Amos Yaron. A U.S. administration source told Israeli officials earlier this week that the aid package was likely to be between $1-2 billion.
The U.S. is expected, on the other hand, to grant Israel the full $8 billion in requested loan guarantees.
Yaron traveled to Washington in midweek for a two-day visit during which he met with senior White House and Pentagon officials.
Newly-appointed Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to send his director-general, Ohad Marani, to Washington next week to move the Israeli aid requests forward.
The U.S. administration has reservations about the sum requested by Israel. America wants the aid request to focus on the costs involved in Israel's preparations for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and believes it should not include expenses stemming from Israel's fight against Palestinian terror. In its request, however, Israel includes a variety of security needs unrelated to the war in Iraq.
U.S. sources said yesterday that Israel's special aid request was likely to be included in the additional budget package that the administration will be submitting to the Congress, presumably in the coming weeks. This package, to the tune of some $95 billion, will cover the cost of deploying the U.S. forces in the Gulf and the equipment required for the war, together with the aid to America's allies in the region - Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
According to reports from the U.S., Washington agreed to a sum much lower than the $4 billion Israel has requested, with $1-2 billion mentioned as the likely figure.
At present, the Israeli aid request includes a variety of objectives: Concerning preparations for the war in Iraq, Israel is asking for aid to cover the cost of defending the home front - including the deployment of anti-aircraft units, the updating of gas-mask kits and the acquisition of medicines - and to cover expenses related to the further development of anti-missile defense capabilities and early-warning systems, as well as the cost of keeping the Israel Air Force on alert.
Israel is also asking for U.S. compensation for expenses incurred as a result of the war on terror - the deployment of forces and mobilization of reserves, and the development and purchase of modern technical equipment, arms and ammunition. The Americans have a problem with this component of the aid request.
Israel has stressed to the Americans that the war against Iraq, according to the position of President George Bush too, is a part of the war on terror.
Treasury sources believe, also in keeping with hints coming from Washington, that the U.S. will approve Israel's request for $8 billion in loan guarantees, as such a move does not have any bearing on the American taxpayer.
2003-03-06 14:01 | User Profile
[url=http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=23322]http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=23322[/url]
Israel Seeks 400% Hike in US Aid Tim Kennedy, strategicpolicy@juno.com
Economically, the world is in a terrible shape: The American dollar is weak, crude oil costs a record $40 a barrel and global stock markets have experienced three years of decline, the worst since the recession after World War II.
Like the rest of the world, Israel is also experiencing economic stagnation, a decline worsened by a drop in tourism brought on by violence in Israeli-occupied Palestine.
However, the impending war in Iraq may enable Israel to pull out of its economic doldrums: Claiming the looming Iraq war has sapped its defense budget, Israel is asking the United States for billions of dollars in direct military aid and loan guarantees to help buttress its faltering economy.
Dov Weisglass, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, made the request for more American money last week while on a three-day visit to Washington. Weisglass seeks congressional approval of about $12 billion in aid, in addition to the $3 billion given to Israel each year.
According to State Department sources, Israel seeks a minimum of $4 billion in direct aid ââ¬â mostly for its military ââ¬â and $8 billion in loan guarantees. The boost in aid represents an increase of 400 percent.
Insiders on Capitol Hill predict Israel will likely get all it asks. The aid to Israel comes on the heels of a request by Turkey of more than $6 billion in direct aid and $20 billion in loans as US forces prepare to use bases in that country as a staging area for any attack on Iraq.
One of the strongest congressional supporters for increased funding for Israel is Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), who last week led a delegation to Israel to talk with government officials about more American aid.
ââ¬ÅAll the officials with whom we met are hopeful that they can get this economic package,ââ¬Â says Ros-Lehtinen, who sits on the House International Relations Committee. ââ¬ÅIsrael is not economically self-sufficient and depends on borrowing to maintain its economy.ââ¬Â
Ros-Lehtinen predicts Israelââ¬â¢s aid request will be granted, but it could hardly come at a worse time.
ââ¬ÅIt comes at a difficult time for (the United States) because we are in a deficit and have spent a lot on our own security,ââ¬Â Ros-Lehtinen says. ââ¬ÅBut itââ¬â¢s important for us to come forth with this aid package because Israel could bear the bruntââ¬Â of a war with Iraq.
Americaââ¬â¢s generous partnership with Israel has been consistently marred by problems, including kickback scandals, graft, overpricing, and other forms of financial abuse.
The most infamous scandal ââ¬â the diversion of $12.5 million of foreign military assistance by Israeli Air Force Brig. Gen. Rami Dotan ââ¬â prompted Congress to investigate how the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MOD) and government handled American grant money.
In preparation for the hearings, the General Accounting Office (GAO) ââ¬â the auditing arm of Congress ââ¬â prepared a comprehensive report entitled, ââ¬ÅForeign Military Aid to Aid: Diversion of US Funds and Circumvention of US Program Restrictions.ââ¬Â The GAO study determined that the partnership is rife with bribery, mismanagement and embezzlement.
ââ¬ÅWe learned that the Israeli government had an indication of problems in the US-financed program,ââ¬Â write the authors of the study. ââ¬Å(Yet when) we requested to meet with government of Israel officials to discuss information they have regarding the diversion of US funds and other abuses of the assistance program, (they) declined to discuss the issues or allow our investigators to question Israeli personnel.ââ¬Â
A GAO auditor who spoke to Strategic Policy is ââ¬Ånot encouraged that Israelââ¬â¢s corrupt financial practices will likely change....The influx of Russians to Israel make this country only more corrupt, not less.
ââ¬ÅPlus, it is not in anyoneââ¬â¢s interest in Israel to tell us honestly what they do with our money... And there are very few people in Washington ââ¬â particularly this administration ââ¬â who really care.ââ¬Â
2003-03-20 11:59 | User Profile
[url=http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/274731.html]http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/274731.html[/url]
U.S. to give Israel $9B in loan guarantees, $1B in military aid
By Aluf Benn, Nathan Guttman (Washington) and Moti Bassok, Haaretz Correspondents
The United States will give Israel $9 billion in loan guarantees over four years and $1 billion in military aid, the American administration decided Wednesday. The aid package still requires congressional approval.
Israeli officials expressed disappointement with the $1 billion in military aid, as Israel had requested $4 billion, Israel Radio reported.
U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice telephoned Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to inform him of the decision. Netanyahu expressed to Rice his thanks and that of the Israeli people.
