The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion

Well just to make a little idea about how much a war can cost *paid by other country*

Conflicts in the Middle East have been very costly to the U.S., as well as to the rest of the world. An estimate of the total cost to the U.S. alone of instability and conflict in the region�which emanates from the core, Israeli-Palestinian conflict�amounts to close to $3 trillion, measured in 2002 dollars. This is an amount almost four times greater than the cost of the Vietnam war, also reckoned in 2002 dollars.

Even this figure underestimates the costs because certain classes of expenditure remain unquantified. In particular, no reliable figure is available for the costs of �Project Independence,� Washington�s lavishly promoted effort to reduce U.S. dependence on oil from the Middle East. That effort, which was subverted early on by diverse local special interests, was designed primarily to insulate Israel from any new �Arab oil weapon� after 1973/74, and may easily have cost $1 trillion. Even though the outlays were rationalized in the interest of �national security,� however, they contributed little or nothing to reducing U.S. strategic dependence upon imported oil from the Middle East. Similarly, aid to Israel�and thus the regional total�also is understated, since much is outside of the foreign aid appropriation process or implicit in other programs. Support for Israel comes to $1.8 trillion, including special trade advantages, preferential contracts, or aid buried in other accounts. In addition to the financial outlay, U.S. aid to Israel costs some 275,000 American jobs each year.

Rest of the article>
www.wrmea.com...

Thanks for posting this article, Cold. Americans need to see that the cost of supporting Israel does not come cheaply, and is benefitting no one over here. It has been a topic for many politicans on capitol hill, angry that so much money is spent on one country that is doing little for the American economy and foreign affairs.

Supporting Israel is draining us, and is giving even more fuel to the fires of islamic extremists to continue thier campaign against us.

This money could easily have been spent on finding cheap, clean, renewable energy sources, paying off the national debt, ect. This money instead is wasted on a questionable ally, and its buying us more enemies, more oil price manipulation, and more problems.

Im sure that certain people will read this and still support our support for Israel, most likely out of religious babble and stuff. But nothing warrants spending this much cash, even if it has been over a span of about50 years, on one friggin country.

Wake the hell up, America, our wealth is not limitless, and we have more prerssing issues to be spending money on, like getting us in rehab from our addiction to oil.

and the price of Isolationism would be...what?
~~~~~

our, and every other civilized & humanitarian nations',
present status with Israel are the result of 55 years of
continually changing & evolving diplomacy.
+++++

I don't quite buy the notion that the muslim world is
anti-american onlybecause of Israeli support....

there's a lot more stuff involved
=====

re: India, Kasmir & British Empire ---> (Pakistan etc)
re: nazi germany & coptics of Aegypt v/v allies WWII
~~~~~

the greatest, turn-ur-head-close-ur-eyes episode,
of the last 50 years was the Munich Olympics....

how soon we....uh...er....what were we talkin about?

Isolationism would probably be the best thing to happen to the US since we broke the Monroe Doctrine.

Our relations with israel have changed little over the years, we still dump #loads of money there.

What justification is there for all this money going there when were in massive debt and need the money here to be invested in much better things?

That money belongs here at home. We need independance from oil addiction.

The Arab world has many reasons they hate us, this is about the only legit one. When you consider the amount of money we have funneled into other countries in aid, compare what we send to Israel, its disgusting.

What about Africa? Thats 900 million people there who could use 1 trillion bucks. What would Africa be like if we stopped funding petty dicators and spent this money there? Who knows?

What would AMERICA be like if we kept all this cash and spent it here at home, say, on eductation, devloping clean tech, uping our defenses, builing a colony on Mars?

Instead we funnel it over there, and Im yet to see any benefit for us in aiding Israel. Were not any richer, any safer, any cleaner, any more happier. Its done nothing but give us headaches.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Isolationism would probably be the best thing to happen to the US since we broke the Monroe Doctrine.

100% Agreement here

The Arab world has many reasons they hate us, this is about the only legit one.

Don't forget about us occupying their Holy Land with our military bases spread across the middle east (especially Saudi Arabia, homeland of the 9/11 terrorists.) How would Americans feel if the Chinese had military bases on OUR soil?

What about Africa? Thats 900 million people there who could use 1 trillion bucks. What would Africa be like if we stopped funding petty dicators and spent this money there? Who knows?

Scary to think about. Any time we provide foreign aid to a country we run the risk of that money ending up in the wrong hands... and it frequently happens. I'd be interested in finding out how much money the government has just freely given to other nations where the money was used for nothing other than the plotting and killing of more human beings. How many times has a check been issued to a country only to fall into the hands of an evil dictator? After their rise to power how many evil sanctions do we impose that kill countless civilians with no effect on their leaders? I wouldn't want the aid going to Africa any more than I would Israel. Like you said, the money belongs here, after all, it is OUR money.

