| Author | Message | | Guest | | Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2002 12:21 am Post subject: ECONOMIST TALLIES SWELLING COST OF ISRAEL TO US |
| From the web site at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1209/p16s01-wmgn.html
ECONOMIST TALLIES SWELLING COST OF ISRAEL TO US
By David R. Francis
Staff Writer The Christian Science Monitor 12-9-02
Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If
divided by today's population, that is more than $5,700 per person.
This is an estimate by Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in
Washington. For decades, his analyses of the Middle East scene have
made him a frequent thorn in the side of the Israel lobby.
For the first time in many years, Mr. Stauffer has tallied the total
cost to the US of its backing of Israel in its drawn-out, violent
dispute with the Palestinians. So far, he figures, the bill adds up to
more than twice the cost of the Vietnam War.
And now Israel wants more. In a meeting at the White House late last
month, Israeli officials made a pitch for $4 billion in additional
military aid to defray the rising costs of dealing with the intifada
and suicide bombings. They also asked for more than $8 billion in loan
guarantees to help the country's recession-bound economy.
Considering Israel's deep economic troubles, Stauffer doubts the
Israel bonds covered by the loan guarantees will ever be repaid. The
bonds are likely to be structured so they don't pay interest until
they reach maturity. If Stauffer is right, the US would end up paying
both principal and interest, perhaps 10 years out.
Israel's request could be part of a supplemental spending bill that's
likely to be passed early next year, perhaps wrapped in with the cost
of a war with Iraq.
Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid. It is already due
to get $2.04 billion in military assistance and $720 million in
economic aid in fiscal 2003. It has been getting $3 billion a year for
years.
Adjusting the official aid to 2001 dollars in purchasing power, Israel
has been given $240 billion since 1973, Stauffer reckons. In addition,
the US has given Egypt $117 billion and Jordan $22 billion in foreign
aid in return for signing peace treaties with Israel.
"Consequently, politically, if not administratively, those outlays are
part of the total package of support for Israel," argues Stauffer in a
lecture on the total costs of US Middle East policy, commissioned by
the US Army War College, for a recent conference at the University of
Maine.
These foreign-aid costs are well known. Many Americans would probably
say it is money well spent to support a beleagured democracy of some
strategic interest. But Stauffer wonders if Americans are aware of the
full bill for supporting Israel since some costs, if not hidden, are
little known.
One huge cost is not secret. It is the higher cost of oil and other
economic damage to the US after Israel-Arab wars.
In 1973, for instance, Arab nations attacked Israel in an attempt to
win back territories Israel had conquered in the 1967 war. President
Nixon resupplied Israel with US arms, triggering the Arab oil embargo
against the US.
That shortfall in oil deliveries kicked off a deep recession. The US
lost $420 billion (in 2001 dollars) of output as a result, Stauffer
calculates. And a boost in oil prices cost another $450 billion.
Afraid that Arab nations might use their oil clout again, the US set
up a Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That has since cost, conservatively,
$134 billion, Stauffer reckons.
Other US help includes:
* US Jewish charities and organizations have remitted grants or bought
Israel bonds worth $50 billion to $60 billion. Though private in
origin, the money is "a net drain" on the United States economy, says
Stauffer.
* The US has already guaranteed $10 billion in commercial loans to
Israel, and $600 billion in "housing loans." Stauffer expects the US
Treasury to cover these.
* The US has given $2.5 billion to support Israel's Lavi fighter and
Arrow missile projects.
* Israel buys discounted, serviceable "excess" US military equipment.
Stauffer says these discounts amount to "several billion dollars" over
recent years.
* Israel uses roughly 40 percent of its $1.8 billion per year in
military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of US weapons, to buy
Israeli-made hardware. It also has won the right to require the
Defense Department or US defense contractors to buy Israeli-made
equipment or subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar
the US gives to Israel.
US help, financial and technical, has enabled Israel to become a major
weapons supplier. Weapons make up almost half of Israel's manufactured
exports. US defense contractors often resent the buy-Israel
requirements and the extra competition subsidized by US taxpayers.
* US policy and trade sanctions reduce US exports to the Middle East
about $5 billion a year, costing 70,000 or so American jobs, Stauffer
estimates. Not requiring Israel to use its US aid to buy American
goods, as is usual in foreign aid, costs another 125,000 jobs.
* Israel has blocked some major US arms sales, such as F-15 fighter
aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. That cost $40 billion over
10 years, says Stauffer.
