As I argued here, it’s a sad commentary on both of our political parties that Congress has not yet passed legislation that provides military aid to Israel.
Great piece Paul. Iran is the key. It is the last powerful, well-funded, mid-east state that premises its legitimacy on the promise to wipe out Israel. The Saudis are long past this, in part for fear of Iran, in part as I explain below because Israel is a big part of their plan to become a modern nation rather than merely a petro-state. Iraq barely exists anymore, Syria is pathetic, Egypt is done with the Palestinians and effectively allied with Israel against them. Iran is also the only important enemy we have ever had on the region.
I went to click on the heart symbol to indicate that it is a good article and I agree with the analysis. Somehow, clicking "Like" seemed wrong. I agree with the article but hate the dilemma.
You strongly miss the point. Israel is surrounded by permanent enemies it is not allowed to defeat. It cannot afford out of it's budget (29th wealthiest is far from able to afford a permanent state of the art military. How many countries above them have to even have a military of any strength?) Israel uses the aid to purchase weapons from American companies. If American aid is cut off Israel military doctrine will have to be entirely different and the region will be a much more dangerous place. Maybe it would be better for Israel to get it over with but the US deems it better that Israel have the weaponry to deter it's many enemies. The "war on Hamas" as you state is really a war on Iran which was started by Iran. It has been ongoing for the last 20 years. ANd the money we give to israel is a drop in the bucket compared to what we give other nations, many less deserving and microscopic compared to our overall budget.
I support Israel 100 percent, they are completely right to defend themselves from the barbarians. However, they are a wealthy country. Why have we been giving them billions of dollars through the years. Why? Our poor are worse off than Israels. Give them military aid for the war then cut off the funding. Trump was absolutely correct that we should not be paying the bill for the defense of wealthy nations.
Lose Israel and the U.S. loses too much of its technological and economic edge. Intel is effectively an Israeli company--it's where the R&D is done. Ditto for most of what used to happen in Silicon Valley. Most of the best new medical technology, much of the most practical AI developments, most of the companies taking practical advantage of the materials science revolution are Israeli. The venture investing advisory service I co-write, Gilder's Private Reserve, finds most of its investment opportunities in Israel. Also, largely unnoticed, Israel's economic and technological prowess is a major force for peace in the region. The prime reason the Emirates and the Saudis embraced the Abraham project is that they don't want to miss Israel's economic coattails. This by the way is also the reason most of the Palestinian Arab colonizers moved into the region after the Zionists reignited the local economy. Israel is the rare example of our getting more value than we pay for in aid.
they aren't that wealthy. They have 6 million citizens. We expect Israel to live with these massive permanent threats and not handle the. As any other country would. Therefore we provide military support. If military support ends expect Israel to do what it must to quickly remove the threat.
I believe they were ranked the 29th wealthiest nation by GDP (of over 500 billion annually). For some reason we like to pay for everyone else while we are 31 trillion in debt.
FYI I support funding the war on Hamas. But not chipping in on their defense when they can afford it for years on end. We can't afford it, 31 Trillion in debt. This debt will cause our country to collapse.
This goes for NATO as well. I was stationed in the Balkins, US military working with NATO. Every NATO country had brand new vehicles, Audi's, Land Cruiser's, Mercedes. We had 20 year old broken down vehicles with hundreds of thousands of miles on them. We were paying NATOs bills.
Great piece Paul. Iran is the key. It is the last powerful, well-funded, mid-east state that premises its legitimacy on the promise to wipe out Israel. The Saudis are long past this, in part for fear of Iran, in part as I explain below because Israel is a big part of their plan to become a modern nation rather than merely a petro-state. Iraq barely exists anymore, Syria is pathetic, Egypt is done with the Palestinians and effectively allied with Israel against them. Iran is also the only important enemy we have ever had on the region.
Thank you, Richard.
Paul great article. Straight up, straight forward, no BS, just plain old solid reasoning. Worth every penny, twice over.
Thank you, David
I went to click on the heart symbol to indicate that it is a good article and I agree with the analysis. Somehow, clicking "Like" seemed wrong. I agree with the article but hate the dilemma.
You strongly miss the point. Israel is surrounded by permanent enemies it is not allowed to defeat. It cannot afford out of it's budget (29th wealthiest is far from able to afford a permanent state of the art military. How many countries above them have to even have a military of any strength?) Israel uses the aid to purchase weapons from American companies. If American aid is cut off Israel military doctrine will have to be entirely different and the region will be a much more dangerous place. Maybe it would be better for Israel to get it over with but the US deems it better that Israel have the weaponry to deter it's many enemies. The "war on Hamas" as you state is really a war on Iran which was started by Iran. It has been ongoing for the last 20 years. ANd the money we give to israel is a drop in the bucket compared to what we give other nations, many less deserving and microscopic compared to our overall budget.
I support Israel 100 percent, they are completely right to defend themselves from the barbarians. However, they are a wealthy country. Why have we been giving them billions of dollars through the years. Why? Our poor are worse off than Israels. Give them military aid for the war then cut off the funding. Trump was absolutely correct that we should not be paying the bill for the defense of wealthy nations.
We should assist any nation fighting barbarism. Either we help civilized life to continue or we don't.
Lose Israel and the U.S. loses too much of its technological and economic edge. Intel is effectively an Israeli company--it's where the R&D is done. Ditto for most of what used to happen in Silicon Valley. Most of the best new medical technology, much of the most practical AI developments, most of the companies taking practical advantage of the materials science revolution are Israeli. The venture investing advisory service I co-write, Gilder's Private Reserve, finds most of its investment opportunities in Israel. Also, largely unnoticed, Israel's economic and technological prowess is a major force for peace in the region. The prime reason the Emirates and the Saudis embraced the Abraham project is that they don't want to miss Israel's economic coattails. This by the way is also the reason most of the Palestinian Arab colonizers moved into the region after the Zionists reignited the local economy. Israel is the rare example of our getting more value than we pay for in aid.
they aren't that wealthy. They have 6 million citizens. We expect Israel to live with these massive permanent threats and not handle the. As any other country would. Therefore we provide military support. If military support ends expect Israel to do what it must to quickly remove the threat.
I believe they were ranked the 29th wealthiest nation by GDP (of over 500 billion annually). For some reason we like to pay for everyone else while we are 31 trillion in debt.
FYI I support funding the war on Hamas. But not chipping in on their defense when they can afford it for years on end. We can't afford it, 31 Trillion in debt. This debt will cause our country to collapse.
This goes for NATO as well. I was stationed in the Balkins, US military working with NATO. Every NATO country had brand new vehicles, Audi's, Land Cruiser's, Mercedes. We had 20 year old broken down vehicles with hundreds of thousands of miles on them. We were paying NATOs bills.