NINE TRILLION DOLLARS

This is the direct cost of US support for Israel since 1947.  It does not include indirect costs, such as 9/11 and the growth of the police state in the aftermath.  It is the sum of figures given in the US Army War College study listed below and the costs of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars:  

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-wars-in-afghanistan-iraq-to-cost-6-trillion/5350789

Put differently, Israel accounts for almost half of the US national debt.  Let that sink in for awhile.  

There are of course costs for which no accounting is possible including the loss of respect and prestige the US once enjoyed  though much of the world as the only non-colonial great power after decades of being Israel’s personal bitch, hypocrisy as the US continues the charade of brokering a “peace process” with a partner who has no interest in it whatsoever.  Rather than promoting human rights around the world, in Israel the US is funding ethnic cleansing and apartheid.  This for a nation that has a GDP per capita just below that of France.

Israel is not our ally.  It is not our friend.  It is in fact our greatest enemy.

 

 

Cost of Israel to the US

www.councilforthenationalinterest.org

Our uniquely massive support for Israel has cost trillions of dollars and multitudes of lives. It has diminished our moral standing in the world, lessened our domestic freedoms, and exposed us to unnecessary and growing peril.

The majority of Americans – as well as our diplomatic and military experts – oppose this unique relationship. Yet, the lobby for Israel continues to foment policies that are disastrous for our nation and tragic for the region.

If we are to have Middle East policies that serve the national interest, that represent the highest values of our founders and our citizens, and that work to sustain a nation of honor, decency, security, and prosperity, then it is essential that all Americans become active and informed. Below are the facts:

American taxpayers give Israel over $8 million per day

stacksofmoney

(See report from Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress)

This to a nation of about 7.5 million people – smaller than New Jersey. Israel has received more American money than any other nation on earth. It is more than we give to all the starving countries of Africa put together.

From 1950-53 Israel’s financial influx from the U.S. was one billion dollars; Israel at that time had 1.6 million inhabitants.

In the past 40 years, American taxpayers have given Israel approximately $200,000 per Israeli family of five.

This costs us even more:

US aid to Israel is given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year

Unemployed

Since the US is operating at a deficit, this means that we borrow the money, give it to Israel, and then pay interest on it long after it is gone.

Israel, on the other hand, makes interest from it. Congress has mandated that Israel’s aid be immediately deposited to an interest bearing account with the Federal Reserve Bank.

Additional financial costs: $3 trillion

* About $1.5 billion to Egypt and $843 million to Jordan is dispensed annually under arrangements made to induce these countries’ friendly relations with Israel.

* Billions of dollars have been lost to U.S. manufacturers because of the Arab boycott engendered by Israeli actions.

* Enormous and continuing costs to U.S. consumers of petroleum, which surged to such heights that it set off a world-wide recession during the Arab oil boycott imposed in reaction to U.S. support of Israel in the 1973 war.

There are a multitude of such costs.

report by an economist commissioned by the Army War College in 2002 to analyze the situation in full found that the total cost to Americans over Israel’s 60+ years has been $3 trillion.

Americans have a higher unemployment rate than Israel and 10 million families are reportedly sliding into foreclosure; yet Americans continue to give tax money to Israel.

Costs of the Iraq war:  hundreds of thousands of lives & over $3 trillion

us-casketsThe costs of the the Iraq war, which was promoted by Israel partisans, are almost incalculable and are still growing.

The war added trillions of dollars to the federal debt, and this doesn’t include future health care and disability payments for veterans.

Economists report that the global financial crisis was due, at least in part, to the Iraq war.

The same parties are pushing for a similar attack on Iran.

The Lobby for Israel overrules US experts

AIPACU.S. policies in the Middle East rarely reflect U.S. interests and values.

Instead, over the objections of a multitude of State Department and Pentagon analysts, they are largely driven by a variety of factors:

1. Special-interest lobbying.  Fortune Magazine rates one of the many lobby organizations working on behalf of Israel, AIPAC, as the second most powerful lobbying Washington. Many analysts consider the pro-Israel interest group the most powerful lobby in our nation. It consistently drives U.S. policies, to the detriment of Americans.

william fulbrightBy the late 1960s Senator William Fulbright found that U.S. aid to Israel was being secretly funneled back to lobbyists in the U.S., who would use it to lobby for still more U.S. money to Israel.

2. Israel partisans in the U.S. government and media: The efforts of a growing number of individuals with close ties to Israel (some are neoconservatives, others are neoliberals) who often hold key positions in U.S. administrations, the State Department, Pentagon, and media.

The US Ambassador to Israel stated that all US Middle East policies are predicated on their effect on Israel. This is a highly inappropriate practice and one that is replicated in no other region. US policies should be based on American interests and priorities, not those of a foreign nation.

3. Campaigns by pro-Israel funders to engender Islamophobia: to create fear and hatred of Muslims, a highly diverse population of 1.5 billion people whose faith is one of the three Abrahamic religions and who worship the same God as Christians and Jews.

4. Israeli-centric news reporting by the U.S. media consistently misportrays the current situation and the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

5. Hollywood movies and television shows, which often play a significant role in shaping attitudes and beliefs. These shows, frequently produced by individuals with ties to Israel, depict Arabs and Muslims almost always negatively, Jews and Israelis almost never negatively, and Christians both positively and negatively.

