Ever since Israel became a nation, the US heavily supported it. For decades, Israel received more foreign aid each year than any other country, about $3 billion/year until 2019, then about $3.8 billion/year or more after that. In fiscal year 2024, the most recent fully-reported year, Israel received $6.82 billion, the most of any country. In three years, 2022, 2023 and probably 2025, Ukraine got significantly more than Israel. Other than that, Israel is #1!
US military aid to Israel
A NYT article, Trump Approves $2.8 Billion Arms Sale to Israel, Including 40,000 One-Ton Bombs, discusses a new US weapons package for Israel. As usual, the MSM typically does a piss poor job of reporting necessary context. In this case, the headline says its a sale of bombs. The real reality is that US taxpayers are paying for the bombs. The United States will use public funds to finance Israel’s purchase of ~$2.8 billion in U.S.-made munitions. Presumably due to the MSM’s heavy bias in favor of Israel, that inconvenient little detail is buried in the article like this: “The United States provides Israel $3.8 billion a year in base military aid, including $3.3 billion in financing that Israel uses mainly to purchase U.S. weapons—including the recently proposed bomb sale”.
To be clear and precise, the NYT’s framing of a “$2.8 billion sale to Israel” headline is not a neutral shorthand. Calling taxpayer-financed bombs a “sale to Israel” is formally accurate but substantively deceptive. By omitting that US military-financing grants provide the money Israel uses to purchase US weapons, including 40,000 1-ton bombs, the NYT presents a taxpayer-financed gift as a commercial transaction. This is not a commercial transaction. It is direct military aid we pay for. In the context of the MSM’s long-term pattern of euphemisms and omissions that favor Israel, it is reasonable to infer this deceptive framing is an intentional editorial practice. Sanitized reporting loaded with euphemisms is works to shield all kinds of American taxpayer support for Israel from public understanding and scrutiny.
The useful idiot ally
Despite the staggering amount of decades of US financial, military, diplomatic, scientific, commercial, and every other kind of aid, Israel typically treats the US like an idiot and an enemy. We help Israel, a tiny country with a small economy and a population of less than 10 million. In return, Israel often treats the US badly or worse. Don’t believe it? Well, here’s some evidence.
Occasionally, Israel acts in ways adverse to US interests, including confirmed espionage and very hard-edged domestic political advocacy. Although AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is an American lobbying organization, not an Israeli government agency, it acts in close coordination to the Israeli government. AIPAC uses a mirage of independence from Israel to claim its electoral activity is legal should not be equated with espionage or proof that Israel influences US policy. That’s a load of manure. Israel absolutely does influence US policy. AIPAC functions as a foreign agent, but the US government is so corrupted by American Jewish money, a/k/a/, free speech, that AIPAC has never been claimed to be a foreign agent.
Given the documented scale of pro-Israel political spending, the electoral leverage it creates, a long record of resistance to treating AIPAC as a foreign agent, and the organization’s sustained service to Israeli state interests, it is common sense, in the ordinary evidentiary sense, to infer that political money helps protect AIPAC from scrutiny and regulation as the foreign agent it actually is.
Source – Note the focus on primaries where each dollar of “free speech” has more value
Also, (1) Israel spies on the US, and (2) Israel sometimes (usually?) undermines, delays, and acts contrary to US-backed Palestinian peace, ceasefire, and two-state proposals.
Q1: If one sees what Israel is doing in Gaza and/or the West Bank as genocide, is the US also guilty of genocide by providing weapons and ammo, e.g., 40,000 1-ton bombs?
Q2: Is Israel America’s friend, enemy, or something else or unknowable? Is the US a useful idiot in relation to Israel?
Some info sources:
Which countries receive the most U.S. foreign aid?
What countries receive the most foreign aid from the US?
U.S. Foreign Assistance By Country
U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel: Overview and Developments since October 7, 2023
AMERICAN ISRAEL PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE — Coverage dates 01/01/2025 to 07/31/2026 Total Contributions: $47,779,957.99
AIPAC didn’t always spend on campaigns. Now it faces criticism over money in politics
AIPAC, One of the Biggest Spenders on U.S. Elections, Faces Its Biggest Test
Israel: Background and Relations with the United States — In November 1985, Jonathan Pollard, a civilian U.S. naval intelligence employee, and his wife were charged with selling classified
documents to Israel. Four Israeli officials also were indicted.
Jonathan Pollard, Spy for Israel, Gets Hero’s Welcome From Netanyahu: ‘You’re Home’
CIA: POLLARD’S LIFE TERM SEEN AS WARRANTED
Portugal says Israel undermining Palestinian state through settlement expansion
Why Israeli tenders for illegal E1 West Bank settlement prompted outrage
No comments:
Post a Comment