What would AMERICA be like if we kept all this cash and spent it here at home, say, on eductation, devloping clean tech, uping our defenses, builing a colony on Mars?

It would be incredible, a culmination of the dreams of both our forefathers and greatest American minds of the past three centuries. I have no doubt of that.

I would gladly accept an increase in taxes if I knew that money was going into researching ways to free us from bondage. If we would invest and spend our wealth wisely, wed never have to pull another Iraq again, the middle east would hold no more pull or sway over us, and we could pull our dollar away from the oil and use it..for lotsa neat things.

Pissing our wealth away on unscrupulous and questionable leaders is not smart, not healthy, and ultimately, dangerous to our existance and stability.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
I would gladly accept an increase in taxes if I knew that money was going into researching ways to free us from bondage. If we would invest and spend our wealth wisely, wed never have to pull another Iraq again, the middle east would hold no more pull or sway over us, and we could pull our dollar away from the oil and use it..for lotsa neat things.

Pissing our wealth away on unscrupulous and questionable leaders is not smart, not healthy, and ultimately, dangerous to our existance and stability.

If we hadn't abandoned America's founding principles none of this would be an issue.

"The United States goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is a well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. If the United States took up all foreign affairs, it would become entangled in all the wars of interest and intrigue, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own soul."
President
John Quincy Adams

"Honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none, I deem [one of the] essential principles of our government and, consequently, [one] which ought to shape its administration. "
President
Thomas Jefferson

Wow Sanders. The founding fathers truly said it all. These idiots who bitch about the US intefering here and there, yet want US support for thier own interests,....this is what the founders warned us of: Entagling alliances with selfish pseudo friends. How we ever got away from that principle is beyond me, but its interesting people forget these things we were founded on. The threat from Europe was always there, hence, the desire to chose the "you stay on your side of the Atlantic, well stay on ours" way. Yet we abandoned these things........

And now we look at this whole new thought process........America the global police man, America needs to join the global village, ect, when its really not benefitting anyone. We could have remained Isolated, but thanks to shifty leaders, were now everywhere.

America will lose control of her own soul..........we see this has come true, because now were enslaved to the interests in the middle east, Asia, and Europe, with no real control of our own affairs, entnagled and controlling the afafirs of others, because we need thier resources, money, ect.

Even the country itself isnt free anymore, were a slave to the whole global village. And our leaders have made policies to ensure they fatten up on it, and thier own agendas are fed, while the old spirit of the US, to remain always seprerate, a last resort for people who had no where else to go.

4 cents out of every dollar that every American earns goes to Israel.

Is it because they are a third world nation in need of food? Water? Medicine?

Nope, they need better weapons to kill their enemies with, because WOW, they think EVERYONE is their enemy. (Watch, just by me saying that, there will be some here who think I'M their enemy, that's how whacked it is.)

No Jakomo, your certainly no enemy nor whacked but here's a thought, to all of us:
Lets stop being apart of the problems and become part of the solutions.
Hatred is an easy emotion for all of us.
It literally eats our souls away.
This world needs to evolve to a higher way of thinking and stop pointing fingers and giving our own individual spills of hatred.
Be different; step away; seek a solution to the problems. Fight for those solutions, but do it without hate and prejudice, etc. Finding a problem to take a side with is far easier than finding a side that seeks solutions to those problems.
This world has turned into nothing but a cess-pool of hatred and problem seekers.
Be different, think different....

regards
seekerof

Originally posted by Jakomo
4 cents out of every dollar that every American earns goes to Israel.

Your math must be similar to the math in the article that started this thread. Is that "new math"?

The figure is bogus. It includes (and inflates) every dollar ever spent on the Middle East, including money spent in foreign aid to Aabic nations and money the US has spent on its own oil reserves. Does that make sense?

Mycroft,

We spend 4 BILLION a year in aid to Israel. 4 BILLION in money alone, not counting "other" aid. Thats an awful lot of money to be dumping in one friggin country.

Money that can be spent researching new ways to get us FREE of US oil dependance in the middle east. Money that can set us free. When you count all that other money in, from war campaigns, to intelligence and other things over there, no, thye figures arent inflated. Thats money wasted on other countries.

No, nothing justifies any of this money spent when we need to get into oil rehab. The figures are quite accurate.

Mycroft: "Your math must be similar to the math in the article that started this thread. Is that "new math"?

The figure is bogus. It includes (and inflates) every dollar ever spent on the Middle East, including money spent in foreign aid to Aabic nations and money the US has spent on its own oil reserves. Does that make sense?"