(Interestingly, the oil and weapons industries are not responsible for our relationship with Israel. In fact, at times these industries have lobbied against U.S. support for Israel, which undermines their ability to do business in the region.)

Israel promotes its own interests, which is the right of any nation

However, this is done at the expense of Americans who fund it.

There is considerable evidence that Israel is not the close ally many Americans believe it to be:

–The GAO has reported that Israel conducts the most intense spying operation against the U.S. of any of our presumed allies. Israel features prominently in the annual FBI report called “Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage.”

–Intelligence experts consider Jonathan Pollard the most damaging spy in US history. For years Israel denied any connection to Pollard; now it actively lobbies for his release. (CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who used to work for the Israel Lobby, wrote a book about Pollard that “senior Israeli Defense Department officials are understandably pleased with.”)

–Israeli forces have killed and injured numerous Americans. Rarely, if ever, have there been significant consequences.

–Israel has stolen U.S. technology, and passed it on to other nations, some of them U.S. adversaries.

The Israeli attack on the USS Liberty

libertyposter2-lowresIn 1967 Israeli forces attacked a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing 34 Americans and injuring 174.

An independent commission in 2003 by extraordinarily high-ranking U.S. military officers and officials found that Israel had committed an act of war against the United States, the US President had recalled rescue aircraft, and that the President had ordered a cover-up on the incident.

These statements, recorded in the Congressional Record, were not reported by U.S. news media.

Israeli ethnic expansionism has caused regional misery, instability, and continual conflict

Israeli aggression (Israel initiated all of its wars except one) and its violations of international lawhuman rights conventions, and UN resolutions, have created enormous hostility against it throughout the world. The US, as Israel’s number one funder, is increasingly imperiled by hostility created by Israeli actions.

See our section on Israel-Palestine.

Nuclear weapons pose danger both to the region itself and far beyond

Israel has refused to sign the nuclear proliferation treaty and the British American Security Information Council has found that in Israel “nuclear weapons are being assigned roles that go well beyond deterrence.”

While US intelligence agencies have so far found no indication that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, Israel’s possession of these weapons, combined with its history of aggression, create a compelling motivation for other nations in the region to acquire them for deterrence.

Israel frequently uses American weapons in violation of US laws, killing and maiming large numbers of civilians, women, and children.

Since this is funded by American tax payers, and shielded by the U.S. government, it is causing dangerous hostility toward the U.S. abroad.

Damage to civil liberties and the American way of life

TSA searches childThis dangerous and unnecessary peril (diplomats note that before Israel the US had no enemies in the region) has caused Americans to tolerate dangerous infringements on our libertyand violations of our Constitution.

This is causing deep damage to our character as a nation.

Deeply intrusive and potentially carcinogenic airport scanners (promoted by former Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff, who makes money off them), offensive ”pat-downs” of our women and childrenabrogations of our nation’s most fundamental legal principles are just a few of the direct and indirect results of our Israel policies.

A secure, prosperous, and honorable America

statue of libertyWe would be far safer and our nation far healthier by heeding the wisdom of George Washington, the father of our nation:

“…nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.”

These policies create tragedy and destruction abroad and at home. It is time to change them.

—–

Please join our email list to become informed about ongoing developments and of actions you can take.

This site is a work in progress. Please check back often for more embedded links, additional information, and other improvements.

10
Leave a Reply

avatar
  Subscribe  
Notify of
poydras
poydras

Who hates Jews, and why?

TPC
TPC

They are not our greatest enemy, but I would definitely say that they aren’t an ally either. Let Israel worry about Israel. They’ve proven their meddle and right to govern by test of arms, I think its time Uncle Sam moved out of the house and let them show that they can be a country without a constant US presence.

Hell, maybe if they didn’t have the full backing of the US they’d stop stirring up shit in the middle east. I swear those guys have spent the last 30 years kicking the bee hive is hard as possible just because they can.

overthecliff

“I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you”– God. People may disagree with that statement but it will still be true.

Stucky

One of the more troubling aspect of American politics in the neocon dominated era of post September 11, 2001 is the fixation on what benefits the state of Israel – or more appropriately that extremist element that has manifested itself in their government – to the detriment of what is good for America.

It is not arguable that the Middle East wars of aggression undertaken in consistence with the PNAC/Clean Break neocon doctrines as well as the ongoing US defense of Israeli human rights abuses only serves to create more enemies for America. Former Bush administration once infamously remarked “fuck the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway” and while this was probably just a bit too inclusive it was back in the day when the Republican party didn’t turn the recognition of the state of Israel into a cheap and perilous partisan issue.

This may be good business for the surveillance security military industrial complex that is just drooling over the prospects of ‘another 9/11’ for wealth beyond their wildest dreams but it is bad policy and dangerous as well. It serves neither America or Israel wall and there will come a day when those who like Adelson and the neocons who have sowed the seeds of discontent will reap the whirlwind.

http://carryingaflag.blogspot.com/

Stucky

For Zara …. In my country there is problem, and the problem is the Joo

Econman
Econman

They’re the “chosen people”. Whatever they do is backed by God!

& people think Arabs are nuts? Anyone who thinks they have some hall pass from the Almighty are wackos.

Discover more from The Burning Platform

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading