Aid for Israel
POSTED BY: AnthonyT
UPDATED: Monday, August 17, 2026 14:58
VIEWED: 9651
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Hello,
I was recently reading a post about politics, and the issue of aid to Israel came up. I thought it might be worth its own thread.
I happen to hold the belief that we should not be supplying aid to Israel.
I prefer to have allies of ideology and common purpose rather than allies that have been overtly purchased. I much prefer our relationship with Canada and England to our relationship with Israel, for instance.
One must wonder whether Israel is a viable country. Many people who defend the idea of sending aid to Israel suggest that Israel would collapse without our assistance.
This suggests that Israel is not viable. We have been providing aid to Israel for at least 50 years. If they can't stand on their own two feet by now, what does it tell us about them? If they would cease being our allies in the middle-east because we stop feeding them money and equipment, what does that tell us about the quality of our 'friendship?'
Of course, I believe the idea that Israel would fall without our assistance is a fallacy. I think if left alone, Israel would become stronger and truly independent for the first time in their history. With hands untied, they would settle their regional problems much more efficiently than they are currently able to do. Then, if they wanted to be our ally, they could choose to do so as equals, based on nothing more than a shared value system.
Otherwise, if we are going to perpetually maintain Israel... If their well-being is entirely dependent upon our constant aid, then the country should surrender their sovereignty and request to be made a US Protectorate and apply to become the 51st state of the union.
Are there any who share my desire to end aid to Israel?
Are there those who oppose this desire? I would enjoy hearing your arguments. I might even learn something. :-)
--Anthony
"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner
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Me, for one. When people point to our generous foreign aid program they fail to understand that HALF of our so-called foreign aid goes to Israel.
There are times when foreign aid is a good thing: To get developing nations "over the hump" (example the Marshall Plan), respond to natural disasters (tsunami, drought, earthquake, plague) and as one-time bribes to get rogue leaders out of the picture. But our current "foreign aid" is either propping up dictatorships, paying for friendships, or being recycled directly back to USA corporations w/o making so much as a pit-stop in the donee nation. Shameful, wasteful, and corrupt. Given all that- I'd rather send no money at all. Not just to Israel, but anywhere.
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Always look upstream.
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Me three, with Signy's caveats as well.
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"Global warming - it's not just a fact, it's a choice."
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Well I disagree with your assessment for a start. The arguments about Israels possible collapse would hold weight for me if they were based off of economic factors (i.e. without U.S. aid Israel wouldn't be able to afford to feed its citizens), however since I'm pretty sure the arguments are based off of military factors I don't really agree with you.
There is of course a school of thought that we shouldn't get involved in the military issues of any other countries, personally I disagree with the complete isolationism that such opinions are based on, I agree that most of the things happening in the world are not our concern but I do believe that we should stand up for our allies (and I'm not convinced that Israel is friends with us just because of our aid).
You make the statement "If they can't stand on their own two feet by now, what does it tell us about them?", the answer is simple, it tells us that they are surrounded by enemies that all have decent-sized armies and who all hate Israel. We have the luxury of having neighbors that don't hate us and who have comparatively tiny militaries, Israel is no worse off than most countries in most parts of the world would be if all their neighbors conspired to attack them. Could Germany stand against all of western Europe? Could Iran have stood against the combined armies of their neighbors before we destroyed two of them?
I do agree with the assertion that if we withdrew aid that Israel would likely settle their differences more quickly though I disagree with the implication that Israel is impeded by their relationship with the U.S., or at least I disagree that the impediment is direct. Rather than serving as an obstacle to the ability of Israel to settle with their neighbors I think that the U.S. serves as a backup plan for them, we will bail them out if they run into problems so they see no real reason to avoid those problems.
All that being said I find myself in general agreement with Sig, I think that we should be using our foreign aid much more judiciously then we currently are. I do think that if we started to back off on Israels foreign aid that they would end up being better off for it, since they would be forced to actually come to terms with their neighbors.
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Quote:33 Billion dollars a year is a drop in the bucket to our economy yet it helps the Isrealis a great deal.
Originally posted by AnthonyT:Are there any who share my desire to end aid to Israel?
We don't have to worry about our support of Isreal pissing off the arabs. The arabs who want to do us in have gone way beyond being mad at us for supporting them, and graduated up to full on hatred of us for just who we are.
No real reason to stop comes to mind unless you don't like Jews and are in denial of that.
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Cut it, entire.
What rooks me the worst is when that foreign aid cash is rerouted into american politicians via AIPAC and other sham fronts to bend our politicians to the whim of a foreign county, in a perverse cycle of them throwing the aid in order to get a kickback cut of the dough.