The administration decided to grant Israel $1 billion more in loan guarantees that originally requested ($8 billion), because of the positive impression the U.S. had of the Finance Ministry's emergency economic plan intended to revive the economy, which was presented to the White House as a precondition for receiving the loan guarantees. In return for receiving the loan guarantees, the U.S. is demanding that Israel adopt a series of economic reforms.
The leaders of both houses of Congress this week sent a letter to President George W. Bush, asking him to approve the special aid package that Israel has been seeking.
Pro-Israel lobbyists in Washington managed to muster the support of leaders of both parties in Congress for the aid request. A joint letter written by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle stated that Israel is facing severe challenges in both the economic and security spheres, and that, given the decline in the Israeli economy over recent years, the United States should provide support.
The letter stated, "We are concerned that, if not addressed soonââ¬Â¦ Israel is in danger of mortgaging its future qualitative military edge. We cannot allow this to happen." The letter also stressed that the Israeli economy must undergo far-reaching reforms in order to extricate itself from its current malaise.
Similar letters have been sent to Bush by the Speaker of the House Rep. Dennis Hastertt (R-Ill.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The fact that senior figures from both parties are signatories on these letters will certainly smooth the passage of the request through Congress.
2003-06-24 12:04 | User Profile
[url=http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=831]http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=831[/url]
The Real Cost of US Support for Israel: $3 Trillion
By Christopher Bollyn
While it is commonly reported that Israel officially receives some $3 billion every year in the form of economic aid from the U.S. government, this figure is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many billions of dollars more in hidden costs and economic losses lurking beneath the surface. A recently published economic analysis has concluded that U.S. support for the state of Israel has cost American taxpayers nearly $3 trillion ($3 million millions) in 2002 dollars.
ââ¬ÅThe Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillionââ¬Â is a summary of economic research done by Thomas R. Stauffer. Staufferââ¬â¢s summary of the research was published in the June 2003 issue of The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
Stauffer is a Washington, D.C.-based engineer and economist who writes and teaches about the economics of energy and the Middle East. Stauffer has taught at Harvard University and Georgetown Universityââ¬â¢s School of Foreign Service. Staufferââ¬â¢s findings were first presented at an October 2002 conference sponsored by the U.S. Army College and the University of Maine.
Staufferââ¬â¢s analysis is ââ¬Åan estimate of the total cost to the U.S. alone of instability and conflict in the region ââ¬â which emanates from the core Israeli-Palestinian conflict.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅTotal identifiable costs come to almost $3 trillion,ââ¬Â Stauffer says. ââ¬ÅAbout 60 percent, well over half, of those costs ââ¬â about $1.7 trillion ââ¬â arose from the U.S. defense of Israel, where most of that amount has been incurred since 1973.ââ¬Â
ââ¬ÅSupport for Israel comes to $1.8 trillion, including special trade advantages, preferential contracts, or aid buried in other accounts. In addition to the financial outlay, U.S. aid to Israel costs some 275,000 American jobs each year.ââ¬Â The trade-aid imbalance alone with Israel of between $6-10 billion costs about 125,000 American jobs every year, Stauffer says.
The largest single element in the costs has been the series of oil-supply crises that have accompanied the Israeli-Arab wars and the construction of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. ââ¬ÅTo date these have cost the U.S. $1.5 trillion (2002 dollars), excluding the additional costs incurred since 2001,ââ¬Â Stauffer wrote.
The cost of supporting Israel increased drastically after the 1973 Israeli-Arab war. U.S. support for Israel during that war resulted in additional costs for the American taxpayer of between $750 billion and $1 trillion, Stauffer says.
When Israel was losing the war, President Richard Nixon stepped in to supply the Jewish state with U.S. weapons. Nixonââ¬â¢s intervention triggered the Arab oil embargo which Stauffer estimates cost the U.S. as much as $600 billion in lost GDP and another $450 in higher oil import costs.
ââ¬ÅThe 1973 oil crisis, all in all, cost the U.S. economy no less than $900 billion, and probably as much as $1,200 billion,ââ¬Â he says.
As a result of the oil embargo the United States created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to ââ¬Åinsulate Israel and the U.S. against the wielding of a future Arab ââ¬Ëoil weapon.ââ¬â¢Ã¢â¬Â The billion-barrel SPR has cost U.S. taxpayers $134 billion to date. According to an Oil Supply Guarantee, which former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger provided Israel in 1975, Israel gets ââ¬Åfirst callââ¬Â on any oil available to the U.S. if Israelââ¬â¢s oil supply is stopped.
Staufferââ¬â¢s $3 trillion figure is conservative as it does not include the increased costs incurred during the year-long buildup to the recent war against Iraq in which Israel played a significant, albeit covert, role. The higher oil prices that occurred as a result of the Anglo-American campaign against Iraq were absorbed by the consumers. The increase in oil prices provided a huge bonus for the leading oil companies such as British Petroleum and Shell, who are major oil producers as well as retailers. The major international oil companies recorded record profits for the first quarter of 2003.
The Washington Report seeks to ââ¬Åprovide the American public with balanced and accurate information concerning U.S. relations with Middle Eastern states.ââ¬Â The monthly journal is known for keeping close tabs on the amount of U.S. taxpayer money that goes to Israel and how much pro-Israel money flows back to Members of Congress in the form of campaign aid.
The journalââ¬â¢s website, www.wrmea.com, has an up-to-date counter at the top that indicates how much official aid flows to Israel. While the counter currently stands at $88.2 billion, it only reflects the minimum, as it does not include the many hidden costs.
ââ¬ÅThe distinction is important, because the indirect or consequential losses suffered by the U.S. as a result of its blind support for Israel exceed by many times the substantial amount of direct aid to Israel,ââ¬Â Shirl McArthur wrote in the May 2003 issue of Washington Report.
McArthurââ¬â¢s article, ââ¬ÅA Conservative Tally of Total Direct U.S. Aid to Israel: $97.5 Billion ââ¬â and Countingââ¬Â tallies the hidden costs, such as interest lost due to the early disbursement of aid to Israel and funds hidden in other accounts. For example, Israel received $5.45 billion in Defense Department funding of Israeli weapons projects through 2002, McArthur says.
Loans made to Israel by the U.S. government, like the recently awarded $9 billion, invariably wind up being paid by the American taxpayer. A recent Congressional Research Service report indicates that Israel has received $42 billion in waived loans. ââ¬ÅTherefore, it is reasonable to consider all government loans to Israel the same as grants,ââ¬Â McArthur says.
