US Aid: When does Israel Get it?
By MK (Member of Knesset) Moshe Feiglin
August 18, 2014
From The Marker, A publication supplement to Ha’aretz, Israel’s most Left wing newspaper
The Marker published an important report on Sunday, August 17, 2014 on US ‘aid’ to Israel. If you read the small print, you will find exactly the same things that I have been writing for the last two decades: “Today it is clear,” says the report, “despite the fact that no prime minister or Finance Minister will say so — that Israel can live without the grant.”
Until the Six Day War, in the days of shortages and tent camps — an era when Israel really did need all the help possible. American aid was approximately 2% of Israel’s GNP. Instead of sending aid, the US reneged on its support of the Partition Plan, opposed the establishment of the State of Israel and declared an arms embargo on fledgling Israel, which was being threatened with destruction by all the Arab armies surrounding it. Only in 1962 did the Americans throw Israel a few bones: left-over Patton tanks from World War II.
When did the trend do a complete turnabout? When did the US begin to sell Israel weapons in strategic quantity and quality? When did Israel begin to receive US military and civilian aid, which increased until it grew to 15% of our GNP?
When we left the ‘occupied territories’?
When we ended the ‘occupation’?
When we destroyed the settlements?
No! …Actually, just the opposite is true. In 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights (and expelled 60,000 Syrians, established Israeli towns and villages and regained the Heights) Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem – and the Sinai desert. Suddenly it became America’s favored ally.
(The facts are that the 3 billion in aid from the US began when Richard Nixon was in office. Nixon, despite Kissinger, was sharp enough to understand that Israel was the US key ally in the Middle East and its only bulwark against Russian aggression, aided and abetted by Arab duplicity. Nixon considered it a 3 Billion dollar bargain — an absolute steal compared to the billions of dollars the US spent annually maintaining thousands of American troops in both Europe and Japan protecting these areas and sustaining their economies. Nixon was no lover of the Jewish people nor were the rest of American presidents and certainly not the American State Dept. He was a proud American and smart enough to know what was in America’s best interests — unlike the present occupier of the office) jsk
But that is not the end of the story. When did US aid to Israel begin to decrease?
The greatest amount of US aid, in grants and loans, was afforded to Israel in one year, 1979, in which the peace accords between Egypt and Israel were signed. According to The Marker, US aid to Israel in that one year was 15.7 billion dollars.
And since then?
If we take the US rhetoric literally, then when Israel made peace and surrendered the entire Sinai to Egypt, we should have received more aid. But for some reason, the ‘occupation’ increased the aid, while ‘peace’ brought about its decline.
Today, US ‘aid’ to Israel, entirely military, is at its lowest level ever. Even the leftist Ha’aretz admits that Israel does not really need it. We take this ‘aid’ for psychological reasons (if we get an allowance, that means we have a father) and pay for it dearly; much more than its economic, security and diplomatic benefit.
One thing must be clear. Israel and America do share many common values. (Israel is, far and away, the only democracy in the Middle East) It is important to strengthen them on a mutual basis. But we do not receive any aid for being ‘nice guys’. Israel receives US ‘aid’ regardless of how many Gazans were killed. We receive the ‘aid’ because it is in the economic, security and diplomatic interest of the US. When Israel is strong (1967) it is worth America’s while to invest in us. When we retreat (since 1979), the US invests in us less and less.
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