Any other country interfered with our election process and got repeatedly caught committing sabotage and espionage against us, as often as they do... we'd be at war with by now.
It also doesn't help that we've in essence financed a regime as brutal in it's treatment of palestine as germany was to poland, common sense, that's pissin a lotta folks off.
That's their business, how they wanna do things, but WE might take lesson from the example that the more brutal the repression, the worse the violence gets... before it gets that bad here.
By all means, it's their country and they can run it as they please but NOT ON MY DIME.
And sure as hell I don't see the logic of directly financing a country that backstabs us and our interests at every opportunity.
Go ask the DEA where the primary source of Ecstacy flooding the streets tracks back to, go on, ask... and while yer at it ask around about Comverse Infosystems, Amdocs, and blown busts, too.
I don't hold with flaming an entire class of people cause of the bullshit pulled by their leadership, nor do I hold with the idea of some great grand conspiracy - but the crap they HAVE pulled, and continue to pull, fully justifies cutting them off completely.
And right now, WE need that money more than they do - I am not wholly against Foreign Aid, per se, but dammit not at the expense of our own people and infrastructure, both of which are in pretty damn rough shape by now.
Take care of US, OUR needs, OUR people, FIRST, curse it.
Might not be a popular point of view, that, but it's common freakin sense, to me.
-Frem
PS, Yo Anthony, it appears I am not the only one who has to go back and cut a bunch of space out of the end of my posts sometimes... any idea WHY this thing does that ?
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I think I agree with Fred on this. If we’re talking about a country that couldn’t support itself economically, then I would say that, except for humanitarian aide, they need to adjust their economy to be more self-sustaining. But Israel actually does pretty good economically - better typically then other regional nations, so Israel actually is a quite viable. The problem is that, as Fred pointed out, they are surrounded by enemies already have repeated tried to destroy Israel and most certainly would again were it not for US support. So by supporting Israel we are not propping up an unsustainable nation, but defending an ally from certain invasion by religious and ideologically driven hatred.
As far as preferring allies like Canada and the UK, well I guess I would have to give that a big “Duh.” It’s always easier to support allies that don‘t need our help, but does that mean we abandon our allies that do? I’m not sure I like that approach to foreign policy.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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Quote:
Originally posted by MalBadInLatin:Quote:33 Billion dollars a year is a drop in the bucket to our economy yet it helps the Isrealis a great deal.
Originally posted by AnthonyT:Are there any who share my desire to end aid to Israel?
We don't have to worry about our support of Isreal pissing off the arabs. The arabs who want to do us in have gone way beyond being mad at us for supporting them, and graduated up to full on hatred of us for just who we are.
No real reason to stop comes to mind unless you don't like Jews and are in denial of that.
Hello,
It seems that whenever the idea of stopping aid to Israel comes up, someone suggests that stopping aid to Israel = Hating Jews. For the record, this is an emotional lever used to avoid discussing the issue. If you don't want to argue the topic, then don't. But please discontinue the use of dishonest tactics.
As for the remainder of what you said: There seems to me a fallacy in your argument. That because we have sent billions in the past we should always send billions, and that billions are inconsequential sums of money.
Neither of those arguments makes any sense to me. I don't think you should enforce bad decisions indefinitely, and I don't think billions of dollars are drops in any bucket. This is why I become enraged whenever billions are appropriated for wars I don't agree with.
And now on to other arguments...
There are others who argue that without our military support, Israel would be overrun by her enemies. In fact, I don't think this is the case.
During the Six Day War, Israel defeated her enemies Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. That was during a time when the sophistication of her forces was in parity with her opponents. Israel now has a military sophistication far exceeding her likely opponents.
Further, if Israel maintains its alliances, they can always count on the threat of mutual defense.
Why, then, is continued spending necessary to prop up this nation?
Incidentally, I abhor aid to most of the countries that we send it to. Israel frequently comes up simply because they are one of our longest beneficiaries. I'd like to get them off the bottle.
--Anthony
"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner
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Quote:While anything’s possible, historically, Israel has handed the collective assess of combined nations that either did invade it’s borders or were preparing too. However, I don’t think that’s any more desirable and should be prevented, if possible.
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
There are others who argue that without our military support, Israel would be overrun by her enemies. In fact, I don't think this is the case.
Quote:Part of the reason is that Israel and the US have close partnership in advanced defense research. A great deal of US defense technology has either come from Israeli research or has been aided by it.
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Further, if Israel maintains its alliances, they can always count on the threat of mutual defense.
Why, then, is continued spending necessary to prop up this nation?
And for the record, I think that you can support cutting aid to Israel and not be anti-Semitic.
Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.
Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
-- Cicero
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