Support for Israel has cost America dearly ââ¬â well over than $10,000 per American ââ¬â however the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been extremely costly for the entire world. According to Stauffer, the total bill for supporting Israel is two to four times higher than that for the U.S. alone ââ¬â costing the global community an estimated $6 to $12 trillion.
Finis Courtesy Rumor Mill News Agents Forum
2003-09-09 05:29 | User Profile
Grand Total $84,854,827,200
Total Benefits per Israeli $14,630 Cost to U.S. Taxpayers of U.S. Aid to Israel
Grand Total $84,854,827,200
Lets see.. How much is that per American?
He never tells us! :naughty:
$84 Billion over 54 Years is Roughly $1.5 Billion per Year.
Divided bt an averge of 250 Million Americans (the are 300 mil now), That's $6 Per American per Year.
Geea.. and I thought after just looking at those big nimbers we all could get free healthcare or a Yacht or Something. Turns out it's not even enpough to buy a pack of Cigarrettes fro the avg American.
:rolleyes:
2003-09-09 05:41 | User Profile
Nice handle, Troll. :dung:
Too bad 250 million "Americans" don't all pay taxes. Even if it were six dollars per year for each tax-paying citizen, the constitution doesn't grant "our" government the right to tax citizens for foreign aid. I imagine that your aid will dry up as America becomes "diversified." Remember those mestizos are loyal to Mexico, not Israel, and they are also aware of the Jewish issue.
2003-09-09 05:45 | User Profile
Certainly more honest than the article it trolled Off.
Call it 100 Million Americans (Paying Taxes.. and that's probably low) and $15 if you like..
Strill no big deal
and you'll notice the Jerk Author never tells us that.
2003-09-09 05:59 | User Profile
Nice handle, Troll. :dung:
Too bad 250 million "Americans" don't all pay taxes. Even if it were six dollars per year for each tax-paying citizen, the constitution doesn't grant "our" government the right to tax citizens for foreign aid. I imagine that your aid will dry up as America becomes "diversified." Remember those mestizos are loyal to Mexico, not Israel, and they are also aware of the Jewish issue.
The forum has picked up another Jewish juvenile. The ones who venture into cyberspace are notorious liars. Lies are the religion of Zionism.
-Z-
2003-09-09 06:12 | User Profile
Care to refute anything I said or just namecall? :crybaby:
I didn't think so, Zoroasster. :crybaby:
Bye! :1eye:
2003-09-09 06:23 | User Profile
I don't trust the opinions of scum, particularly scum who ignore information harmful to the Zionist cause. But I do trust Stauffer's economic research and math.
** ââ¬ÅThe Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillionââ¬Â is a summary of economic research done by Thomas R. Stauffer. Staufferââ¬â¢s summary of the research was published in the June 2003 issue of The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.**
-Z-
2003-09-09 06:26 | User Profile
Like I said junior... you got Nothing.
NEXT!
2003-09-09 06:48 | User Profile
Thomas Stauffer's works have been published in a national magazine. I wonder if the works of scum have ever been brought to national attention. If I were to ask it, I venture to say it would acknowledge my superlority by telling me lies.
-Z-
2003-09-09 06:49 | User Profile
Still waiting for anything to rebutt my posts.
:y
2003-09-09 07:18 | User Profile
What's to rebut? You haven't made any real points.
Israel is an albatross around the neck of the US, and one red cent is too much to spend on that criminal enterprise. The sneaky Israeli dirtbags stab America in the back at every opportunity, and they only get away with it because US politicians are cowed by the ignorant Christian Zionist lobby.
The people of the US derive NO benefits from our support of the shameless Israeli parasites. All we have done is harm our national security by making ourselves the collective enemy of the Muslim world. We've also betrayed our foundational principles by perpetuating the Israelis' tyrannical oppression of the Palestinians.
Moreover, the sending of taxpayer money to Israel is blatantly unconstitutional because that funding stems from the pro-Israel lobby's ignorant religious beliefs. Forcing US taxpayers to send money to Israel is like forcing non-Catholics to send donations to the Vatican.
Fortunately, the Israelis cannot keep the American public in the dark forever. Each little piece of the puzzle that comes into public view shows a little bit more of the larger picture of Israeli treachery. Once a piece is in place, there it remains, and sooner or later the picture is revealed in its entirety. The Zionists will drown in their lies one day. It's inevitable.
2003-09-09 07:26 | User Profile
"....The people of the US derive NO benefits from our support of the shameless Israeli parasites. All we have done is harm our national security by making ourselves the collective enemy of the Muslim world. We've also betrayed our foundational principles by perpetuating the Israelis' tyrannical oppression of the Palestinians....""
Are Ya sure?
".....Israel has hundreds of intermediate-range ballistic missiles and has cooperated with the U.S. military-industrial complex regarding research and development for new jet fighters, antimissile defense systems, and even the Strategic Defense Initiative. No U.S. administration wants to jeopardize such an important relationship.10 Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi makes a similar point: An American military expert--Major **General George Keegan, a former air-force intelligence officer--has been quoted as saying that it would cost U.S. taxpayers $125 billion to maintain an armed force equal to Israel's in the Middle East, and that the U.S.-Israel military relationship was worth "five CIAs." There can be no doubt that from the U.S. point of view, the investment in Israel is a bargain, and the money well spent....""" **
[url=http://oasisproject.us/page2.html]http://oasisproject.us/page2.html[/url]
2003-09-09 07:43 | User Profile
You and your co-religionists have been such bears for illuminating 'uncomfortable truths' to the masses - for congratulating yourselves for your 'needling, questioning, arguing' natures - so why don't you face your own 'uncomfortable truth'?
Israel is now one of the most repressive, barbaric, evil empires on Earth - and by nature of her diaspora-distributed "branch offices" in the Western World's media and governments, the source of even more exponential evil. Your "hundreds of intermediate-range ballistic missiles" concern me less than your long-range ones....aimed at the heart of gentile nations should the day ever come when the jig is up.
"Friends" are for wheedling money out of and lecturing into servitude; "enemies" are for wiping out of existence. That is your glorious Israel in a nutshell. Face it, "shtty little country" is the Mother Goose-bowdlerized version of what you really *are.
2003-09-09 07:51 | User Profile
".....Israel is now one of the most repressive, barbaric, evil empires on Earth ...""
This is laughable statement of yours is going to come as a shock to Israel's 20% Arab population... who enjoy full tights and unlike all 'their own' countries nearby.. THEY VOTE! ..
None want to leave this "Barabaic Regime", where they enjot the highest Literacy rate, and Just about the highest Living standard in the Middle East... including that of Saudi Arabia.
But by all means..
Rant on! :sm:
2003-09-09 07:53 | User Profile
Israel's 20% Arab population... who enjoy full tights...
That's the problem! Now, if they had rights instead of free pants....
None want to leave this "Barabaic Regime", where they enjot the highest Literacy rate, and Just about the highest Living standard in the Middle East....
So did the former South Africa, but it didn't prevent the Jews in and out of SA from agitating for political and financial blackmail to turn it into the voodoo backwater and violent-crime garden spot of the African continent it is today. Just as America, 100 years ago, enjoyed a shockingly higher literacy rate than the dumbed-down goliath we've become after nursing the skullcapped vipers at our breasts.
2003-09-09 07:56 | User Profile
Kind of silly replying to the typing error instead of the point.
Please feel free to do so... if you can.
2003-09-09 08:29 | User Profile
Are Ya sure?
Yes, I am.
".....Israel has hundreds of intermediate-range ballistic missiles and has cooperated with the U.S. military-industrial complex regarding research and development for new jet fighters, antimissile defense systems, and even the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Israel's "cooperation" with the US in the development of military technology is nothing more than another avenue by which the Israelis steal US tecnological and military secrets (and often sell them to nations like China).
We don't need Israeli help with research and development. We have research capabilities well beyond those of the Israelis and a far greater number (though perhaps not a greater proportion) of top-notch scientists. Perhaps most important, the Israelis cannot be trusted.
No U.S. administration wants to jeopardize such an important relationship.
LOL! It's more like, "No U.S. administration has the guts to stand up to the pro-Israel lobby."
Major General George Keegan, a former air-force intelligence officer--has been quoted as saying that it would cost U.S. taxpayers $125 billion to maintain an armed force equal to Israel's in the Middle East, and that the U.S.-Israel military relationship was worth "five CIAs."
It would be far more accurate to say that it has ALREADY cost U.S. taxpayers that much to build the Israeli military to its current level. Nevertheless, their military is nothing compared to ours, and any help from them would be as effective as the proverbial fart in a tornado. Our bloating of the IDF has done nothing but earn us the ire of the other Middle Eastern nations and make our own nation less secure. We wouldn't need a strong military presence in the Middle East if we hadn't decided to make enemies of all the oil-rich Arab nations just to prop up the Zionists' little criminal state.
2003-09-09 09:51 | User Profile
Aryan scum,
Whether it's six dollars or six cents it is too damn much as far as I am concerned. If you like Israel so much then contribute your own money. Better yet, get the loot from Marc Rich, and the Jewish thieves like Gusinsky who plundered Russia. I'd rather use my six dollars on some good beer than see it go to a collection of murdering thieves.
2003-09-09 18:34 | User Profile
Surprise!
U.S. military employs Israeli technology in Iraq war
The Bush administration has made clear it wants Israel to stay out of an Iraq war so as not to provoke Arab and Muslim countries assisting the United States. But that won't stop Israel's weaponry and arms technology from being used against Iraqis. After decades of U.S. military aid and defense cooperation, the U.S. military is permeated by technology developed in Israel ââ¬â from the Army's Hunter drones to the targeting systems on the U.S. Marines' Harrier jets to the fuel tanks on its F-15 fighters.
[img]http://images.usatoday.com/tech/_photos/2003/war/harrier-inside.jpg[/img]
The Marines' Harrier jets utilize targeting systems developed by Israeli company Rafael.
AP/file
"We'll be shooting down some (French) Mirage 3s, I think, if the Iraqis ever come up. We may shoot them with an Israeli missile, from a U.S. warplane," said Joel Johnson, spokesman for the Aerospace Industries Association, a Washington-based industry lobby.
It would be hard to find a modern military that manages without technology developed by the Jewish state's feisty industry. Israel emerged last year as the world's No. 3 arms and military services exporter ââ¬â ahead of even Russia's massive arms industry, according to Jane's Defense Weekly.**
That Israel's weaponry has found a place inside the mighty U.S. military points to the country's engineering prowess ââ¬â and its status as a favorite ally, said Yiftah Shapir of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.
The U.S.-Israeli friendship "helps to a certain extent, but when it comes to commercial competition, these sentiments are put aside," Shapir said. "These are highly advanced and the price is highly competitive."
Iraqi forces might be on the receiving end of Israeli technology in several scenarios.
**A B-52 bomber could fire Popeye air-to-surface missiles ââ¬â dubbed AGM-142 by the U.S. Air Force ââ¬â at ground targets. The precision-guided Popeyes were designed by Rafael, a company partially owned by the government of Israel.
Israeli-designed Hunter unmanned aerial vehicles are in the service of the U.S. Army, and its cousin, the Pioneer, is being used by the U.S. Marines to scout Iraqi defenses. Both originated in the design labs of Israel Aircraft Industries, the country's largest private company.
The Hunter dropped anti-tank munitions in recent U.S. tests, and could be used alongside the Air Force's armed Predator missile-firing drone in a ground attack role.
Some of the Army's Bradley fighting vehicles are guided by on-board computers supplied by a subsidiary of Israel's Elbit Systems, Shapir said. U.S. troops riding in the Bradleys might also be protected by armor from Rafael, said Lova Drori, Rafael's director of international marketing.
Rafael is also the designer of the Litening Targeting Pods used to fire precision weapons from the Marines' AV-8B Harrier jet, as well as F-15s and F-16s flown by the Air Force Reserves and Army National Guard, Drori said. **
Israel also makes or designs multiple rocket launchers, mortars, and laser target designators for the Army's Comanche helicopter and other components, Shapir said.
Much of the equipment is manufactured in the United States by subsidiaries of Israeli companies, or through joint ventures with U.S. weapons manufacturers.
According to Jane's, Israel made more than $3.5 billion in arms sales last year, roughly equal to Russia's massive arms export industry. Only the United States and Britain sold more, Jane's reported.
Other sources don't factor in Israel's exports of services ââ¬â such as upgrades to tanks and fighter aircraft ââ¬â and rank Israel as a smaller exporter. London's International Institute for Strategic Studies called Israel the world's No. 5 arms exporter last year.
Besides the United States, Israel's top customers include Turkey, India, Brazil, Canada and Germany. China used to be a major client, but Israel backed off after protests from the United States, Shapir and others said.
