109 ms·

You may be wrong on a few fronts here. Firstly, Congress funded the 1.5bn, not Obama, and these things are never cash - the funding is in the form of vouchers t

You may be wrong on a few fronts here. Firstly, Congress funded the 1.5bn, not Obama, and these things are never cash - the funding is in the form of vouchers to spend with US defense contractors. The vouchers are not made available to US allies on the understanding of "our companies will help you develop something, and then you'll share it with us". That was never the deal. The deal is: "the United States Congress would like Raytheon to upskill in missile defense, why don't you work with them and we'll cover your costs".

sixQuarks 7y ago
Are these “gifts” on top of the billions of dollars in aid the US gives Israel each year?
- bpodgursky 7y ago
  No, these kind of transactions are exactly what the "aid" in question consists of. There aren't buckets of cash being airlifted, no-questions-asked.
  - adventured 7y ago
    That's not an entirely accurate picture. There used to be buckets of economic cash. Total aid to Israel is around $230 billion for the post WW2 era (primarily in the 1970-2020 time frame). Of that, $34 billion was economic aid. In the 1970s and 1980s the US was funding the equivalent of 3-5% percent of Israel's economy directly with economic aid (their economy only crossed over $100b in GDP as of 1995; if you go back to the 1970s and 1980s, they had a relatively tiny economy, so that $34b in economic aid was outsized in relation at the time it was being dispursed). Israel no longer needs the economic aid they used to, so that component has declined to being routinely zero.
- golergka 7y ago
  All the "aid" to Israel (as well as to many other countries around the world, including many Israeli rivals in the region) consists of this vouchers. It "helps" Israel much less than it helps congressmen keep military jobs in their districts.
  - djwhsbxh 7y ago
    ≥https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4yK7kRwIVE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4yK7kRwIVE Looks pretty helpful to me, or are you one of the types who feels like Israel should just rollover because they don't belong there?
greedo 7y ago
Your conflating military aid with this contract. When we provide military aid, it's in the form of credit for purchases from approved U.S. countries, pending Congressional approval. This was a straight military equipment purchase.

sixQuarks 7y ago

Are these “gifts” on top of the billions of dollars in aid the US gives Israel each year?

bpodgursky 7y ago
No, these kind of transactions are exactly what the "aid" in question consists of. There aren't buckets of cash being airlifted, no-questions-asked.
- adventured 7y ago
  That's not an entirely accurate picture. There used to be buckets of economic cash. Total aid to Israel is around $230 billion for the post WW2 era (primarily in the 1970-2020 time frame). Of that, $34 billion was economic aid. In the 1970s and 1980s the US was funding the equivalent of 3-5% percent of Israel's economy directly with economic aid (their economy only crossed over $100b in GDP as of 1995; if you go back to the 1970s and 1980s, they had a relatively tiny economy, so that $34b in economic aid was outsized in relation at the time it was being dispursed). Israel no longer needs the economic aid they used to, so that component has declined to being routinely zero.
golergka 7y ago
All the "aid" to Israel (as well as to many other countries around the world, including many Israeli rivals in the region) consists of this vouchers. It "helps" Israel much less than it helps congressmen keep military jobs in their districts.
- djwhsbxh 7y ago
  ≥https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4yK7kRwIVE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U4yK7kRwIVE Looks pretty helpful to me, or are you one of the types who feels like Israel should just rollover because they don't belong there?

greedo 7y ago

Your conflating military aid with this contract. When we provide military aid, it's in the form of credit for purchases from approved U.S. countries, pending Congressional approval. This was a straight military equipment purchase.