Can Israel afford to decline more than $3 billion each year in American aid?
Nearly every year, Israel’s government is forced to compensate for an unplanned budget deficit that often significantly exceeds $3 billion. Filling the hole is generally achieved through either trimming expenses or raising taxes. The fact that Israel’s government so regularly cuts more than the sum of American aid from its budget corroborates the assertion that Israel’s economy can undoubtedly survive without accepting money from the United States.
Since US aid flows directly into Israeli government coffers, the money rarely reaches the needs of Israel’s citizens but is instead often used as “free money” by heads of state to entice ministers and lawmakers to support Washington’s Middle East agenda. Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon openly acknowledged* his use of American aid to fund projects important to specific members of parliament (private member bills) in exchange for their support on crucial Knesset votes.
*IASPS, “The Truth About Aid,” June 6, 2001, The News Behind the News
Why do so many Israelis support accepting money from the United States?
While most Israelis never take the time to thoroughly investigate the impact American aid has on their country, the public is led to view the money as beneficial for two reasons:
- The money supposedly benefits Israel’s economy
- The money ostensibly solidifies a strategically important alliance between Washington and Jerusalem
If Israelis were aware of the degree to which American aid has actually impaired their country’s economic growth (see Some Basic Facts), they still might be hesitant to reject the money for fear of how it may affect Israel’s alliance with the United States. Most Israelis have regrettably been conditioned to view American “friendship” as crucial to Israel’s survival in the Middle East. This psychological dependency – more harmful than even economic dependency – has greatly contributed to the erosion of Israel’s sovereignty and has enabled an abusive relationship to develop between the countries in which Israel is forced to comply with American demands, even those clearly detrimental to Jewish national interests.
Politely declining aid from the United States would likely foster a healthier relationship between the countries as it would naturally increase Washington’s respect for Jerusalem and most American citizens would logically appreciate Israel’s sensitivity to America’s current economic crisis.
Why do so many voices in the United States support foreign aid to Israel?
Ethnic Jews currently living in the United States overwhelmingly support and often lobby (albeit not as aggressively as Lockheed Martin) for American aid to Israel, not because the Jewish state genuinely needs the money but because an economic and political connection between the government they live under and the government of their people’s country allows them to feel a greater sense of personal security in a foreign land. The notion of Israel serving as a United States fortress in the Middle East allows America’s Jewish community to believe it can avoid ever having to confront questions of dual-loyalty.
Many Americans outside the Jewish community are made to feel that support for the State of Israel also requires that they support foreign aid. But only someone with a superficial attachment to Israel could defend a situation in which Jerusalem relies on over $3 billion in American aid each year. A true supporter of the Jewish state would want the US to extend the same honest friendship to Israel that Thomas Jefferson urged Americans to offer all nations. True friendship does not include foreign aid – not to Israel and not to her potential enemies in the Middle East, which taken together receive significantly more money from the US than Israel.