[url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/iraq/2003-03-24-israel-tech_x.htm]http://www.usatoday.com/tech/world/iraq/20...rael-tech_x.htm[/url]
2003-09-09 18:50 | User Profile
A.S.,
The Israelis do make some good weapons. How much of that is due to stealing from U.S. firms I do not know. I did find this interesting:
According to Jane's, Israel made more than $3.5 billion in arms sales last year, roughly equal to Russia's massive arms export industry. Only the United States and Britain sold more, Jane's reported.
I'm glad to read this. Reading how Israel is the fifth largest arms exporter in the world tied in with the above means that the U.S. can cut off its aid to Israel. If one accepts the figure of 2.7 bil. dollars in aid to Israel, then by the above Israel is making a 800 mil. dollar profit. Therefore, they don't need our money.
2003-09-09 18:56 | User Profile
Well I'm glad you found that part interesting. At least you're learning something while spouting untruths.
You ignore, of course, what an important part Israeli weapons play in the US Military, their cooperation with us, and the fact much of it is manufactured here, the priduct of years of cooperation and joint development. My and General Keegans point.
2003-09-09 19:20 | User Profile
A.S.,
Actually, you're wrong. I'm very much aware of the I.D.F.'s involvement with the U.S. military's civilian "leadership." According to a retired Lt Col, senior members of the I.D.F. are able to sneak into the Pentagon without being signed in and meet with their American assets like Paul Wolfowitz. Members of the uniform military have complained about Israel, for lack of a better term, exchange members, trying to read secret documents and other acts of no doubt fraternal friendliness.
It's easy to see why so much U.S. military technology winds up in Red China.
2003-09-09 19:28 | User Profile
Actually.. you're being surprised and learning, and then feigning "Yeah I knew that", and throwing in some more useless anti-jew/Israel Propaganda with each post. You keep having to 'move the Goal Posts' to maintain a weak assault on what was that "Israel was doing nothing" for Aid.
Maybe some people are buying it. :clown:
I'm not.
Who's next?
2003-09-09 19:43 | User Profile
A.S.,
Tell you what. If you really want to help the U.S., then why don't you send three divisions to Iraq? You know, to help the boys out, seeing how they are doing so much for Israel. I haven't heard Sharon make any offers. Perhaps you should insist on it.
2003-09-09 19:51 | User Profile
A.S.,
Tell you what. If you really want to help the U.S., then why don't you send three divisions to Iraq? You know, to help the boys out, seeing how they are doing so much for Israel. I haven't heard Sharon make any offers. Perhaps you should insist on it.
Well, since I'm an American "you" is the USA, and 'we' did send divisions.
Israel, however, did offer to help, but as we all know, the US didn't want to rile it's Arab 'friends' (I use the term 'friends' loosely.. obviously).
Israel, in fact, even passed on retaliation for missile attacks in the 91 Gulf War for it's friend the USA.
That's a alot ask.. and they did it.
Yet another reason for our support (Thanks! I had forgotten that one)
Even as you try and wiggle from your original (Lost) point and try a new ploy... You're losing yet more ground. :P
2003-09-09 20:07 | User Profile
A.S.,
You're not an Israeli!? Had me fooled. I thought you might be HBendor.
I don't think I'm losing anything. I really having fun with you. Here's some more stuff on the Israelis. As for that "help" goes, John McCain, who is hardly an Arab sympathizer didn't want any Israelis either. I wonder why?
I don't recall them offering any forces. Anyway, having the Israelis over there would only make things worse for U.S. forces, so it just shows that having Israel as an ally is like teats on a boer. They are unless because they can't be used anywhere and I believe they want it that way.
[url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?showtopic=1820&hl=military+technology]http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php...tary+technology[/url]
[url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?showtopic=1488&hl=military+technology]http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php...tary+technology[/url]
[url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?showtopic=968&hl=military+technology]http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php...tary+technology[/url]
Yep. Some "ally." :lol: We'll play some more later.
2003-09-09 22:37 | User Profile
There can be little doubt that Israel is now a strategic liability. The down-sides far outway the up-sides. Whatever our reasons are for supporting Israel--appeasing the Jews, maintaing ties with the Israeli Jews, whatever--the deciding factor is not a strategic one.
However, there are some strategic upsides. It's true we haven't been able to use the Israeli's to do sh*t, but they are a threat. They could potentially take-out out Syria, Lebanon, and Iran if we let them go gangbusters. It is possible that things could come to that, and in any case, the threat has some use to us.
Again, these kind of upsides are far outwayed by the ill-will our support of Israel generates among Muslims, and by the sheer finacial cost involved. But they exist.
2003-09-09 23:07 | User Profile
If some "friend" of yours deliberately sets you up and then promises to take care of the problem himself (that you were originally not a part of), does that "friendship" have an upside? And if he does, is it an act of "friendship", or an act of a parasite hoping to continue the assymetric relationship?
If someone borrows money from you and then returns only small fraction of it, is the act of returning a fraction of the owed money an "upside"?
Only if you use Jew math.
2003-09-09 23:47 | User Profile
Aryan Scum,
When it comes to "US weapons developed in Israel," just exactly whose money do you think was used to fund that research? Let's keep things in perspective. Israel is a parasitic nation that sucks money out of the US. That is a simple fact.
By pouring money into Israel's military research programs, the US is simply allowing technology to be developed in Israel that otherwise would have been developed here in the US. That means that (1) the technology is less secure, since the Israelis have been known to share our military secrets with potentially hostile nations such as China, and (2) jobs involved in the research, development, and manufacture of those weapons systems are lost to Israel.
There is nothing the Israeli research community can do that the US can't do better. NOTHING. We are a much bigger and wealthier nation, and our resources dwarf those of Israel in every respect. Any "cooperation" with Israel on the part of the USA is due to political pressure and nothing more. The notion that the US gains more than it loses on account of its "special relationship" with Israel is a Jewish lie.
2003-09-10 01:59 | User Profile
Hey Angler!
that's some very theoretical but false BS about that "The US would develop the weapons anyway" :lol: If they didn't 'pour' all that money in Israel". Not that less than $2 Billion is years is 'pouring' to begin with. (1 B-2 bomber cost 2 Billion).. and Egypt gets 2 billom a yr as well for being a 'Friendly Arab'.
Israel was testing and modifying US combat Jets since the 1960's-- Adjustments which then became the USA standard because of the Combat needs of Israel's great pilots.
