http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-how-much-america-really-spends-on-israels-defense-2012-9
Last week the Jerusalem Post reported<http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=284637&R=R101>that former Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Commander-in-Chief Gabi Ashkenazi told a conference that *U.S. taxpayers have contributed more to the Israeli defense budget than Israeli taxpayers in the past three years*. **** This comment has been passed around everywhere. **** Alison Weir of *Veterans News Now* pointed out<http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/09/17/us-taxpayers-paid-more-to-israeli-defense-budget-than-israelis/> it was the first instance of an* *Israeli leader saying that U.S. taxpayers contribute more money to Israel's defense budget than Israeli taxpayers.**** But the claim seemed fishy to us.**** Given that U.S. military aid to Israel<http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf>was $2.775 billion in 2010, $3 billion in 2011, $3.07 billion in 2012 (and $3.15 billion per year from 2013-2018) while Israel's defense budget is around $15 billion, it made us wonder how much Israeli taxpayers contribute and where the other $12 billion non-U.S. aid comes from.**** We emailed Shmuel Even, an expert of Israel's defense<http://www.inss.org.il/upload/%28FILE%291267608515.pdf> at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, who told us that Israel's up-to-date defense budget for 2012 is $15 billion, with 70 percent contributed by Israeli taxpayers, 21 percent coming from U.S. aid and 9 percent coming from Defense Ministry income.**** That would put the Israeli taxpayer contribution at $10.5 billion, compared to $3.15 billion from the U.S. (Even added that the U.S. aid in 2011 was $3.1 billion and that most of the aid comes in weapons as opposed to cash.) **** So was Lt. Gen. Ashkenazi—who served as the IDF supreme commander from 2007 to 2011—simply mistaken? Or is he alluding to something that one of Israel's top researchers doesn't know?**** Shmuel Even watched the video of Ashkenazi's speech and said the former IDF chief "said it, *but I don't know why*." **** Even added that Ashkenazi "also said that the U.S. military aid is $3B. So he knows the numbers. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
