Why does the US keep giving money and weapons to Israel?

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Ingrid J

Because Israel is a nation of terrorists who could not make it on their own without America giving them billions of dollars a year that go towards the killing of innocent Palestinians.

Duane

The Zionist regime spends lavishly on U.S. candidates for congress and president who promise to spend lavishly supporting it. They use an organ called AIPAC. The more money the Zionists get the more they spend on their lobby. It's a masterpiece of circular bunko.

freegirl

Lots of jewish live in America,from what I know. And if the american government didn't listen to what the people in America want then lots of jews who Control the American media will make problems.

And America wants Israel to have a land for itself and gain control of the middle east because they want a 'new middle east' . So when they tell the middle east to give them something we have to say yes your majesty!

Math nerd

Because AIPAC, an Israeli lobby, is the most influential lobby of the American government. That's why you see a lot of corrupt politicians blindly supporting them and giving millions of our tax dollars to them. I really hoped the person that became president would be Kucinich or Ron Paul because they are not scared or bribed by AIPAC

Not_Brainwashed

You nailed it with the last one. It is to keep pressure on Arab countries to maintain a tight control of the oil. It always has been. The old excuses were that it was strategic against: Russia, China, Egypt, Iran, take your pick, but it has always been oil.

Because the Israel-Egypt peace treaty camp david accords that the US brokered has it that Israel and Egypt recieve several billion a year, in return both nations must use most of the money to buy weapons from US companies. It is basically a subsidy on the US arms industry.

If either nation does not use the money to buy weapons from the US, then they recieve less money through penalties.

Neil N

Who else is going to do it? Israel is the eyes of America in the Middle East and nothing more. Used only.

Izzy

Israel is the only worthwhile country in the middle east, that's why.

Big D

Because It's Tic for Tac. We used a lot of there stuff in both their wars.

mir miron

Because it's the right thing to do !!

Much of the money "GIVEN" to Israel is in the form of loans, not grants, and at very high interest rates.
And how is Gaza or the west bank able to continue this war thing, who is giving them money and how are they supposed to repay Iran for it ??

This must be Steel. Still gripping about the taxes he doesn't even pay.
How much did you pay last year? Or rather how much over your contribution did you get extra?
Not one cent of the US income tax goes to Israel. It all goes to pay interest on the national debt. America should give everyone a check. It's an illegal unnecessary tax.
I think it's stupid for America to give Saudi one of the richest countries on earth financial aid. We give them far more than Israel.
If you are smart enough and blessed enough to make enough to pay taxes then you should be smart enough to know there is much greater waste in the budget than the aid to a country that pays it back.

mick t

Because Israel is the front line in the war to defend the western liberal democracies against the Islamic fundamentalist attempt at world domination funded by Arab oil revenue.

dandyl

American aid to Israel is a two-way street. Aid to Israel is Americaâ€™s greatest defence bargain.The only democratic country in the Middle East. Israel is the only genuinely democratic state in the Middle East. It is committed to freedom and equality, and the rule of law. It embodies the fundamental values that are in tune with those of America and that America has traditionally supported. Israelâ€™s military and political importance in the Middle East and its strategic position stabilize the entire area, including the oil fields of the Persian Gulf. During the Cold War, it was Americaâ€™s indispensable rampart against the inroads and expansionist ambitions of the Soviet Union. It is now a western bulwark against the aggressive intents of Iran and other bellicose nations that threaten the interests of the United States. It is a most reliable partner in the promotion of Western strategic interests and in the stabilization of the Middle East. Over 20% of its budget goes for defense, compared to 7% in the U.S. and less than 1% in Japan. Israel has one of the best armies in the world. Its navy and air force are the major deterrent forces in the eastern Mediterranean.

Israel effectively secures NATOâ€™s southeastern flank, without having a single American soldier stationed in its territory. Still, the superb military installations, the air and sea lift capabilities, the equipment and food storage capacity, and the trained manpower to maintain and repair sophisticated U.S. equipment are instantly at hand in Israel. It is the only country in the area that makes itself available to the United States, in any contingency.

