14 Comments

1. Joshua:

The $3 billion dollars the US gives Israel pales into insignificance alongside the countless billions given to the NATO countries each year in the form of military subsidies (in addition a multi-billion dollar aid package in the form of civilian planes was given to Poland recently). From the BBC:

EU China arms ban ‘to be lifted’

“Mr Straw wants an international treaty

The EU embargo on arms exports to China is likely to be lifted in the next six months despite US objections, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said.

The 15-year-old ban was imposed in the aftermath of China’s crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square.

Mr Straw told a Commons select committee human rights concerns over China remained.

But he said it was wrong to put China under the same embargo as countries such as Zimbabwe and Burma.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4167693.stm

For the record:

1) I believe that Israel in the very near future should thank the US very much for its financial help, and politely tell that good nation that it will manage without it in future. As it represents only 2% of GDP, it won’t be much of a hardship.

There should also be a complete revamp of Israel’s totally corrupt financial and welfare systems which were put in place over many decades by Israel’s perfidious and idiotic left – Netanyahu has not gone nearly far enough. Given the right conditions there is no reason in the world why the business genius of the Jews of America and Western Europe should not be replicated in Israel.

2) At the same time, there should be a review of all foreign aid given by the United States to other countries. Inter alia, all subsidies to the wealthy countries of NATO should be withdrawn without delay, as should all military and financial aid to Israel’s most powerful and dangerous enemy, Egypt.

Jun 26, 2005 - 9:34 am 2. David Thomson:

ìCould recent peculiar harrassment of people associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee by the FBI have had something do with this? I’m not sure.î

Iím not sure either—but it is very doubtful. It is not only the radical left and marginalized right wing extremists who despise Israel. Her enemies also include the politically correct ìmoderateî establishment of the state department, CIA, and our major universities. These fools are convinced that the Palestinians are victims and virtually all of the troubles of the Middle East will disappear once Ariel Sharon ceases being such a hard ass. Israel allegedly manipulates our media and politicians.

Is Michael Scheuer already forgotten?:

ìSCHEUER: Well, mostly through abuse in the media. If someone says anything negative about Israel. We do it to ourselves in some way. [Inaudible]

Well, you know, the idea of the Jewish conspiracy is in your mouth, not mine. What I did was compliment Israel on its ability to control debate in the United States. I don’t quite know how they do it, but clearly the reaction of most of our media, electronic and print, to anyone who says, “Geez, you know, maybe the Israelis shouldn’t have the lead on all these things,” is generally negative.î

http://www.hfienberg.com/kesher/2005/02/antisemitism-watch-special-kapo-watch.html

Jun 26, 2005 - 9:55 am 3. erp:

I don’t think we should be telling Israel or any other country what to do, neither do I think we should pay countries to make nice nice. Thirty years Egypt and Israel had a brief moment of sanity and then Sadat was assassinated and Israel went left again and so it goes. The only thing remaining of that brief interlude is our gazillions in “aid.”

Cut off foreign aid totally and that includes the U.N. If countries need humanitarian aid, send the food, agricultural and medical supplies and the personnel and means for distribution, not cash. If the “leaders” won’t accept aid under those conditions, well then, sorry starving and/or sick people, we can’t help you.

By now it’s pretty clear that none of our foreign aid has helped the intended victims, in fact, it has insured that those victims will suffer in perpetuity as an entree into our treasury. Our hardearned tax dollars have ended up in the retirement funds of their leaders, similarly as our domestic welfare system largesse ends up in the coffers of bureaucrats and community leaders.

Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Time for us to end the insanity.

Jun 26, 2005 - 9:58 am 4. RBMN:

Obviously, over the last two decades, China has gleaned a lot more technology from American companies than it ever will from Israel. I’m sure Israelis feel that if they don’t sell it to them, the Chinese will just get it from Europe or Russia. But, even if the technology transfer is rather insignificant–I don’t know if it is–even the most dishonest critics can land a thousand weak blows that end up knocking you out. As Israel knows well, life is not fair. You have to adjust accordingly.

Jun 26, 2005 - 10:47 am 5. Buddy Larsen:

I’d assumed the gizmos would go with wicked little trojan horses installed. Alas.