Israel has more than 60 companies on Nasdaq, most Tech, and they achieve their magic with no Aid... Just Jewish brains and free market capital.
All of the above that I've said in the string aside... I am For phasing out AID to Israel (which was scheduled to happen by 2008) unless there is some purpose that serves USA ends. ... Like intelligence etc you don't know about, and services they do indeed already provide.
2003-09-10 03:46 | User Profile
If some "friend" of yours deliberately sets you up and then promises to take care of the problem himself (that you were originally not a part of), does that "friendship" have an upside? And if he does, is it an act of "friendship", or an act of a parasite hoping to continue the assymetric relationship?
If someone borrows money from you and then returns only small fraction of it, is the act of returning a fraction of the owed money an "upside"?
Only if you use Jew math.
Well, yeah, the fact that he paid you back in part is an upside. Maybe that's 'Jew math,' but I say is also good Protestant math as well--Jews aren't the only penny pinchers out there, you know.
2003-09-10 04:05 | User Profile
Good Judaeo-"Christian" math, you mean?
2003-09-10 13:31 | User Profile
"....The people of the US derive NO benefits from our support of the shameless Israeli parasites. All we have done is harm our national security by making ourselves the collective enemy of the Muslim world. We've also betrayed our foundational principles by perpetuating the Israelis' tyrannical oppression of the Palestinians....""
Are Ya sure?
".....Israel has hundreds of intermediate-range ballistic missiles and has cooperated with the U.S. military-industrial complex regarding research and development for new jet fighters, antimissile defense systems, and even the Strategic Defense Initiative. No U.S. administration wants to jeopardize such an important relationship.10 Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi makes a similar point: An American military expert--Major **General George Keegan, a former air-force intelligence officer--has been quoted as saying that it would cost U.S. taxpayers $125 billion to maintain an armed force equal to Israel's in the Middle East, and that the U.S.-Israel military relationship was worth "five CIAs." There can be no doubt that from the U.S. point of view, the investment in Israel is a bargain, and the money well spent....""" **
[url=http://oasisproject.us/page2.html]http://oasisproject.us/page2.html[/url]**
1) Against whom is arrayed $125 billions worth of military might but the regional peoples who are antagonized by the presence of this alien element and with whom we would do business amicably, otherwise?
2) What has been the cost to the U.S., et. al., of the additional incitement to OPEC collusion in restraint of oil supply by virtue of the presence of the Zionist entity?
2) Since the CIA is worse than worthless, we have, at best, five times nothing, thanks to Lesser Judea.
2003-09-10 13:39 | User Profile
that's some very theoretical but false BS about that "The US would develop the weapons anyway" If they didn't 'pour' all that money in Israel". Not that less than $2 Billion is years is 'pouring' to begin with. (1 B-2 bomber cost 2 Billion).. and Egypt gets 2 billom a yr as well for being a 'Friendly Arab'.
We send Israel one hell of a lot more than 2 billion dollars per year, as the article at the beginning of this thread explains. And as for paying billions to Eqypt, Jordan, etc., that's just another "hidden cost" of America's "friendship" with Israel. The US pays that money to those nations in return for their docility towards Israel.
Israel has more than 60 companies on Nasdaq, most Tech, and they achieve their magic with no Aid... Just Jewish brains and free market capital.
I hate to break this to ya, but the average Israeli IQ is lower than the average American IQ (94 versus 98). For a source, see the following book:
[url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/027597510X/102-8884341-0795343]http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/027...8884341-0795343[/url]
Jews in the USA may have a higher average IQ than American Whites, but the raw number of high-IQ Whites is much greater than the raw number of high-IQ Jews. The reason is simple: Whites greatly outnumber Jews, and the mean US Jewish IQ is not far enough above the White mean to make up for the huge population advantage Whites have. (Although one study -- done by a guy named Rushton -- found an average Ashkenazi IQ of 115, others have pointed out the small sample size used in Rushton's research and suggest that a more realistic figure is about 108.)
The point is that the US has a far larger reservoir of brainpower than Israel (even if you don't include US Jews in the tally). We also have greater economic and material resources. Anything Israel can do, someone in the US can do better -- and the Israelis know it. That's why they're constantly spying on us and trying to steal our technology.
All of the above that I've said in the string aside... I am For phasing out AID to Israel (which was scheduled to happen by 2008) unless there is some purpose that serves USA ends. ... Like intelligence etc you don't know about, and services they do indeed already provide.
US aid to Israel, phased out by 2008? That would be nice, but I doubt it will happen unless there's an uprising in the US. It's pretty clear that the Israelis don't have enough sense of shame to wean themselves off of the US taxpayer tit, so any change in the parasitic nature of the US-Israel relationship will probably have to be initiated by the US.
By the way: You are an Israeli yourself, are you not? I strongly suspect that you are, although of course you'll deny it.
2003-09-10 17:56 | User Profile
Firstly, I'm an American
An America-First American.
**I see alot of 'American-Seconder' Americans here.
You know... people who hate Jews so much they won't even do what's in America's best interest because it also might help Israel.... Like the Iraq War. These are the most Despicable of our citizens.. and I see so many here. People who are 'cutting off their proverbial noses to spite their faces'.**
Second, Isreal's IQ is dragged down because Israel is not 100% Jewish and not all Ashkenazi. Israel is 20% Arab.. (full voting citizens I might add) Also, Sephardim have also been interbreeding with Arabs for centuries. Israel also has Ethiopean Jews whose IQ is more in keeping with Black IQ's worldwide.
So looking at National IQ is a useless business, which Is why the chart I provided,(from here [url=http://www.nutri.com/wn/gp.html)]http://www.nutri.com/wn/gp.html)[/url] breaks down people within a country.
Who's next?
2003-09-10 18:06 | User Profile
Scum like you make a mockery of the word "American."
America will not be free or safe until Zionism is six-feet under the ground.
-Z-
2003-09-10 18:19 | User Profile
A.S.,
I suggest that if you find the fare here too rich for your taste that you go back to the neo-con kosher deli that "Free" Republic has become. There are a number of veterans on this board and as one of them I don't like seeing my patriotism question by draft dodgers like Limbaugh or Cheney, nor did I care for being lied to as I was during the first Gulf War.
Just like there is the term "R.I.N.O.," I have a term for those who push foreign policies that only hurt this country in the long run-- "A.I.N.O.s."
"Americans" in name only.