Only fraction of aid stays in Israel. There is no other country in the Middle East except Israel that can be considered to have a stable government or populace friendly to the United States. There is much danger that any military aid to Arab countries, and military equipment given or sold to them, will suffer the same fate as the untold billions of dollars and priceless military secrets that were lost to our enemies in the debacle of Iran. Is Saudi Arabia more stable? Egypt? Jordan? Kuwait? Judge for yourself!

Only a fraction of the aid given stays in Israel. By far the largest share remains with American defense contractors. Peter McPherson, former administrator of the Agency for International Development, estimated that every billion dollars of aid to Israel creates 60,000 to 70,000 jobs in the United States.

Compared to the $2.0 billion yearly military aid to Israel, the U.S. contributes more than $130 billion(!) every year to the defense of Europe and more than $30 billion to the defense of Japan, Korea, and the Far East. Over 300,000 U.S. troops are stationed with NATO and over 30,000 U.S. troops in the Far East. In contrast, not one single U.S. soldier needs to be stationed and put at risk in Israel. U.S. military analysts estimate that the U.S. would have to spend the equivalent of $150 billion a year in the Middle East to maintain a force equivalent to Israelâ€™s.

There are many other benefits that the U.S. military derives from Israel. Israel is the only country that has gained battlefield experience with U.S. weapons. This experience is immediately conveyed to the U.S. Enormous quantities of captured Soviet weapons and defense systems were turned over to the U.S. military for analysis. Israel, in the light of its experience, continually modifies U.S. weapons systems. For instance, Israeli scientists have made over 200 improvements in the F-15 alone and similar improvements, mostly in avionics, in later-generation planes. It would be more in line with reality if military aid to Israel were classified as part of the defense budget, rather than as â€œaidâ€. Israel is truly Americaâ€™s unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Former President Reagan put it well: â€œThe fall of Iran has increased Israelâ€™s value as perhaps the only remaining strategic asset in the region on which the United States can fully rely

:Sheila:

Because Israel is fighting their war: war against extremist Islam. And Israel is a democratic nation, with Arabs even having their own political parties.

PaperbackWriter JPA

America would support any democratic nation in the middle east. It's not because it's Israel, per se.

Also, you are incorrect because Israel has done a great deal FOR America and many other people around the world. Israeli intelligence is relied upon greatly by the USA and all other nations battling Islamic terrorism - remember, Israel has been fighting terrorism for DECADES. And Israel has probably more fluent Arabic speakers than many European countries.

Also - 75% of ALL aid that America gives Israel MUST THEN be spent ON American systems/products/technology.

Now, why doesn't America impose this also on Egypt to which it gives millions? And what about the millions given to the Palestinian Authority - which publicly teaches children aged three and four that it is 'your religious duty to kill jews'...?

http://ajewwithaview.wordpress.com

http://www.honestreporting.com

And check out the Palestinian Media Watch site.

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http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=12706

Pete O

Most of the answers have it right.

It is all to do with oil and the need to keep the Middle East from imploding.

If the militant Isamic groups had their way they would control the Middle East and cut off the world's oil supply, particularly to the US.

Israel has a very powerful army that cannot be matched by any other Arab country and the US supplies weapons and money to Israel to ensure that it continues.

The US supplies very sophicated weapons to Israel that are not available to any other country and also has ensured that Israel has a nuclear capability.

There is also a big Jewish population in the US that supplies support.

Mobius

I agree. Friendship should play no role in our calculations. What use do we have for Israel? Why not betray them, and let the Arabs surrounding them slaughter them (and send the few survivors back to Khazar)? It's not our problem! Maybe the Saudis will repay our good will gesture with a temporary reduction in their extortionate oil prices. That would be in our best national interest, and that's all that matters.

Why let Israel fight our war against terrorism, when we can do it right here in the good ol' US of A? Why let them develop and field test anti-terror techniques, when we can hire good American labor to deal with waves of suicide bombers as they occur right here?

