Responding to Israel-Bashers

During the GOP presidential debate last night in South Carolina, Ron Paul said all aid to Israel should be cut-off. Here is how to respond to Ron Paul's ignorant and uninformed stance on Israel. There are many others like him who see our support and military aid to Israel as a burden, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Via Israpundit:

Total exports from the U.S. to Israel between 2004 and 2008 was $58.6BN—almost
five times twice the $12BN Israel received in U.S. aid during this period. The
annual average of U.S. exports to Israel during this period was $11.7BN, more
than five times the average American aid package!

Israel must spend about 74 percent of U.S. military aid in the United States,
where it provides jobs for an estimated 50,000 American workingmen.

? Unknown to many observers, U.S. military aid to Israel creates a demand for,
and the purchase of, tens of billions of dollars worth of U.S. weaponry by Saudi
Arabia and other Arab states. U.S. grants to Israel—far from imposing a burden
on the American tax payer—actually enriches the American economy. (American arms
manufacturers know this. So do Senators and Representatives who represent states
in which corporations such as Boeing, Lockheed, and General Dynamics are
located. These elected officials, along with these corporations, have vested
interests in opposing any sanctions against Israel if its government were to
take a more independent and vigorous stand against the Palestinian Authority.)

According to Gen. George Keegan, a former chief of U.S. Air Force Intelligence,
between 1974 and 1990, Israeli aid to America was worth between $50-80BN in
intelligence, research and development savings, Soviet weapons systems captured
and transferred to the Pentagon, and testing Soviet military doctrines up to
1990 when the USSR collapsed. Senator Daniel Inouye put it this way: "The
contribution made by Israeli intelligence to America is greater than that
provided by all NATO countries combined."

Recall that in 1970, at Washington's request, Israel prevented a Syrian invasion
of Jordan. By protecting Jordan from that client of the Soviet Union, Israel
thwarted Moscow's ambitions in the Middle East. It would be naive to think that
Russia has abandoned its historic objectives in this region.)

Now let us paraphrase a report of Yoram Ettinger, former Israeli liaison to the
U.S. Congress:[1]

Israel constantly relays to the U.S. lessons of battle and counter-terrorism,
which reduce American losses in Iraq and Afghanistan, prevent attacks on U.S.
soil, upgrade American weapons, and contribute to the U.S. economy. Innovative
Israeli technologies boost U.S. industries.

The vice-president of the company that produces the F16 fighter jets told
Ettinger that Israel is responsible for 600 improvements in the plane's systems,
modifications estimated to be worth billions of dollars, which spared dozens of
research and development years.

Without Israel, the U.S. would have to deploy tens of thousands of American
troops in the eastern Mediterranean Basin, at a cost of billions of dollars a
year.

In 1981, Israel bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor, thus providing the U.S. with
the option of engaging in conventional wars with Iraq in 1991 and 2003, thereby
preventing a possible nuclear war and its horrendous consequences.

In 2005, Israel provided America with the world's most extensive experience in
homeland defense and warfare against suicide bombers and car bombs. American
soldiers train in IDF facilities and Israeli-made drones fly above the Sunni
Triangle in Iraq, as well as in Afghanistan, providing U.S. Marines with vital
intelligence that saved many American lives.

But I have not mentioned Israel's greatest gift to America's well-being and
prosperity, a gift of incalculable value, exceeding by far all that Israel
receives from the U.S. For Israel provides America with 25,000 high tech
workers, 324 scientists, 902 doctors who studied medicine in Israel, 1,800
Israeli professors and lecturers, 171 high ranking military officers, and
thousands of other professional people whose contribution to the American
economy is priceless.[2] Dr. Sisco knew whereof he spoke.