| http://www.pakistannation.net/Arti_Pub/MarApr01/CostofIs.htm
Expensive Friends How many times have we heard the story that a child was unable to receive critical care due to lack of insurance, or if there was more funding available to cancer research we would have progressed in leaps and bounds in achieving a cure. What amazes me is our government – democrat's or republican's, lack of commitment for the just needs and over commitment for military aid to propagate war and unrest in foreign regions. Ever wonder what truly is being bought for $120 toilet seat? Most Americans are not aware how much of their tax revenue our government sends to Israel. For the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the U.S. has given Israel $6.72 billion: $6.194 billion falls under Israel's foreign aid allotment and $526 million comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Information Agency and the Pentagon. The $6.72 billion figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totaling $3.122 billion the U.S. pays on money borrowed to give to Israel. It does not include the cost to U.S. taxpayers of IRS tax exemptions that donors can claim when they donate money to Israeli charities. (Donors claim approximately $1 billion in Federal tax deductions annually. This ultimately costs other U.S. taxpayers $280 million to $390 million.). When grant, loans, interest and tax deductions are added together for the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, our special relationship with Israel cost U.S. taxpayers over $10 billion. Since 1949 the U.S. has given Israel a total of $94.5 billion. The interest costs borne by U.S. taxpayers on behalf of Israel are well over $50 billion, thus making the total amount of aid given to Israel since 1949 in excess of $144.5 billion. This may mean that U.S. government has given more federal aid to the average Israeli citizen in a given year than it has given to the average American citizen. It angers me that my government is giving over $10 billion to a country that is more prosperous than most of the other countries in the world and uses much of its money for strengthening its military and the oppression and massacre of civilians. In addition to its direct foreign aid, Israel normally receives more than a billion dollars in assistance from other portions of the federal budget. The total of extras for fiscal year 2000 will not be clear until later in the fiscal year, but preliminary indications are that Israel will receive some major extras from the Pentagon budget for joint U.S.-Israeli development of various weapons systems. Israel also receives all of its annual foreign aid during the first month of each fiscal year, unlike other recipients who receive their aid in quarterly payments. The Israeli government therefore is able to invest its foreign aid in U.S. Treasury notes, thus realizing upwards of $50 million annually in interest. Even before the extras from the Pentagon and other federal budgets are included, the fiscal year 2000 appropriation will bring the total of U.S. government grants and loans to Israel from 1949 through Oct. 31, 1999 to approximately $91,816,507,200 - this is more than the total of U.S. aid to all of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean combined. Yet these countries had a combined total population of 1.142 billion people in mid-1999, while Israel claimed a total 1999 population of 6.1 million. This means that Israel, with a population smaller than that of Hong Kong, receives about one-third of U.S. bilateral foreign aid worldwide. During the more than half a century that has elapsed since the creation of Israel on May 15, 1948, the U.S. has lost tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars as a result of the Arab economic boycott, and more as a result of the 1973 Arab political oil boycott that touched off a recession in the U.S. and the industrialized countries. There also are incalculable costs associated with the vastly increased security outlays for U.S. government installations at home and abroad necessitated as a result of U.S. support for Israel in its long-standing disputes with its Arab neighbors. Ironically, unconditional U.S. government financial support for Israel, regardless of its performance in the peace process, is a major factor in steadily increasing Israeli intransigence in spurning land-for-peace settlements. Just as such self-defeating U.S. actions are caused by the increasing strength of the Israel lobby and its media supporters in the U.S., the result has been increasing difficulty for any Israeli government, whatever its preferences, in carrying out territorial withdrawals in the face of domestic opposition. But as Israel becomes increasingly dependent upon American official and private subsidies, the U.S. likewise becomes increasingly vulnerable to unified economic retaliation from the foreign nations organizing to support an end to suppression. Ultimately the cost to U.S. manufacturers in the aircraft, auto, and other industries may become so great that they will be forced to mount a counter-lobby to Israel’s otherwise unopposed domestic lobby. Although the transfer of U.S. resources to Israel, and the expenditure of U.S. resources in defense of Israel, certainly are unprecedented in world history, the individual cost to American citizens still is growing, with no end in sight. The president, the secretary of state, and the foreign aid administrator 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 puts 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, and is actively involved in false information dissemination and influencing politicians – at times to compromise the American interest over Israel’s. With our unprecedented support to this nation our cost per Israeli is well over $24,000 – wouldn’t you love the American Government is they gave you $24,000. |