And besides, if Israel disappears, the region will return to the proper original state of its natural indigenous peoples - namely, festering backwards fundamentalist dictatorships featuring beheadings, soaring infant mortality rates, long lines of ill and malnourished people leading up to tents called "hospitals", and monthly tribal bloodbaths.

And the world will be a better place.

I'm glad you clarified that for me.

kismet

The Muslim world is mystified as to why Americans support the existence of Israel. Some critics in the Middle East excuse "the American people," while castigating our government. In their eyes, our official policy could not really reflect grassroots opinion. Others misinformed spin elaborate conspiracy theories involving the power of joint Mossad-CIA plots, Old Testament fundamentalists, international bankers, and Jewish control of Hollywood, the media, and the U.S. Congress. But why does an overwhelming majority of Americans (according to most polls, between 60 and 70% of the electorate) support Israel -- and more rather than less so after September 11?

The answer is found in values -- not in brainwashing or because of innate affinity for a particular race or creed. Israel is a democracy. Its opponents are not. Much misinformation abounds on this issue. Libya, Syria, and Iraq are dictatorships, far more brutal than even those in Egypt or Pakistan.

Israel is also secular. The ultra-Orthodox do not run the government unless they can garner a majority of voters. Americans have always harbored suspicion of anyone who nods violently when reading Holy Scripture -- whether in madrassas, near the Wailing Wall, or in the local Church of the Redeemer down the street. In Israel, however, Americans detect that free speech and liberality of custom and religion are more ubiquitous than, say, in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Palestine -- and so surmise that the Jewish state is more the creation of European Ã©migrÃ©s than of indigenous Middle-Eastern fundamentalists.

Pluralism exists in Israel, rarely so in the Arabic world. We see an Israeli peace party, spirited debate between Left and Right, and both homegrown damnation and advocacy for the settlers outside the 1967 borders. Judaism is fissured by a variety of splinter orthodoxies without gunfights. There are openly agnostic and atheistic Israeli Jews who enjoy influence in Israeli culture and politics. In theory, such parallels exist in the Arab world, but in actuality rarely so.

Israeli newspapers and television reflect a diversity of views, from rabid Zionism to almost suicidal pacifism. There are Arab-Israeli legislators -- and plenty of Jewish intellectuals who openly write and broadcast in opposition to the particular government of the day. Is that liberality ever really true in Palestine? Could a Palestinian, Egyptian, or Syrian novelist write something favorable about Golda Meir, hostile to Mr. Assad or Mubarak, or craft a systematic satire about Islam? Past experience suggests such iconoclasts and would-be critics might suffer stones and fatwas rather than mere ripostes in the letters to the editor of the local newspapers.

Americans also see ingenuity from Israel, both technological and cultural -- achievement that is not reflective of genes, but rather of the culture of freedom. There are thousands of brilliant and highly educated Palestinians. But in the conditions of the Middle East, they have little opportunity for free expression or to open a business without government bribe or tribal payoff.

There is also an affinity between the Israeli and Western militaries that transcends mere official exchanges and arms sales. We do not see goose-stepping soldiers in Haifa as we do in Baghdad. Nor are there in Tel-Aviv hooded troops with plastic bombs strapped to their sides on parade. Nor do Israeli presidents wear plastic sunglasses, carry pistols to the U.N., or have chests full of cheap and tawdry metals. Young rank-and-file Israeli men and women enjoy a familiarity among one another, and their officers are more akin to our own army than to the Republican Guard, Hamas, or Islamic Jihad.

The Israelis also far better reflect the abject lethality of the Western way of war. Here perhaps lies the greatest misunderstanding of military history on the part of the Arab world. The so-called Islamic street believes that sheer numbers and territory -- a billion Muslims, a century of oil reserves, and millions of square miles -- should mysteriously result in lethal armies. History teaches us that war is rarely that simple. Instead, the degree militaries are westernized -- technology that is a fruit of secular research, group discipline arising from consensual societies, logistical efficiency that derives from capitalism, and flexibility that is the dividend from constant public audit and private individualism -- determines victory, despite disadvantages in numbers, natural resources, individual genius, or logistics.

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