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[–] Joe_McCarthy 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

There are a lot of things that are funded whilst Americans lose their homes. Things that are more costly for the federal budget than aid to Israel.

Israel may be understated by the mainstream though I think funding them is in our interests. For one thing it helps keep Israel safe for Jews by ensuring they have a competitive edge in arms. If Israel goes under or even becomes unviable Israeli Jews will move to the US. I don't know about you but I don't see any value in having more Jewish Democrats in swing state Florida.

But my point was that Judeo-obsessives overstate the whole Jewish issue as if they're the nexus of our problems. This overstatement of course includes Israel, and for reasons I just outlined bitching at Israel is counterproductive even if one hates Jews. Israel is a place to put a bunch of them. It's a Jewish Liberia.

There are other reasons to support Israel. It'd be replaced by a hostile Hamas state or something similar. Aiding Egypt and Israel both makes it hard for another Arab war coalition to be assembled against Israel which helps regional stability, keeps us from getting war refugees Jewish and otherwise, and prevents the kind of instability that could spike oil prices or inhibit the free flow of oil. After all, we started sending foreign aid to Egypt and Israel with the Arab oil embargo of the 70s in mind. Better to throw a few bucks at the problem to save far more at the pump with another war and another embargo was the thinking.

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[–] ATX_1138 [S] ago 

But other funding is couched under the guise that it helps Americans somehow - not funding a foreign government that has literally attacked Americans. Support that gains us enemies we would not otherwise have.

Hamas is hostile? The founders of Israel blew up a hotel. Were they not hostile?

Jews use Israel as a base of power - they happily still vote in those elections in Florida and elsewhere.

Israel has destabilized the region in my opinion.

Arab oil embargo of the 70s in mind.

Oh, and what was the motive behind that?

The embargo was a response to American involvement in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Six days after Egypt and Syria launched a surprise military campaign against Israel, the US supplied Israel with arms.

You keep changing the focus and resetting the clock. But I can always point to what preceded that and it is rooted in Zionism.

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[–] Joe_McCarthy ago 

There are several million Jews in Israel. It is reasonable to expect we'd have more Jewish Democrats moving here and voting in our elections if Israel didn't exist or was markedly less safe - and our military aid helps ensure they remain viable in a sea of enemies. Aiding Egypt helps keep them compliant too and gives them an incentive to keep the peace treaty with Israel.

There is an argument to be made that we should not have recognized Israel in the 1940s as it would antagonize the Arabs. But that was almost seventy years ago. The reality is now it serves our interests to support Israel.

US foreign aid is made with the argument that it serves our national interests. If it serves the national interest it helps Americans.

And whatever Israel did with the Liberty or that thing in the 50s they're a lot friendlier to us today than Islamic fundamentalists like Hamas. At the UN Israel votes with us about as much as Britain.

And yeah, Nixon saved Israel in '73. It made sense within the larger framework of the Cold War. Syria and Egypt were Soviet client states. Israel was friendlier to us. We kept them from getting overrun - which again would have meant Jewish refugees HERE.

But the agreement at Camp David brokered peace between Egypt and Israel with US aid to both to help maintain it. It was basically a bribe to Egypt not to fight Israel again and without Egypt another Arab war coalition against Israel was much less viable.