Jun 26, 2005 - 11:42 am 6. richard mcenroe:

Are these worse than the fire control systems they got for their tanks from the UK or the radars they got from France? The MiG-29’s they got from Russia?

Jun 26, 2005 - 4:02 pm 7. JeremyR:

It’s funny how when France wants to sell weapons to China people get in an uproar. But when Israel is forced to stop selling weapons and weapons technology to China (an ongoing practice for some years), the same people defend Israel.

Israel is a very polarizing country, but it runs in both ways. Some people criticize it unfairly, but at the same time, many people defend it unfairly, too.

The truth is, like any other country, Israel does some bad stuff, and in this case, essentially selling out the only country that supports it completely (the US) to a rival (China) for a few bucks is something that is pretty lousy.

You could say the US does the same thing with 2 of Israel’s rivals, Jordan & Egypt, but we only do so because of a peace treaty.

Stuff like this makes me become an isolationist – just ignore the rest of the world, because they’ll just stab you in the back given a chance.

Jun 26, 2005 - 4:53 pm 8. JeremyR:

And yes, what Israel has done is much worse than Russia selling China Mig-29s. As the article mentioned, they basically gave China the Lavi, which was sort of an advanced version of the F16 that was a joint project between the US and Israel before getting cancelled.

So now basically China’s fighters consist not of old rather lousy Migs, but advanced F16 knock offs. Thanks to Israel.

Jun 26, 2005 - 4:59 pm 9. richard mcenroe:

JeremyR ó I think you might have that backwards. The Indian MiG-29 pilots gave our Eagle drivers a LOT to think about during recent joing exercises; performance-wise, it’s on a par with the F/A18. The Lavi is older and lower-tech all around; the USN uses them for dissimilar ACT…

Jun 26, 2005 - 5:28 pm 10. mikem:

JeremyR’s comment is on the money. I support America’s kneejerk support of Israel because I think it is the “right thing to do”. It is certainly not in America’s self interest to have half the world denouncing us because of that support, but we do it anyway. So if all these laughable cries for Israeli independence from U.S. interference and meddling are loud enough and sincerely believed, many Americans and all leftists will gladly join their voices.

Then we will watch Israel stand alone against the rest of the world and probably watch a nuclear exchange in the Middle East.

My advice to Israeli leaders is be brave, be true to your people and don’t be stupid.

Jun 26, 2005 - 8:10 pm 11. gk:

This is NUTS! How can you defend an allie selling U.S derived weapons to China? WTF? The fact this is even in the papers is embarassing enough as we asked them for years to cease and dissist. I can’t believe Israels need for a little pocket change is worth spoiling a friendship with it’s biggest supporter. I must say if this were France doing this I’m guessing most of the people here would have a coniption fit.

Jun 26, 2005 - 10:34 pm 12. Justin Raimondo:

Isn’t it a little … odd to be describing an investigation into espionage as “harrassment”? After all, the indictment is pretty damning. What if CAIR had been doing precisely what the policy director of AIPAC was doing — only, instead of funneling sensitive documents to an Israeli embassy official, they were handing off top secret information to, say, the Egyptian or Saudi embassy?

Jun 27, 2005 - 5:46 pm 13. richard mcenroe:

gk ó The point is, once again Israel is being held to a standard the rest of the world is blithely and profitably ignoring.

Jun 27, 2005 - 7:36 pm 14. Mike in Cali:

First of all Israel would not be where they are without the U.S. So by deliberately selling advanced weaponry to China who is in up and coming adversary for the U.S. would be like the U.S. selling weapons to Hamas or Hizbollah. Its a clear case of betrayal and back stabbing that the Israelis pulled on the Americans because of greed. The weapons transfered to China was not only the Lavi which in my opinion is insignificant compared to the Israeli Python III which is the equal to our most recent upgraded Sidewinder air to air missile. On top of that the transfer of the HARPY U.A.V. which can take out radar. Also many consider the $2billion in aid to be nothing. But that is to help the Jews develop their own weapons and they save by not having to buy from us. They then turn around and sell that tech to other nations and make a profit. And Israel is the wealthiest nation we give aid to where their per capita is higher than Greece and Spain. I say let Israel develop their own tech and keep our hard earn tax money for ourselves.

Jul 24, 2005 - 10:17 am

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