The Israelis are, doubtlessly, celebrating the fact that the US will extend military aid to Israel over the next 10 years to the extent of US$30 billion. Long term this aid will come back and bite the Americans on the bum - as also the military aid to be given to Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
How the US electorate will respond to this generous aid given that its own infrastructure has been seen to be wanting - witness the recent bridge collapse - is hard to know at this stage. David Lindorff, writing in CounterPunch, addresses the issue:
"According to a new Associated Press report, the US is offering Israel a record $30-billion 10-year military aid package.
Let's ignore for a moment the AP story's irony-free comment that "Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said the package was meant to back peace-seeking countries like Israel and moderate Arab states in the region to counter U.S. adversaries such as Iran." (Israel is a "peace-seeking" country?) We'll just focus on the amount of money that's being promised here.
Israel is a land of only 6 million people. That works out to about $5000 in arms aid per man, woman and child, and of course, since nearly a third of the people in Israel are Palestinian, and won't see a penny's (or bullet's) worth of that aid, it's really closer to $7500 per person. And remember, this is no basket case nation; this is one of the most technologically developed and wealthiest countries on earth we're talking about here.
Looked at another way, this aid to Israel represents a gift of $100 worth of money and weaponry from every man, woman and child in America to the people of Israel."
How the US electorate will respond to this generous aid given that its own infrastructure has been seen to be wanting - witness the recent bridge collapse - is hard to know at this stage. David Lindorff, writing in CounterPunch, addresses the issue:
"According to a new Associated Press report, the US is offering Israel a record $30-billion 10-year military aid package.
Let's ignore for a moment the AP story's irony-free comment that "Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said the package was meant to back peace-seeking countries like Israel and moderate Arab states in the region to counter U.S. adversaries such as Iran." (Israel is a "peace-seeking" country?) We'll just focus on the amount of money that's being promised here.
Israel is a land of only 6 million people. That works out to about $5000 in arms aid per man, woman and child, and of course, since nearly a third of the people in Israel are Palestinian, and won't see a penny's (or bullet's) worth of that aid, it's really closer to $7500 per person. And remember, this is no basket case nation; this is one of the most technologically developed and wealthiest countries on earth we're talking about here.
Looked at another way, this aid to Israel represents a gift of $100 worth of money and weaponry from every man, woman and child in America to the people of Israel."
Comments
Israel and Egypt are receiving aid, that is, free money. But they money is, mostly, part of the Camp David deal: they stop fighting and the US will give them money. That may be a bad deal, but it's one that been around for the past 30+ years.
There's certainly nothing wrong with complaining to Congress about this, as long as you realize that taking money from Israel isn't going to earn a lot of votes. Taking it only from Egypt might please some, but will not have a happy ending.