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The simple answer to your question is to ask yourself what is likely to happen if the aid were to end. Let's let history be our guide: 1. Israel may preemptive
by rrggrr 11y ago
The simple answer to your question is to ask yourself what is likely to happen if the aid were to end. Let's let history be our guide:
1. Israel may preemptively strike Iran believing "now or never". Has done so before in many other situations.
2. Israel will increase its growing ties with China and Russia. Hillary Clinton's email dump suggests there is concern about this at State.
3. Israel'a adversaries (eg. Iran, Hezbollah, etc.) will renew and increase attacks. There will be instability and loss of life. 1948, 1973, 1982, etc.
4. Increasing conflict and instability will cause great economic pain globally. We know this because almost every recession since 1948 has been proceeded by conflict in the middle east, most of the time Israel.
Any of these outcomes cost much more than $3b USD, and for the expense US taxpayers get these added benefits:
1. Jobs, jobs, jobs. US defense contractors are one of America's few remaining manufacturing hotspots.
2. Slightly less interest by Saudi Arabia, etc. in pursuing WMD to counter Iran. And under-the-table deals between some Arab states and Israel, which have Israel maintaining a tenuous balance of power in the Middle East, countering Iran.
3. Democracy. You elected your representatives, senators and president. Don't like their position on Israel? Organize, donate and vote. Sitting on HN and complaining unless you're doing the other three things feels good but accomplishes nothing.
4. Peace of mind. Organize, donate, vote and win -- and you can credit yourself among the winners who saved $3b, and plunged an entire region into further chaos, resulting in the deaths of likely millions. Major dark side points for you.
Want $3b back? The government can find $3b with ease and allocate it to the small business administration to create jobs at home. Betcha they won't, because people love to complain about things like foreign aid, but fail to complain about the lack of hard dollars to small businesses, entrepreneurs and small business employees.
EDIT: If you're going to cherry pick individual points to dispute you might point out that you're unable to dispute the general thesis.
- walls 11y agoSo America should keep propping them up indefinitely, at any cost?
- DasIch 11y agoBetter Israel than Saudi Arabia, don't you think? Somehow supporting Israel is always critized but a government that's almost indistinguishable from ISIS apart from the fact that they happen to be allied wih the US is apparently fine with most people. You may want to consider whether it's really the cost you're so worried about.
- samstave 11y agoThis is an amazing comment - yet it really illustrates how fucked up the situation is. It's become a catch-22, and there is no longer any way out.... We are now beholden to the situation forever. And to worsen the dynamic, Israel is an AMAZING producer of tech. And as we all know tech is the lifeblood of the future. There is no way to extricate ourself from this situation, however that does not invalidate the frustration of it. We need to recognize that Israel is an actual powerful economy, and we need to find a way to let them stand on their own, and not literally being the big brother ready to punch out any bully at school. The fundamental fact is that Israel should have never become a nuke power. Ever. That's the hand that has us by the balls.
- dogma1138 11y agoUS military aid to Israel is less than 10% of Israel's GDP, most of those 3 bln. can only be used to buy US made equipment so cutting 3 bln. $ would mean that those 3 bln. are gone from the US defense industry not the other way around. >The fundamental fact is that Israel should have never become a nuke power. Ever. That's the hand that has us by the balls. Israel hasn't even attempted to deploy nukes in 1973 where the situation was almost dire, It's quite unlikely that it will ever use them under any circumstance other than retaliation (and even then it's some what doubtful). You make it sound like Israel is blackmailing the US it doesn't, the US knows that if it cuts the ties between the defense industries it will have both another competitor (Israeli arm deals have to be approved by the US congress since the Chinese Phalcon incident) and it will push Israel to both China and Russia and the last thing that the US wants is open and unrestricted technology sharing between those countries. Israel isn't Pakistan it's not an open nuclear state which parades it's nukes and is a bad day away from becoming a nuclear armed Taliban. While I agree that nukes in the middle east aren't the best idea with recent events vis a vis the Iranian nuclear deal there is no way now for Israel to officially join the NPT and be on a path for disarmament, and as far as nuclear arm races in the ME goes Israel is not now and never has been a factor. Iraq wanted nukes to nuke Iran, Saudi Arabia now wants nukes to counter Iran, Iran wants nukes to be a regional super power.
- samstave 11y ago