This is an illustration of whether Israel feeds off the economic success of the US, which is something we discussed on the blog recently:
Israel and US
Opinions, art, debate
Opinions, art, debate
This is an illustration of whether Israel feeds off the economic success of the US, which is something we discussed on the blog recently:
Clarissa's Blog 
Oh no! You’re such an anti-Semite for posting statistics! I’m so scared. Israel hater, terrorist, Iran appeaser, communist, leftist scum, anti-American, anti-Israel, blah blah blah blah. FOX News and the Israel lobby say that if you don’t support Israel 200%, you’re an evil racist, even though there are plenty of people of Israeli descent living in America who don’t have such extremist views when it comes to Israel.
Try asking these people how funneling more money to Israel helps our security situation here at home and I bet none of them would be able to provide a sufficient answer. Iran hasn’t even attacked another country directly in over 200 years! Those idiots want to cut spending, but don’t want to do anything about the amount of money going to Israel. I smell more hypocrisy.
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Yes, I’m one of those self-hating Jews. 🙂 🙂
I’m also bothered by the approach of some Israelis who like to pretend that they are doing it all on their own and the bad, mean US is in no way involved in Israel’s success. Yeah, right.
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Fascist is another common insult I’ve heard. That Lindsey Graham character who browbeated Chuck Hagel disgusted me to no end.
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There are few things I hate as much as people throwing about “fascist” and “Nazi” whenever they want to signal their dislike for somebody. The very idea is offensive because it empties the words of any actual content.
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The results would be even more dramatic if you calculated US foreign aid per capita. So, Israel with a population of about 7.7 million people gets approximately $400 per person, while the next biggest aid recipient, Afghanistan, with a population of 35 million gets approximately $66 per person, and Pakistan $12 per person. Talk about disparity.
So Israel gets ten to twenty times more foreign aid than the poorest, most wretched third world countries. Completely deserved, of course. I’m sure things really must be bad there, economically. Widespread famine, illiteracy, low life expectancy, high infant mortality, and so on. You doing all right there, el?
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Let’s try to raise the level of discourse here, folks. Why would anybody give foreign aid to the “poorest, most wretched third world countries”? What would be the practical uses of that?
Eduardo Galeano, one of the great Latin American intellectuals, wrote in 1970, (I’m quoting from memory): “International charity does not exist. It begins at home, for the US as for everybody else. The role of foreign aid is, first and foremost, domestic.”
We cannot have a serious discussion of foreign aid if we insist on upholding the childish belief that it is in any way connected to famine, illiteracy and infant mortality. It is not, has never been, and will never be about anything other than pursuing one’s own interests. Not understanding this is on a par with believing that a credit company gives you a credit card because it worries you might not have enough money to cover your expenses.
So whenever we see the words ‘foreign aid’, what we need to do is figure out what are the practical uses of investing into this particular business venture, sorry, this particular country.
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// So Israel gets ten to twenty times more foreign aid than the poorest, most wretched third world countries. Completely deserved, of course.
I am 100% sure Israel helped US interests more than 20 times more than the poorest 3rd world contries. Thus, the completely deserved US help in return.
“Help” is a wrong word to use here, “a mutually beneficial favor-trading relationship” is the right expression.
And again: if US leaves its’ biggest friend/ally Israel because it doesn’t have money any longer, what does it signal to others? Why should anybody (like Egypt) listen to US, if it doesn’t pay for it? With US influence gone, there are many other players in my region, who will become bolder, and unfortunately I don’t have reasons to like any of them.
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Somebody has to pay for all the new housing going up. 😉
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http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/02/01/clusterchuck-ctd/
“Then Gillibrand demanded that if there has to be a continuing resolution in the event of a budget crunch, Hagel’s Pentagon will take pains to keep money going to Israel for its Iron Dome missile defense.”
.
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“So in the sequester, Israel comes before the US, if push comes to shove. ”
Love it. If the budget issues aren’t resolved, government employees will not get paid. But Israel’s money pipeline flows uninterrupted. What Israel lobby?!
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“Love it. If the budget issues aren’t resolved, government employees will not get paid. But Israel’s money pipeline flows uninterrupted. What Israel lobby?!”
– There is no need for a lobby for this to happen. This is in the same realm as the drone strikes and the kill lists: the US is fighting for the world’s hegemony.
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// There is no need for a lobby for this to happen. This is in the same realm as the drone strikes and the kill lists: the US is fighting for the world’s hegemony.
But it’s much nicer and more convenient to blame the Jews, sorry, Israelis (and their lobby). Specially if it lets one not think of any hegemonies, but of helping the poor and bringing democracy worlwide.
If “help” is about US influence in the Middle East, than it makes sense to continue donating, especially if US is in not very good economic condition. It signals that US is still a power to reckon with. End money flow to Egypt & etc. and there goes a big part of your influence.
Also, just yesterday (?) I gave another link how Republicans in US fight against helping the US poor (1st by forcing all to test for drugs, then when it didn’t help since single mothers don’t usually take them – force the poor to pay for the test themselves in hope they won’t have enough money to fulfill this condition to apply for help).
