ZGram - 12/18/2002 - "Reese: The Price of Israel"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

12/18/2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Another good one from Charley Reese:

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The Price Of Israel

The Christian Science Monitor published in its Dec. 9 edition a story 
about Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist, who said recently that 
the total cost of U.S. support for Israel since 1973 is $1.6 
trillion, or twice the cost of the Vietnam War.

This is relevant because the Israelis have just demanded from the 
U.S. taxpayers another $4 billion to cover the cost of their 
oppression of the Palestinians as well as an $8 billion loan 
guarantee.

Ladies and gentleman, there isn't a state in the union that is not 
facing a financial crisis, and if the U.S. government caves in yet 
again to the Israeli lobby on this matter, it will be prima facie 
evidence of mass insanity or of the worse corruption since the 
administration of Ulysses S. Grant.

Stauffer made his speech in a lecture commissioned by the U.S. Army 
War College for a conference at the University of Maine. He has 
converted past aid into 2001 dollars and counts this cost as follows:

Israel has been given $240 billion (remember, this is current 
dollars), while Egypt has been given $117 billion and Jordan $22 
billion as bribes for signing a peace treaty with Israel.

In 1973, when the Arabs attacked Israel in an effort to recover 
territory taken by Israel in the 1967 war, U.S. support for Israel 
triggered the oil embargo. This, according to Stauffer, kicked off a 
recession that cost $420 billion of output; the boost in oil prices 
cost $450 billion; the necessity to build a strategic oil reserve, 
another $134 billion.

He points out that the United States has already guaranteed $10 
billion in commercial loans to Israel and $600 billion in housing 
loans, and he expects the U.S. Treasury will end up paying for all of 
these. He goes on and on listing more costs, direct and indirect. 
Israel, for example, is the only recipient of foreign aid allowed to 
spend a sizeable percentage of the money on Israeli products rather 
than American. It's the only country from which our defense 
contractors are required to buy a certain amount of Israeli-made 
equipment. It is the only foreign country that gets its aid in a lump 
sum and then invests it in U.S. bonds so that taxpayers not only make 
an annual gift to Israel but also have to pay Israel interest on that 
gift.

The fact is that the Israeli government and its powerful lobby have 
taken advantage of the good-heartedness of the American people. The 
American people are generous, but never generous enough to satisfy 
Israeli demands for more of our people's hard-earned tax dollars.

It is one thing to provide emotional support. It is one thing even to 
guarantee coming to the defense of another country if it is attacked. 
It is quite another to undertake the permanent subsidy of a foreign 
country, something our federal government does not even do for its 
states. We have all kinds of problems in the United States that need 
attention. It's time to tell the Israelis "We can no longer afford 
you."

I highly recommend that you read the complete story in the Monitor. 
It should open your eyes to a problem that will not be fixed unless 
the American people make their voices heard in Washington.

If we are going to be forced to subsidize a foreign country, I would 
rather it be France. We can at least get a decent meal in France and 
enjoy the art treasures collected there. Furthermore, France would 
not involve us in its quarrels.

It's America's policy of absolute support for Israel and Israel's 
cruel treatment of the Palestinians that are a big part of our 
problem with terrorism. We stand convicted in the eyes of the Muslim 
world of practicing a double standard by condoning Israel's 
human-rights violations and protecting it from international 
sanctions. That, too, is a terrible price the American people can no 
longer afford to pay.


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(Source:  http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20021218/index.php )