US Aid to Israel
Posted August 7, 2009
Israel has long been the largest recipient of US foreign aid, especially military aid. Every year Israel receives about $3 billion in American aid, more than any other country. This is primarily military aid and is set to increase over the course of the decade, until Israel is receiving $3.1 billion annually from 2013 on through 2018, in accordance with a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding between Israel and the US. Israel has been the largest overall recipient of US foreign aid since WWII.
This aid now consists primarily of Foreign Military Financing, since Israel requested that economic aid be phased out in favor of military aid. Israel uses the money, constitutes about 20% of Israel’s defense budget, to buy weapons from American arms makers. This constitutes the core of US support for Israel and helps allow Israel to maintain occupation forces in the West Bank. It also means that there will be a strong lobby to continue American aid to Israel, as American arms makers would naturally lobby to keep preserve and increase their annual orders. In addition to the pressure exerted by the Israel Lobby (including arms and munitions manufacturers), congressmen often have an incentive to maintain and increase aid to Israel as it often translates into jobs in their districts.
According to law, arms sales to other Middle Eastern states must not compromise Israel’s qualitative advantage. This constitutes a snub to America’s Arab allies, who also buy or receive US arms, but of an inferior quality. Israel is also special because her entire aid sum is disbursed at one time within a month of the appropriations bill becoming law, as opposed to quarterly as aid is with other states. Moreover, under the 2007 MOU, up to 26% of the money can be spent within Israel instead of on American arms, an exception afforded to no other aid recipient. In 1989 Israel was designed a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA), thus allowing it to receive Excess Defense Articles (outdated surplus military supplies and munitions) at reduced rates or free of charge.
American aid to Israel has not been without controversy. US aid is governed by US law and a 1952 US-Israel Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement, which states that assistance must be used for “legitimate self-defense.” The Reagan Administration found that Israel “may” have violated this agreement in using cluster bombs on Beirut and its surrounding areas during Israel’s invasion of Beirut in 1982 and also in the bombing of the Iraqi nuclear facility at Osrik, Iraq the year before. As a result, F-16 and cluster bomb sales to Israeli were temporarily suspended.
At times, US military aid has been even more direct, such as when the US shipped arms from US military stores directly to Israel in wartime, in both 1973 and 2006. The 1973 resupply triggered the Arab oil embargo of the US that sent gas prices skyrocketing and shook the American economy. To this day, American support for Israel, especially in the form of military aid is the major reason for anti-American sentiment in the Arab world and plays an important role in fueling anti-American terrorism.