Stringer Bell, why do you think Republicans who are against helping poor and (more outwardly than Democrats?) for US worldwide hegemony (as most of US citizens are in reality), are so much for Iron Dome help? Do they care more about Israeli poor than US poor? Is it Jewish lobby’s fault? 🙂
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“If “help” is about US influence in the Middle East, than it makes sense to continue donating, especially if US is in not very good economic condition. It signals that US is still a power to reckon with. End money flow to Egypt & etc. and there goes a big part of your influence.”
– Exactly. The US is offering assistance to a country that is still mostly secular and is the most secular country in the region. I think this is the right thing to do because, as I said many times, religious fanaticism is the greatest threat to our planet, in my opinion.
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Saw this:
Will a declining America Start Having to Obey the same Rules as Everybody Else? (Chomsky)
http://www.juancole.com/2013/02/declining-everybody-chomsky.html
“Does the United States still have the same level of control over the energy resources of the Middle East as it once had?
The major energy-producing countries are still firmly under the control of the Western-backed dictatorships. So, actually, the progress made by the Arab Spring is limited, but it’s not insignificant. The Western-controlled dictatorial system is eroding. In fact, it’s been eroding for some time. So, for example, if you go back 50 years, the energy resources — the main concern of U.S. planners — have been mostly nationalized. There are constantly attempts to reverse that, but they have not succeeded.
Take the U.S. invasion of Iraq, for example. To everyone except a dedicated ideologue, it was pretty obvious that we invaded Iraq not because of our love of democracy but because it’s maybe the second- or third-largest source of oil in the world, and is right in the middle of the major energy-producing region. You’re not supposed to say this. It’s considered a conspiracy theory.”
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“The Western-controlled dictatorial system is eroding. In fact, it’s been eroding for some time. ”
– Yes, it is totally better to have an “Eastern-controlled dictatorial system.” What a clown.
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“To everyone except a dedicated ideologue, it was pretty obvious that we invaded Iraq not because of our love of democracy but because it’s maybe the second- or third-largest source of oil in the world, and is right in the middle of the major energy-producing region. You’re not supposed to say this. It’s considered a conspiracy theory.”
– No, it’s reductive and childish. Where do such intellectually limited, stupid people come from, jeez?
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// – No, it’s reductive and childish.
What are other reasons?
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No he is absolutely correct.Where are those WMDs
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“But it’s much nicer and more convenient to blame the Jews, sorry, Israelis (and their lobby).”
el, I love it when any criticism of Israel gets equated to anti-semitism. It’s a very effective silencing technique used by rabid zionists like you. When this term is used indiscriminately it’ll lose all its meaning and power eventually. Which is unfortunate because there is real anti-semitism in this world that needs to be addressed and confronted.
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I don’t equate it. Shouldn’t have half-joked since I made many other points, which you ignored. “Half” because I couldn’t understand how one Israeli lobby rules US in your head, and even to the extent of US not paying its’ government employees because of lobby’s demands! Israelis/lobby in US/”rabid zionists” aren’t half as powerful as you seem to believe, judging from the comments.
Btw, nowadays “real anti-semitism in this world” extremely often hides itself under “I am anti-Zionism, anti-Israel, not anti-Jews”. Which does not mean that every criticism of Israel is driven by anti-semitism. Both of those statements can be true at once.
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Chomsky (even though he feels so entitled about his pro-usa-terrorist pension funds) is against islamic terrorism. Don’t vomit that same kind of like Obama and Bush do! This is not because we are against USA-terrorism that we support islamic terrorism!
“it was pretty obvious that we invaded Iraq not because of our love of democracy but because it’s maybe the second- or third-largest source of oil in the world, and is right in the middle of the major energy-producing region.”
No, it’s because of 9/11, like a robot repeating the official version…
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Well, I am pretty much against the US foreign aid policies across the board. First of all, the US gives foreign aid as a way to secure its own interests at the expense of maintaining domestic infrastructure.
Keep my money in the US please!
As for institutional religion, I am not a fan; Israel may be more secular than its neighbors, yet Orthodox Jewish rabbinical authorities hold control of family law policies. Not a good thing if you are female and/or secular!
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“First of all, the US gives foreign aid as a way to secure its own interests at the expense of maintaining domestic infrastructure.”
– It is a very short-term sacrifice of internal infrastructure for the sake of a huge long-term gain.
“Keep my money in the US please!”
– So you are prepared to give your standard of living over to China and adopt the Chinese one?
“As for institutional religion, I am not a fan; Israel may be more secular than its neighbors, yet Orthodox Jewish rabbinical authorities hold control of family law policies. Not a good thing if you are female and/or secular!”
– I agree, they are horrible. Religious fanatics from all religions are equally horrible. However, Jewish fanaticism is only dangerous to other Jews. Outside of the Jewish community, it is no threat to anybody. The Jews have zero interest in converting anybody or exterminating the gentiles. Without the gentiles, they stop being the Chosen People, and who needs such a huge loss of status? 🙂
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