No problem... I just did a Google search.

The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs is a 140-page magazine published 10 times per year in Washington, DC, that focuses on news and analysis from and about the Middle East and U.S. policy in that region.

www.washington-report.org...


"The common figure given for U.S. aid to Israel is $3 billion per year�$1.2 billion in economic aid and $1.8 billion in military aid. " (Why they need economic aid is beyond me, since they're one of the richer countries in the world, but what do I know, right?)

"Much of the money the U.S. gives Israel is buried in the budgets of other government agencies, primarily the Defense Department (DOD). Other subsidies come in a form that isn�t easily quantifiable, such as the early disbursement of aid, which allows Israel to gain (and the U.S. taxpayer to lose) the interest on the unspent money."

"The impressive numbers for U.S. aid to Israel become even more so when they, and the attached conditions, are compared with other Middle East countries. The roughly $3.3 billion in annual aid compares with some $2 billion for Egypt, $225 million for Jordan, and $35 million for Lebanon. Aid for the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not earmarked, but has been running at about $100 million. Furthermore, aid to the PA is strictly controlled by the U.S. Agency for International Development, and goes for specific projects, mostly civil infrastructure projects such as water and sewers.

On the other hand, the U.S. gives Israel all of its economic aid directly in cash, with no accounting of how the funds are used. The military aid from the DOD budget is mostly for specific projects. Significantly however, considering current events, one of those projects was the development of the Merkava tank, which has been encircling and firing on Palestinian towns in the West Bank and Gaza."

Specific enough for you? US taxpayers money to buy Israeli tanks so they can further terrorize Palestinians.


jakomo

Great job! I point out the bias of the source and you go back to the same source for more information!

oh blah blah blah...

amazing how much hot air eminates from certain posters on here. you know what? the only thing that would make sense would be for all other countries to butt out of this conflict already, and let the chips fall where they may...

CA you bitch non-stop about why it's necessary for the World Community (not that there is such a thing) to step in and protect the poor defenseless palestinians (who apparently can't afford food and clothes, but can afford bombs, mortars, and other fun stuff). But now you complain about how much money is being spent. You can't have it both ways. Too bad.

Also being that you don't live in America I wonder why it bothers you so much about how much We are paying for something.

Skadi makes an interesting point. The united states should be spending a lot of money on freeing itself from oil dependence. That might help out in a lot of things such as eliminating the need to kiss the fat asses of terrorist supporters like Saudi Arabia. The only reason Saudi Arabia (who had clear links to 9/11 being that almost all the hijackers were saudi) was not attacked similarly to afghanistan was because of this oil dependency. If not for the oil, believe me they would have gotten pounded just like the taliban did.

Originally posted by Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
Mycroft,

We spend 4 BILLION a year in aid to Israel.

Skadi,

A discussion on the costs and benefits of foreign aid might be a very interesting discussion indeed. I think it would be fascinating to do a little research and find out what we get for our dollars, and if the costs justify the benefits.

But I can�t see having that discussion with you.

Why? Because the article that claimed we�d spent 3 trillion dollars on Israel used accounting methods that would make Arthur Anderson and the boys at Enron blush. This was obvious to even the most casual reading of the article, yet you jumped on the bandwagon thanking the author for providing it. This complete disregard for facts should be shameful.

Show some interest in the truth, and you would be a great person to discuss or debate with. Until then, I�ll limit my efforts to countering the anti-Israel stuff you spew.

Because the article that claimed we�d spent 3 trillion dollars on Israel used accounting methods that would make Arthur Anderson and the boys at Enron blush.

Now wait a minute... are you implying that CA would quote an article without a small attempt at verifying its accuracy? I can not imagine our most responsible, fair, unbiased poster would commit such an act...

Being a citizen of one of the states which recieves big financial and military support from US ( no, not Izrael or Palestine) I'd like to add a few things here.

I have to agree with the initial post, America gives away too much of its budget in MILITARY aid to other countries. You should reduce that and use it for your education system for example. Although my country benefits a lot for american aid, sometimes is too much. People think that every time they are too lazy to do something, just knock on American Aid and they will give you money. Wanna fight with somebody? Just ask the American government they will sell you weapons. Thats just wrong. Giving Izrael billions of dollars in military aid only helps fuel the conflict.
Giving humanitarian aid is ok, investing in other country's reconstruction or education is also ok. But bilions of dollars in military aid which only creates more enemies then friends and doesnt benefit Americans in any way what so ever.... thats just wrong.

What I dont understand is why you americans let it happen?? Do something about it!

Paperclip,

What country do you come from?