Stauffer's list will be controversial. He's been assisted in this
research by a number of mostly retired military or diplomatic
officials who do not go public for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic
if they criticize America's policies toward Israel. | |  | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2002 6:25 am Post subject: The Billions of US Taxpayer Dollars Should be Spent in US |
| Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 3:58 PM
Subject: [eFreePalestine] Letter published in the Christian Science Monitor
A letter I wrote to the editors at Christian Science Monitor was published (with only minor edits) on the CSM website:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1211/p08s01-cole.html
Regarding the Dec. 9 "Economic Scene" column "Economist tallies swelling cost of Israel to US" (Work&Money):
If Americans were not constantly subjected to a veritable blitzkreig of pro-Israel propaganda by mainstream press and broadcast news organizations, they might have noticed that, but for the cost of supporting Israel's illegal and brutal occupation of 1967 Palestine, nearly a million unemployed Americans would probably not be losing their unemployment benefits just three days after Christmas.
They might also notice that the Israeli government's request for additional aid, above and beyond the $3 billion to $7 billion it receives annually from American taxpayers, is money that would go a long way toward funding the much-needed repair of America's dilapidated schools (not to mention a host of other infrastructure projects currently on hold), or toward funding prescription drug coverage for older Americans, many of whom must choose between eating and paying bills.
Please continue to publish articles that ask hard questions about the "special relationship" Israel enjoys with the purses and bank accounts of honest, hard-working American taxpayers.
Michael Gillespie
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Fighting TERRORISM while AIDING OCCUPATION is Moronic!
END TERRORISM by ENDING Israeli OCCUPATION Stupid!
SHARON NOW = MILOSEVIC Then = HITLER IN 1942!
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www.FreePalestineCampaign.org Be a Peacemaker in PALESTINE!
www.InternationalAnswer.org Act Now to STOP WAR and End RACISM
www.capwiz.com/ADC/home/ Tell Congress to Stop Aid to Israel!
www.Al-Awda.org/petition.htm END zIONIST Profit from OCCUPATION!
www.RamallahOnline.com Our Occupied Home in Ramallah PALESTINE!
www.groups.Yahoo.com/group/eFreePalestine/messages ARCHIVES!
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Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2002 2:29 am Post subject: |
| U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
December 19, 2002
Fact Sheet
Illustrative Examples of Omissions from the
Iraqi Declaration to the United Nations Security Council
Anthrax and Other Undeclared Biological Agents
The UN Special Commission concluded that Iraq did not verifiably account for, at a minimum, 2160kg of growth media.
This is enough to produce 26,000 liters of anthrax -- 3 times the amount Iraq declared; 1200 liters of botulinum toxin; and, 5500 liters of clostridium perfrigens -- 16 times the amount Iraq declared.
Why does the Iraqi declaration ignore these dangerous agents in its tally?
Ballistic Missiles
Iraq has disclosed manufacturing new energetic fuels suited only to a class of missile to which it does not admit.
Iraq claims that flight-testing of a larger diameter missile falls within the 150km limit. This claim is not credible.
Why is the Iraqi regime manufacturing fuels for missiles it says it does not have?
Nuclear Weapons
The Declaration ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger.
Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?
VX
In 1999, UN Special Commission and international experts concluded that Iraq needed to provide additional, credible information about VX production.
The declaration provides no information to address these concerns.
What is the Iraqi regime trying to hide by not providing this information?
Chemical and Biological Weapons Munitions
In January 1999, the UN Special Commission reported that Iraq failed to provide credible evidence that 550 mustard gas-filled artillery shells and 400 biological weapon-capable aerial bombs had been lost or destroyed.
The Iraqi regime has never adequately accounted for hundreds, possibly thousands, of tons of chemical precursors.
Again, what is the Iraqi regime trying to hide by not providing this information?
Empty Chemical Munitions
There is no adequate accounting for nearly 30,000 empty munitions that could be filled with chemical agents.
Where are these munitions?
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) Programs
Iraq denies any connection between UAV programs and chemical or biological agent dispersal. Yet, Iraq admitted in 1995 that a MIG-21 remote-piloted vehicle tested in 1991 was to carry a biological weapon spray system.
Iraq already knows how to put these biological agents into bombs and how to disperse biological agent using aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles.
Why do they deny what they have already admitted? Why has the Iraqi regime acquired the range and auto-flight capabilities to spray biological weapons?
Mobile Biological Weapon Agent Facilities
The Iraqi declaration provides no information about its mobile biological weapon agent facilities. Instead it insists that these are “refrigeration vehicles and food testing laboratories.”
What is the Iraqi regime trying to hide about their mobile biological weapon facilities?
Summary
None of these holes and gaps in Iraq's declaration are mere accidents, editing oversights or technical mistakes: they are material omissions. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
