Further compelling reasons to stop the aid

Submitted by Eric (Israel), Jul 29, 2016 at 10:06

1. Financial support is a head fake
President Obama and others such as VP Candidate Kaine argue that they are the best supporters of Israel because they are signing the biggest checks in history. If the aid stopped they would have to show their support in the real sense - support at the UN, support our efforts to defend ourselves in Gaza and Lebanon, tell the EU to "shove it". With the aid put aside, they will have to show their support in a meaningful way. Obama used this to buy the votes and support from the Jewish Community in the USA on the Iran Deal. "Don't worry, we will take care of Israel's defence needs, just support me on this!." Or admit they really don't support Israel.

2. The real beneficiaries are the Defense Contractors, more than Israel
Under the new terms 100% of the aid has to be used to buy the arms from US Defense Suppliers - Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Rockwell, United Technologies, Boeing, etc. So this is practically a gift from the US government to these companies, with Israel taking the public blame. These companies not only get free business, they also get all the battle testing analysis and results when Israel tests their arms in real scenarios. If instead Israel said NO, then we would be forced to fund much of this technological development ourselves. But it would create jobs, new innovative products and new markets. AND we would then go out and compete in the open market with these US Defense Contractors who know that we would beat them on both price and capabilities.

3. Drug Addiction
This aid used to be vital. We have reached the state that we should simply say no thank you. BUT, what we really need is the ability, in the event of an emergency, to pull down resupplies without a Nixon like blockade. This is what the Israeli Government should focus on, not this annual fix.

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