Israel is the 3rd largest recipient of US foreign aid receiving 3.2 Billion in US tax dollars in 2017 with only Iraq and Afghanistan receiving more. Reducing foreign aid while America is floundering would be a small step to the road of recovery.
That $3.2 billion works out to roughly 0.01% of the federal budget. Plus much of that money just comes right back to the US economy when it is used to purchase American military equipment.
Israeli aid has nothing to do with why the US is "floundering". If anything, bickering over small potatoes like our foreign military aid budget instead of focusing on larger issues like the necessity of our own military budget likely is a bigger contributor to us "floundering".
That $3.2 billion would be enough to pay for 23,000 Americans' college education. Is that more valuable than giving weapons to Israel? Of course it is. Even a single college education is a better use of the money.
The rhetorical tactic of citing some much larger number to justify a misuse of funds is meant to obfuscate and confuse, and it's not a good faith argument. It's like a mayor saying "yes, this program is wasteful and corrupt, but look at how big our military spending is! Why aren't you talking about that?!". Or "Yes, I may have created a made up job for my brother, but look at the trillions we spent in Afghanistan! Why aren't you talking about that?!"
We should not be falling for that type of rhetoric when calling out government waste and abuse.
There is no reason that the U.S. should be sending any aid to Israel (or, for that matter, Egypt), it's not a poor country, there are many more countries deserving of the aid, and the aid is being used to increase the militarization of a region that has already had too much military conflict.
I pointed to a big number because it reveals that the motivation is neither to battle waste and corruption or to provide for those 23,000 Americans. There is obviously much bigger waste and corruption in the domestic military budget. You are singling out Israel because of a specific political complaint about Israel. You admit as much in your last paragraph. That is a perfectly reasonable political opinion to have and I'm not even arguing against it here. I am arguing against the hypocrisy of taking that political opinion and trying to make it more attractive by dishonestly claiming it is motivated by fighting waste, corruption, and the floundering of the US.
Again, questioning the motivation of someone who raises a point you don't have an answer for is no better than trying to change the subject when you feel like you can't win on the merits.
If you think it's a good use of the money, then defend it.
But changing the subject and questioning people's motivations, or insisting that all larger forms of abuse in the military be talked about before anyone can call into question our aid to Israel - that's not a legitimate argument.
The answer may well be that we have mutual interests that span generations, and which have--and continue to--pay dividends. The broader question may be what those interests are and if they are truly beneficial to us in the long-run.
I'm not making a claim either way, FWIW.
Agreed. It's never as simple as people may think. Plenty of criticism available, though, against one of our closest allies, which shouldn't be shouted down as merely "anti-semitic" in general. Not to imply you are making that case.
First, putting aside Israel for a second. I understand the urge to reduce foreign aid while we're running deficits (I assume is what you mean by "floundering"), but think of foreign aid as diplomacy. We need both hard (military) and soft (aid, donations, etc.) diplomacy. If any thing, the bang for buck is higher with soft diplomacy. Hard diplomacy is very expensive.
Second, Israel is a shining example of a robust democracy in a part of the world that is more or less run by kleptomaniacs and dictators. Israel's politics -- especially with the coalition government -- serves as a role model for citizens of other countries. I think it seems reasonable that we extend foreign aid to them.
"a 2013 National Intelligence Estimate on cyber threats “ranked Israel the third most aggressive intelligence service against the US” behind only China and Russia" [1]
"Israel among the U.S.’s most threatening cyber-adversaries and as a “hostile” foreign intelligence service." [2]
"Israel’s snooping upset White House because information was used to lobby Congress to try to sink a deal" [3]
I think it is probably fair to assume that every country (friend or a foe) spies on others.
Just a few months ago, we were caught red handed spying on the EU and our closest allies [0]. I’m sure their equivalent of NSA lists us as the most aggressive hackers behind China and Russia.
When your economy or your survival (in Israel’s case) is at stake and you have the tools, the temptation is just too strong.
