Despite Domestic Cuts, U.S. Aid To Israel Up By $25 Million In Proposed Budget
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC News | February 15, 2012
An examination of the proposed U.S. budget submitted by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Congress this week shows that although billions of dollars will be cut from domestic programs and the U.S. military, annual aid to Israel remains intact, and includes an increase of $25 million from last year.
Last year, the U.S. government gave $3.075 billion in unrestricted aid to Israel, and this year’s proposed budget includes $3.1 billion. This aid is given in addition to around $3 billion in loan guarantees which, unlike other loans, do not have to be paid back.
The cuts in this Congressional budget include an 18% cut in aid to former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe, all of which have much lower GDPs than Israel. In fact, Israel is the only country receiving US aid to be above the 50th percentile economically – Israel is ranked in the richest one-third of countries in the world.
The U.S. State Department will receive a 10% decrease in funding for its programs in Iraq, despite the increased role of the State Department following the withdrawal of the U.S. military. U.S. combat operations overseas will be cut 23%, largely due to the military pullout from Iraq.
President Obama proposed the budget, which equals $3.8 trillion and includes over $1 trillion in cuts, in order to address the massive deficit left by former President George W. Bush. A bi-partisan committee, known as the ‘budget supercommittee’, tasked with recommending cuts last October failed to reach an agreement on what to cut, leaving it up to the President to propose a budget that would significantly reduce the deficit.
U.S. aid to Israel has been a part of each annual Congressional budget since 1967, and the amount has increased over time. Upon taking office, Obama recommended that U.S. aid to Israel continue at the $3 billion a year rate for the next ten years, totaling at least $30 billion (without counting loan guarantees and gifts of weaponry). The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly agreed with this assessment.
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- U.S. Government Pledges $3.8 Billion In Loan Guarantees To Israel (alethonews.wordpress.com)
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The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Were War Crimes Too
By Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF | March 24, 2022
President Biden is accusing Russian forces in Ukraine of committing war crimes by engaging in brutal attacks on civilians. What he is referring to is a longtime principle of warfare in which military forces battle military forces and do not knowingly target civilians with death and destruction.
Meanwhile, the media is reporting that Russian forces are becoming increasingly stalemated on the battlefield, unable to complete their conquest of Ukraine and effect the regime change that they seek within the Ukrainian government. If Russia fails in its effort to bring regime change to Ukraine, that would enable Ukraine to be absorbed into NATO, the corrupt dinosauric bureaucratic entity from the old Cold War racket. That, in turn, would enable the Pentagon to achieve its goal of installing its nuclear missiles pointed at Russia along Russia’s border.
WIth the relentless pressure that the U.S. government and its NATO cohorts are putting on Putin, including with sanctions that are designed to kill Russian civilians, a question must be asked: If Putin’s back is to the wall, if Russia is faced with defeat in Ukraine, if the Russian economy is disintegrating, if the Russian people are faced with death by starvation or massive impoverishment, and if the Russian government is close to collapsing, would Putin resort to dropping a nuclear bomb on Kiev in order to bring a quick end to the war?
If he were to do so, there is no doubt what the response of U.S. officials, the mainstream press, and American statists would be. They would exclaim, and rightly so, that Russia had just committed a massive war crime by targeting and killing a massive number of civilians with a nuclear bomb.
But there would be one big problem staring U.S. officials and the mainstream press, along with American statists, in the face: The U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which knowingly and intentionally targeted, killed, and injured an untold number of Japanese civilians during World War II.
Ever since those bombings, U.S. officials, the U.S. mainstream press, and American statists have maintained that the bombings were justified because they “shortened the war.” Their argument has always been that the lives of thousands of American soldiers were saved by bringing about a quick surrender by Japan. … continue
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Aletho News 
A “Black Hole” of our US Tax Dollars
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More of your disingenuous and mendacious propaganda!…
1) 25 million is a minuscule droplet in terms of the US budget…
2) The US aid to Israel is anything BUT “unrestricted”… According to US law Israel is required to spend the lion-share of the aid in the US!…
3) Loan guarantees are NOT loans!… In fact, the fact that a loan guarantee was issued doesn’t even mean that a loan was taken!… And yes, loan guarantees do NOT have to be paid EXCEPT for when a so guaranteed loan has been taken AND the guaranteed entity doesn’t pay back the guaranteed loan…
As I’m sure none of this is news to you (after all, you do not seem to be a stupid person) the ONLY conclusion is that you’re spinning the truth in order to create disingenuous and mendacious anti-Israeli propaganda…
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Hans,
If you want your commentary to be taken seriously you need to cite sources and provide links.
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Once again, your double standard… Anti-Israeli views such as your own do not require substantiation… Opposing views are…
But hey, I’ll play by your rules this time:
1) The total US budget is 3.796 trillion (enacted expenditures)… If you do the math you’ll see that even the whole US aid to Israel (let alone these 25 million) dosn’t even add up to a single per mille of a single per mille… The source for the US budget information is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_United_States_federal_budget. The rest is simple math…
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_aid clearly states: “Foreign military financing provides grants for the acquisition of U.S. defense equipment, services, and training”… Basically US military aid to Israel and other recipients is a form of subsidy to US military manufacturing…
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loan_guarantee. Now try to use some simple logic… The loan guarantees simply mean Israel can borrow money from commercial US financial sources at advantageous rates because the financial sources don’t have to worry about Israel not repaying the loan… As long as Israel doesn’t default on the loans the guarantees are just that… And they don’t cost the US treasury a single cent!…
Now, IF Israel were to default on one of those loans the issuing bank would demand that the US government own up to the guarantee and pay off the loan… IF that happened it would certainly make the news AND the US government would have to allocate the money within its budget – that means it would be subject to public House (Congress & Senate) debate…
Now, if YOU want to disprove my claim that you’re not a disingenuous and mendacious propagandist please provide sources and links to the following:
1) That 25 million is NOT a minuscule droplet in terms of the US budget…
2) That US aid to Israel is unrestricted (i.e. not subject to the US laws regarding how its used)…
3) That Israel defaulted on a loan guaranteed by the US and that, consequently, the US had to pay off that loan…
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Your comment is irrelevant. What is relevant is the ratio of aid to Israel versus the Palestinian budget to counter it.
Israel is renowned for defaulting on US loans. That’s not a question of serious debate.
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LOL… I just KNEW you’d come back with a silly reply… My comment was exactly what you asked for… Detailed and with sources… So now it’s “irrelevant”?!…
As for ratios, what is the relevancy of= the ratio of aid to Israel versus the Palestinian budget to counter it?!… Are you claiming that unless both sides have the ability to resort to the same resources the fight isn’t fair?!… What do you think this is?!… Boxing?!… Marquess of Queensberry rules?!…
As for your claim that “Israel is renowned for defaulting on US loans. That’s not a question of serious debate.” once again you’re applying your double standard… You make unfounded assertions and provide no sources whatsoever… No “non partial” sources and not even biased sources…
As I said, and as you have shown to be true by your replies, you’re a disingenuous and mendacious anti-Israeli propagandist!…
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Wikipedia is not a valid source.
Hans, your comments are not serious enough to justify response.
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