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Because the thread is about Israel and Israel gets more U.S. taxpayer money per capita than any other country in the world - by far.
Start a thread about arts funding then. This is about Israel.
Who died and made you topic cop???
For the second time, the thread is about federal spending. It's right there in the lede of YOUR post (#2). If you don't want a discussion of federal spending, don't post about federal spending, pal....
It's just an expression. Ask Colin Powell, who coined the phrase. I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree here. I admit we don't owe them unlimited, indefinite support based on what we did in 1948. But for me, the time to withhold support has not yet arrived.
I would much prefer to see us cut in other places. We need an end-game for Afghanistan, where we have been for almost 20 years now. I don't know those numbers off-hand, but would bet that our spending there dwarfs the $4 billion/yr to Israel.
There is a middle ground between "withholding support" and giving Israel free reign. The reality is that Israel cannot exist as a state without the United States or another power broker. It is too small to (1) field an army, (2) develop modern weaponry AND (3) maintain an adequate standard of living. It also needs diplomatic cover.
Knowing this, Israel has deferred - at times - to the United States. That's been a restraint. Without that deference the Camp David accords, for example, would not have been possible.
That said, the times are a-changin'. Bob Dylan captures it:
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'. ...
Israel continues to move far right. The Palestinians are becoming more sophisticated about "marketing" their cause to the world. Trump doesn't even try to restrain Israel.
Per capita? No. We give Afghanistan 5 billion and Israel 4 billion. Afghanistan has 35 million people and Israel 8.7 so we are giving Israel more that three times as much per capita.
The use of 'per capita' is arbitrary, and obviously an attempt to cherry pick to make Israel spending seem like more. On what basis do you go to 'per capita' here? Answer: there is no basis, it's an arbitrary cherry pick.
Quote:
According to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report published in October 2007, the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost taxpayers a total of $2.4 trillion by 2017 when counting the huge interest costs because combat is being financed with borrowed money.
The Iraq war cost $806 billion according to the CRSC, so that leaves almost $1.6 trillion in Afghanistan. $4 billion/yr over 20 years (our time in Afghanistan) would come to $80 billion, or about 1/20th the spending on the Afghan war alone. Throw in our aid, and it comes to 1/30th.
I'll give you a comparison that is not arbitrary, however. The difference in the geopolitical benefit we get from our support for Israel is enormous. The geopolitical benefit we got from going to Afghanistan, as far as I can tell, is close to zero.
I support Israel because they are the good guys. Israel is a civilized nation surrounded by barbarism. The Jews were Gods chosen people, they are the custodians of the Holy Land. I will always support Israel.
The use of 'per capita' is arbitrary, and obviously an attempt to cherry pick to make Israel spending seem like more. On what basis do you go to 'per capita' here? Answer: there is no basis, it's an arbitrary cherry pick.
The Iraq war cost $806 billion according to the CRSC, so that leaves almost $1.6 trillion in Afghanistan. $4 billion/yr over 20 years (our time in Afghanistan) would come to $80 billion, or about 1/20th the spending on the Afghan war alone. Throw in our aid, and it comes to 1/30th.
I'll give you a comparison that is not arbitrary, however. The difference in the geopolitical benefit we get from our support for Israel is enormous. The geopolitical benefit we got from going to Afghanistan, as far as I can tell, is close to zero.
We get a geopolitical benefit when Israel works with other autocracies like Saudi Arabia to further both their and arguably our short term goals. But to say the geopolitical benefit is "enormous" disregards the concurrent geopolitical downsides, which in sum total may well dominate.
This isn't to argue to pull the support plug. But not to recognize the price we pay is foolish and to not insist on "better terms" is worse if only because future prices could well be higher yet.
Once upon a time, Americans were viewed as the "good guys" in the Middle East. Sure, we supported the formation of the State of Israel but then a few years later insisted that France, Britain, and Israel stop the power grab of the Suez Crisis. It's not that Israel is solely responsible for tarnishing our image, far from it. The difference is that Israel needs us in the way that other Middle East entities do not and so they "stick."
It's easy to know where Israeli's get their earnings from and it's not the US. But Palestinians who have no industries at all to have that many Millionaires is questionable even by conservative standards.
Why is it any of my business where ANY Middle Easterner gets his or her money? Arabs don’t have a right to be rich?
The Arabs were friends with the British and not the US since the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
That’s absolutely untrue. The Arabs HATED the British, but loved the Americans. Those sentiments are very well known and documented.
The United States never had an issue in the Arab/Muslim world before 1953. The Iranians specifically cited our fair dealing with Saudi Arabia as an example during their dispute with Britain over the British raping the Iranian people in the oil revenue split that was struck. The whole Arab world saw us as a beacon of fair dealing and an ideal western nation to do business with. The French and British were seen as the snakes that they were.
I lived and worked in several Arab nations and I believe you did as well and I don't see a scenario where we are or ever were true friends with any of the Arab nations but we can have good trading relations and areas of mutual benefit we can support.
Then you know absolutely nothing about the history of U.S./Arab relations. All you know about the Arab world are the recent troubles seen through the prism of a pro-Israeli right wing conservative like yourself.
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