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The total cost to the U.S. for backing Israel doubled the cost of Vietnam War
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WASHINGTON,
December 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – According to a report
released Monday, December 9, Israel has, since 1973, cost the
United States about $1.6 trillion, that is more than $5,700 per person
if divided by today's population.
Thomas
Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington, tallied the total cost
to the U.S. for its backing of Israel, and discovered that the bill
doubled the cost of Vietnam War, reported the Christian Science
Monitor.
"And
now Israel wants more. In a meeting at the White House late last month,
Israeli officials made a pitch for $4 billion in additional military aid
to defray the rising costs of dealing with the Intifada [against Israeli
occupation] and suicide bombings. They also asked for more than $8
billion in loan guarantees to help the country's recession-bound
economy," reported the Monitor.
Considering
Israel's deep economic troubles, Stauffer doubts the Israel bonds
covered by the loan guarantees will ever be repaid, said the paper,
adding that the bonds are likely to be structured so they don't pay
interest until they reach maturity.
"If
Stauffer is right, the U.S. would end up paying both principal and
interest, perhaps 10 years out," said the paper.
The
Monitor said that Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign
aid. "It is already due to get $2.04 billion in military assistance
and $720 million in economic aid in fiscal 2003. It has been getting $3
billion a year for years," said the paper, adding that the U.S. has
given Egypt $117 billion and Jordan $22 billion in foreign aid in return
for signing peace treaties with Israel.
According
to Stauffer, there is a higher cost of oil and other economic damage to
the U.S. after Israel-Arab wars.
Other
additional U.S. help to Israel include the fact that the U.S. Jewish
charities and organizations have remitted grants or bought Israel bonds
worth $50 billion to $60 billion, said the Monitor.
In
addition, the U.S. has already guaranteed $10 billion in commercial
loans to Israel, and $600 billion in "housing loans," it
added. The U.S. has also given $2.5 billion to support Israel's Lavi
fighter and Arrow missile projects.
The
Monitor listed the following as add-on values to the Israeli-U.S.
relations:
•
Israel buys discounted, serviceable "excess" U.S. military
equipment. Stauffer says these discounts amount to "several billion
dollars" over recent years.
•
Israel uses roughly 40 percent of its $1.8 billion per year in military
aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of U.S. weapons, to buy
Israeli-made hardware. It also has won the right to require the Defense
Department or U.S. defense contractors to buy Israeli-made equipment or
subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar the U.S. gives
to Israel.
U.S.
help, financial and technical, has enabled Israel to become a major
weapons supplier. Weapons make up almost half of Israel's manufactured
exports. U.S. defense contractors often resent the buy-Israel
requirements and the extra competition subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.
•
U.S. policy and trade sanctions reduce U.S. exports to the Middle East
about $5 billion a year, costing 70,000 or so American jobs, Stauffer
estimates. Not requiring Israel to use its U.S. aid to buy American
goods, as is usual in foreign aid, costs another 125,000 jobs.
•
Israel has blocked some major U.S. arms sales, such as F-15 fighter
aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. That cost $40 billion over 10
years, says Stauffer.