2003-09-10 18:44 | User Profile
"Americans" in name only.
A superset of Jews, naturally.
By the way, even Freakers perhaps stopped insisting that the Iraq war was "good for America", I should go and check.
2004-04-29 20:10 | User Profile
As a Zionist Christian and member of Jewish Task Force ( [url="http://www.jtf.org/"]www.jtf.org[/url] )
I support an immediate end to all U.S. foreign aid, even to a genuine friend and ally like Israel, which is harmed rather than helped by her counterproductive dependency on America's addictive welfare handouts. But I especially oopose the $2 billion sent to our Muslim Sand Nazi enemies in Egypt.
[img]http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040418/capt.xan10804181357.mideast_egypt_rantisi_reaction_xan108.jpg[/img]
Egyptian students of Al- Azhar university, the highest IslamiKKK Sunni institution, burn American, British and Israeli flags as they demonstrate against Israel's assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas leader, Sunday, April 18, 2004 in Cairo.
2004-07-03 04:16 | User Profile
I look on my recent posts and obviously I am spilling in anger.. but I am not angry with the American People, just the Government. Sadaam said the same thing amny times. As a true scholar of history, I know that my rants surface without documentation and references, in a way I assume a certain level of understanding about the world and its complexities. I just now thought that you can infer some understanding by this comparison.
1) Upon receiving office, Franklin Roosevelt ( FDR ) immediately granted full recognition of Communist Russia. One of his most famous quotes is that " in politics, nothing happens by accident ". In the 1930s, while the last vestiges of the British Empire ( with absolute disdain by Lawrence of Arabia ) were cutting out the map that still stands, our so-called country, the USA, formally made as ally and supported a Jewish movement called Bolshevism. Ideologogies aside, over 20 million Russian farmers were MURDERED under this regime in its forst ten years. Yet the USA Government fed them money and support. Concerning Iraq, Iraq was simply a region drawn up to appease one of Lawrence of Arabia's friends, namely 1921 Faisal Becomes Iraqi King -(8/23/21)The British received the mandate for Iraq. An insurrection resulted,which lasted six months, until the British were able to put it down, in December 1920. In June 1921, Emir Faisal, formerly the King of Syria, arrived in Iraq. Faisal was soon proclaimed King of Iraq. He remained on the Iraqi throne until 1933. If one considers many obvious facts, it is evident that Sadaam Hussein was the American darling in the 1970s and 1980s, being looked upon as progressive, putting women in Iraqi government, giving many freedoms including no taxation and gun rights, free water, free gas, etc. Only when Sadaam with his Pan-Arabic outlook posed a " ideological threat " to Israel did all the problems happen. Then the UN sanctioned Iraq and shut it out. Over 3 million babies died. When the Kuwaitis ( Kuwait is not a country. It is a group of sheiks who sell their oil to the West for vast profit ) drilled into Iraqi land, draining Iraqi oil and the leaders made statements such as " Iraqi women will all be 10 dinar prostitutes " .. well as any proud leader would do, especially considering the un-historical basis of the region and the mass influence of Jews in Kuwait, Saddam led a charge into that small land , and was even given the " green light " by April Gillespie, the US ambassador. Have I said enough ? comments ...
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen, are eternal. II Corinthians 4:18
2005-03-01 06:12 | User Profile
my post was months old.. not one person here will challenge it's facts and assertions, thats stands. we here at OD preach mainly to the same choir.
Let me say once and for all.
The United Nations in 1946 cannot "create" Israel. Modern day Israel is total, absolute, unmitigated and untold EVIL. To support it, to render it aid, to even recognize it, is an Absolute and Cardinal Sin.
Hell Shall be Paid.
2005-03-01 16:51 | User Profile
The Bush administration will ask Congress to approve $2.22 billion in military aid to Israel in 2005. Israel will receive $1.96 billion in military in 2004. The increase is based on the 1996 US decision to reduce US civilian aid to Israel- then amounting to $1.2 billion - by $120 million a year while increasing military aid by $60 million a year.
Israel's procurement of F-16I combat jets is the largest item in the US military aid budget, at $4.5 billion. It is the largest arms deal in Israeli history.
Israeli and US officials held several meetings in Washington in recent days, at which Israel asked for special aid to preserve its qualitative edge against threats to the country. The US Department of State announced that it would seek funding for this purpose, and that it planned to participate with Israel in several R&D programs. One of these programs is the M-THEL short-range missile and Katyusha rocket interception system, formerly known as Nautilus.
In addition to the annual military aid, the US has promised Israel $9 billion in loan guarantees over the next three years. The US and Israel agreed that US will deduct specific amounts from the guarantees for Israeli spending in the territories. The US agreed to allow Israel to begin raising loans before the final decision on the amount of the deduction is made.
The US argues that the aid to Israel is based on the fact that "Israel's economy is not efficient enough, forcing it to rely on external aid and loans for its security." Israel has received $3 billion a year in US military and civilian aid since 1985. However, the civilian aid will be eliminated altogether in 2008, in exchange for an increase in military aid. Israel has been the largest recipient of US aid since 1976, and has received more money from the US than any other country since World War Two.
The procurement of F-16I combat jets is the largest item in the US military aid budget, at $4.5 billion.
Dror Marom 4 Nov 03
[url]http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=738312&fid=1725[/url]
2005-03-01 17:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE]"Israel's economy is not efficient enough, forcing it to rely on external aid and loans for its security." [/QUOTE]
This is something for the idiots to ponder whenever they complain about how socialist Europe is.
2005-03-01 17:34 | User Profile
Besides the loans (gift) of 3 to 7 BILLIONS DOLLARS that we give to the state of Israel every year you have the ones that Uncle Sam don't talk about like weapons, spare parts and a lot more.
I read a while ago that a brand new two and half ton Army truck got a small dent and they declared a total lost and given to the state of Israel.
Two years ago the US government declared, I don't know how many, millions of round for the M-16 as absolet and given to the state of Israel, the date that those rounds were made was in 1990.
We have parked in the state of Israel tons and tons of military equipment that we keep there for emergency use but the state of Israel are permitted to use it in case of "emergency", as you know in Palestine it is a state of "emergency" every day, according to the Zionists.
Maybe the American people buys this Oi Vey Oi Vey poor me from the Zionists but I don't.
By giving weapons to the Zionists in order for them to kill and steal land from the Palestinian people it is like if America itself is committing the crime.
