Aid to Israel
The Strategic
Function of U.S. Aid to Israel,
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, by
Stephen Zunes, October 31, 2002
"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."
[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"]
The
Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers: True Lies About U.S. Aid to Israel,
by Richard H. Curtiss, sianews.com, November
17, 2002
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." ... 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. It would be interesting to know how many of those American
taxpayers believe they and their families have received as much from the
U.S. Treasury as has everyone who has chosen to become a citizen of Israel.
But it's a question that will never occur to the American public because,
so long as America's mainstream media, Congress and president maintain their
pact of silence, few Americans will ever know the true cost of Israel to
U.S. taxpayers."
Economist
tallies swelling cost of Israel to US,
The Christian Science Monitor, December 9,
2002
"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:
• 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.
• 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.
• The US has given
$2.5 billion to support Israel's Lavi fighter and Arrow missile projects.
• Israel buys discounted, serviceable "excess" US military equipment. Stauffer
says these discounts amount to "several billion dollars" over recent years.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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."
Israel wants
more than total US foreign aid budget,
Financial Review, January 8, 2002
"A delegation from Israel, the largest recipient of US foreign aid,
has sought $US12 billion ($21 billion) in assistance at a meeting with State
Department and White House officials, Israeli officials said. The request,
covering the next three to five years, exceeds the
total $US11.6 billion budgeted last year by the US for
all countries. The request is to help Israel weather the Palestinian
uprising and a possible US war with Iraq ... Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
office said Israel was asking for $US4 billion in direct assistance and
$US8 billion in loan guarantees. A US official indicated before the meeting
that the US was open to the request. 'We always try to do what we can to
help our friend and ally,' the official told reporters. The meeting was
intended to focus on "Israel's current economic situation and Israel's expected
request for supplemental assistance", he said."
Bush
Decides Against New Aid Grants for States,
Reuters, January 7, 2003
"President Bush has decided against offering grants to cash-strapped
states as part of a $674 billion economic stimulus package he is to unveil
on Tuesday, the White House said. The White House had been considering providing
$10 billion to states to reduce budget woes but White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer told reporters that Bush had decided against it. 'The goal
of the package is to stimulate the economy, not transfer money from one
taxpayer-funded source in the government to another taxpayer-funded source
in a different government,' Fleischer said."
RETURN TO JTR HOME PAGE
|
