US military aid to Israel is an investment that pays BIG dividends!

Guest Editorial - Reflections from the Iraq War Era - ISRAPUNDIT

ISRAEL: THE ONLY RELIABLE AMERICAN OUTPOST IN THE REGION

Return on investment to the United States’ in military tech collaborations, AI, robotics, microchip, cyber & security, communications, medical technologies, employment of Americans and boost to the value of American business and trade, is a thousandfold. Miracles created in that tiny land have become miracles unfolding in America.

By Ted Belman 

CREDIT SCREEN SHOT

The Israel Lobby has received a lot of attention these days, and Israel’s enemies complain that Israel is the largest recipient of US aid in the world, as if Israel were a costly liability, rather than a golden goose. They argue for cancelling the aid. I thought I would put it in perspective.

In 2006 Israel received $2.3 billion in military aid, the largest portion of it was spent in the US. It also received $240 million in economic aid. this latter aid is being phased out.

A deal has recently been signed to increase this to $3 billion a year. As much as this means, it is a very small percentage of the total US military budget, in fact 0.6% of it.

Military budget of the United States
From Wikipedia,

The United States military budget is that portion of the United States discretionary federal budget that is allocated for the funding of the Department of Defense. This military budget finances employee salaries and training costs, the maintenance of equipment and facilities, support of new or ongoing operations, and development and procurement of new equipment. The budget includes funding for all branches of the military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

For 2007, the budget was raised to a total of US$532.8 Billion.[1] This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance and production (which is in the Department of Energy budget), Veterans Affairs or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (which are largely funded through extra-budgetary supplements, e.g. $120 Billion in 2007).[2]

Now the Iraq war has cost about $500 billion so far and is increasing at the rate of $6 billion a month. (Please don’t attack me for these numbers. There are many ways to calculate costs which may double this.)

Now what’s $3 billion in comparison? Especially when you consider what America gets in return. Ten years ago this was described as follows:

“The U.S. supports Israel’s dominance so it can serve as “a surrogate for American interests in this vital strategic region.” “Israel has helped defeat radical nationalist movements” and has been a “testing ground for U.S. made weaponry.” Moreover, the intelligence agencies of both countries have “collaborated,” and “Israel has funneled U.S. arms to third countries that the U.S. [could] not send arms to directly,…Iike South Africa, Contras, Guatemala under the military junta, [and] Iran.” Zunes cited an Israeli analyst who said: “‘It’s like Israel has just become another federal agency when it’s convenient to use and you want something done quietly.”‘ Although the strategic relationship between the United States and the Gulf Arab states in the region has been strengthening in recent years, these states “do not have the political stability, the technological sophistication, [or] the number of higher-trained armed forces personnel” as does Israel.

“Matti Peled, former Israeli major general and Knesset member, told Zunes that he and most Israeli generals believe this aid is “little more than an American subsidy to U.S. arms manufacturers,” considering that the majority of military aid to Israel is used to buy weapons from the U.S. Moreover, arms to Israel create more demand for weaponry in Arab states. According to Zunes, “the Israelis announced back in 1991 that they supported the idea of a freeze in Middle East arms transfers, yet it was the United States that rejected it.”

Thus the more the US gives Israel, the more it sells the Arabs. All of this supports the US military industry.

CREDIT-RAFAEL ADVANCED DEFENSE SYSTEMS

Besides these issues, Israel is akin to a US aircraft carrier extending US power throughout the ME. Thus America does not have to have a 400,000 soldiers standing army in the ME because they can always turn to Israel’s Army. It took six months for the US to send troops to fight Iraq in the first Iraq War. Israel can be ready to go with full mobilization in 48 hours. Now what is that worth?

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ADDITIONAL COMMENT by ANDREW BENJAMIN:

For perspective, Israel receives very little American aid in the military budget in the light of FUBAR!, Biden’s mindless Afghan withdrawal that, calculated for the American arsenal he left behind to terrorists who’ve murdered thousands of Americans, cost the Pentagon 65 years worth of Israeli aid.

Israel returns many billions to America in jobs, opportunities, and business. Consider the computer, chip, internet security and cyber technology America gets regularly from THE START UP NATION! Your computer and cell phones have, or had, Intel and Qualcomm chips made in Israel. And Microsoft software designed in Israel. You’re able to read this page only because of Israeli technology. You enjoy internet security and chat, invented by Israeli technology.

Israeli Emergency Patches stop the bleeding from hemorrhagic wounds caused by traumatic injuries. Distributed to troops in the field, these saved the lives of tens of thousands of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. What are their lives worth?

Israeli ELBIT SYSTEMS and RAFAEL DEFENSE, among others, are the test beds of the latest state-of-the art weaponry used by the American military. Often at the risk of their own lives, Israeli warriors reguarly test these weapons in actual kinetic conflicts with the nation’s terrorist neighbors. Israel then supplies, often in collaboration with its American military contractor counterparts, ready-to-use avionics for America’s latest warplanes, guidance systems for America’s latest missiles, anti-missile systems IRON DOME that protect entire regions from missile attack, anti-drone systems now going to Ukraine, RAFAEL’s anti-anti-tank TROPHY weapons systems for America’s next generation tanks; anti radar and anti cyber warfare technologies, and items so secret that even SKUNKWORKS can’t think them up.

In other words, these are not even the tip of the iceberg covering Israel’s contributions to America’s security that have been saving American lives for decades (in Iraq, Africa, Somalia, Lybia, Kosovo, Syria, the Med and Gulf regions and elsewhere), and in the future will save countless American lives. Here we haven’t even begun to list the other technological and medical miracles coming out of this tiny nation.

THE BOTTOM LINE: U.S. aid to Israel is handsomely returned in American jobs to American business, international volume of trade, medicine, and U.S. security interests (as a return on investment), and wealth, a thousandfold. As well as in lives and families saved, the value of them cannot be measured.

THE LATEST ISRAELI MILITARY NEWS

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© Andrew G. Benjamin is in finance, real estate and equities, a former advisor to New York City mayor ‘s office (Subcommittee on Taxation, Finance and the Budget). Benjamin wrote extensively about politics, transnational and domestic, intelligence and military affairs, security and strategy, economic issues, Mideast, terrorism, technology and high end audio.

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