2005-03-01 18:45 | User Profile
Ponce, please see my post 'Prophet in a Pin Stripe Suit' in the Dispensationalism & Christian Zionism section.
James V. Forrestal tried to warn the American people of the danger Israel & Zionism presented to the United States and ended up paying the ultimate price.
2005-03-01 21:37 | User Profile
[QUOTE=vytis]Ponce, please see my post 'Prophet in a Pin Stripe Suit' in the Dispensationalism & Christian Zionism section.
James V. Forrestal tried to warn the American people of the danger Israel & Zionism presented to the United States and ended up paying the ultimate price.[/QUOTE]
Sorry vytis but I was unable to find it, will you please repost it here or send it to me as a pesonal message? thanks.
2005-03-01 22:03 | User Profile
Ponce,
Here's the link.
[url]http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16982[/url]
2005-03-01 23:36 | User Profile
Thanks, but I still don't see anything there related to my posting......oh well, must be my age.
Anyway..... this is really confusing to me and maybe it will make sense to you because it sure as hell it dosen't make any sense to me.
Here is the deal........Condolese Rice is running all over the place trying to get money for the Palestinians in order to rebuild their homes for after the Jews leaves the occupied territories, are you with me so far?
Now then, Sharo is asking for money from US tax payers in order to build new homes (once again) for those Jews that will be leaving the occupied territories, ok?
HOWEVER, Sharon is going to destroy the houses in occupied territories once the illegals occupiers leave the area or in other words he wont leave anything standing up for the return of the Palestinian people.
So......we pay to build houses for the jews, we pay to have the palestinians killed, and now once again we pay for the new houses for the Jews.
We already "helped" the Jews build their homes, the first time, and now we should help the Palestinian people. ============================
The Zionists are now training their pilots for long range bombing, to bomb what? Iran? there is more than that. ===========================
The draft will be back by June of the present.
REMEMBER......You have to register for the draft, is the law You have to go in for a physical, is the law You have to go in when they call you, is the law BUT...............YOU DON'T HAVE TO RAISE YOUR HAND IN ORDER TO BE SWORN IN, IS NOT THE LAW.
2005-05-22 16:35 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Exelsis_Deo] 1. If one considers many obvious facts, it is evident that Sadaam Hussein was the American darling in the 1970s and 1980s, being looked upon as progressive, putting women in Iraqi government, giving many freedoms including no taxation and gun rights, free water, free gas, etc.
Saddam was to Iraq as Stalin was to Russia, in some part. He tried to lead his nation into the 20th century by brute force of will. I agree with you that, for an Arab Muslim, he was a progressive, a modernist.
For the 70's, he was more a Soviet Client than US Client. Look who made the bulk of his weapons. Russian and France. Once Iran pissed off the US, Saddam became "someone we could work with against a mutually disliked third party."
Gillespie's non-message in the summer of '90 remains to me confusing. Saddam had been playing "saber rattle" with Kuwait for some years, and the usual outcome was a little checkbook diplomacy. Remember the issues regarding "who was sideways drilling into whose oil fields" in the late 80's?" For reasons I do not understand, Emir of Kuwait chose not to pay in 90.
Given Saddam had the 4th largets army in the world at the time, I cannot fathom why anyone would turn a blind eye when he crosses the line into Kuwait. With Kuwaiti oil, he would be able to make a dent on the huge debt he ran up in the war versus Iran, and then try his hand at something new.
Iran? Saudi Arabia? Israel? All of them? I wonder if Saddam would ever tell what he was thinking on that score in the Summer of '90.
Was it Saudi influence or Israeli/Zionist influence that made Saddam suddenly too big of a threat? Either case can be made with decent logic, but I don't see those two parties working together on much of anything.
2005-05-22 16:45 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Ponce] Here is the deal........Condolese Rice is running all over the place trying to get money for the Palestinians in order to rebuild their homes for after the Jews leaves the occupied territories, are you with me so far?
Now then, Sharo is asking for money from US tax payers in order to build new homes (once again) for those Jews that will be leaving the occupied territories, ok?
HOWEVER, Sharon is going to destroy the houses in occupied territories once the illegals occupiers leave the area or in other words he wont leave anything standing up for the return of the Palestinian people.
So......we pay to build houses for the jews, we pay to have the palestinians killed, and now once again we pay for the new houses for the Jews.
We already "helped" the Jews build their homes, the first time, and now we should help the Palestinian people.[/QUOTE]Wow. That is nuts. Sounds like the script in a Peter Sellers movie. Exporting idiotic governmental processes / ideas is not a good way to improve the world.
PS: Forrestal had an Aircraft Carrier named after him. There was an LPD named USS Ponce in our flotilla when I was on a Sixth Fleet ship. Hmmmm, ya might want to stay away from hospital windows if you ever visit Bethesda, there may be a linkage there . . . :oh:
2005-05-22 17:33 | User Profile
Ok Angeleyes, and what part of what I wrote above sounds crazy to you? if what I wrote is not the truth what is it?. Please do say.
By the way while you are at it, could you tell me when has the state of Israel paid back to the US tax payers any portion of the so called "loan" that we have given them?
And also, why is the state of Israel holding 16 billions dollars of us debts? (US bonds)
Look to me like your are one of the intelligent "chosen ones" and I have some more questions for you.
2005-05-22 19:07 | User Profile
Ponce:
Guess my post did come across with the right tone.
"Nuts" as in "truth is stranger than fiction" not "nuts, I don't believe it."
The whole scenario sounds just crazy enough for our government to have been involved in it.
Does my reply make more sense now? :smoke:
As to Israel and money, I really enjoyed Zoraster's string of posts on Israeli aid and loans. Did not realize the annual subsidy was about three times what I remembered it as.
Value for the tax dollar? Suspect. US highways and rail need the money more. That would be investing in OUR future.
[QUOTE=Ponce]Ok Angeleyes, and what part of what I wrote above souns crazy to you? if what I wrote is not the truth what is it?. Please do say.
By the way while you are at it, could you tell me when has the state of Israel paid back to the US tax payers any portion of the so called "loan" that we have given them?
And also, why is the state of Israel holding 16 billions dollars of us debts? (US bonds)
Look to me like your are one of the intelligent "chosen ones" and I have some more questions for you.[/QUOTE]
2005-08-03 06:32 | User Profile
I think the U.S. goverment should not supply Israel anymore it put's all of us in the firing line.
2005-08-03 08:16 | User Profile
AA,
[B]No one[/B] here would argue with you otherwise.