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Does US aid to Israel have strings attached? (Read 293 times)

Bobby.

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Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:26am

Is the USA paying a ransom in order to have some control of Israel?

I have found some interesting articles and when reading between the lines -
it looks like US aid to Israel of $billions every year has many strings attached by the USA.

Here is the first piece of evidence I found:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-12/israel-s-tech-industry-warms-...

By Sarah Zheng and Coco Liu
July 12, 2022 at 4:00 AM EDT

On July 13, Joe Biden makes his first presidential visit to Israel. The country doesn’t see eye to eye with the US on a number of crucial foreign policy issues, such as the Biden administration’s attempts to revive the Iran nuclear deal or its tough stance on Russia over the war in Ukraine. But the trip could give Biden a chance to highlight real progress in another geopolitical arena: the US rivalry with China over advanced technologies.

A long-running US effort to steer Israel’s tech industry away from China had yielded only patchy results, but now it seems to be working. Ties between Israel’s tech sector and China have eroded in recent years, threatening to cut off a key remaining option for Beijing to access strategically important technology.

« Last Edit: Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:40am by Bobby. »

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Bobby.

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Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Reply #1 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:28am

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-691425

Israel agrees to update US about China trade to avoid tension

The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, has expressed major security concerns about Chinese investments in Israel in 5G Internet infrastructure and transportation.

By LAHAV HARKOV

JANUARY 3, 2022

Israel’s continued balancing act between its strategic relationship with the US and its economic relationship with China, its third-largest trade partner, is set to be one of its major foreign-policy challenges in 2022.

The security cabinet has been engaged in discussions about Israel’s next steps, amid an increasingly tense superpower competition between Washington and Beijing and continuing concern in the US about Chinese involvement in the Middle East. The Defense, Public Security and Foreign ministries have also been involved in the discussions.

Israel is on the American side if it has to choose a side and won’t fight with Washington over China, a senior diplomatic official said Monday, but it would prefer to stay under the radar so it does not lose business and investments from China.

In light of US warnings that Chinese investments could cause security breaches, Jerusalem has agreed in recent months to update Washington about any major deals with Beijing, especially in infrastructure and technology.

Israel would reconsider any such deals at America’s request, a senior diplomatic official said Monday.

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Bobby.

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Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Reply #2 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:30am

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/joint-capabilities/9255-israel-s-defence-expor...

Israel’s Defense Export Controls Agency increases restrictions on exporting cyber tech

Joint-capabilities
23 December 2021

The Israeli Ministry of Defense has tightened its End User Declaration needed to qualify for an export licence.

As part of a nationwide push to limit the export of high end cyber capabilities to potential threat actors, the Israeli Ministry of Defense has released a new End User Declaration within the Defense Export Controls Agency to tighten the qualifications for an export licence.

Under the recent announcements, the agency has updated the declaration regarding the use of the cyber capabilities to include a statement on what the capabilities will be used for.

“The updated declaration implements the policy of the Ministry of Defense to control the end use of cyber systems. The declaration obligates the acquiring state to restrict the use of cyber systems for the investigation and prevention of crime and terrorism. The definition of serious crime and terrorism has been clarified in the declaration,” a release from the Israeli government said.

“The updated declaration also states circumstances under which the use of cyber systems is prohibited, and explicitly specifics the possible sanctions in the event of non-compliance with the obligations set forth in the declaration (including restricting the use of the cyber system or shutting down the system).”

The announcement comes as Israel’s Finance Ministry ran a simulated “war game” to test the resilience of the international finance sector in the face of a cyber attack, with 10 counties participating in the 10-day challenge.

The event, which took up to a year to plan, was informed by data collected on the dark web to simulate an array of cyber attacks resulted in financial chaos.

According to media outlets, the simulation included representatives from Israel, the US, UK, UAE, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Thailand, the IMF and the World Bank.

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Bobby.

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Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Reply #3 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:33am

https://www.timesofisrael.com/10-israelis-set-to-be-indicted-for-illegally-expor...

10 Israelis set to be indicted for illegally exporting missiles to China

Drone entrepreneur Ephraim Menashe and 9 others to be charged for a range of crimes, including carrying out missile tests near residential neighborhoods
By ToI Staff 20 December 2021, 8:16 pm

The Financial Department of the State Prosecutor’s Office informed 10 individuals and three companies on Monday that they would be indicted on serious security offenses linked to selling missiles to China without approval.

According to the State Prosecutor’s Office, the deal in question was brokered by Ephraim Menashe, an Israeli drone entrepreneur and founder of the Solar Sky company, who then hired Tzvika and Ziv Naveh, owners of the Innocon drone company, and other unnamed suspects.

“The suspects were investigated as part of a large-scale security case in which it was suspected that they manufactured, brokered and exported cruise missiles for military use, without a permit,” said prosecutors.

The suspects will be summoned to a pre-indictment hearing before facing a range of charges, including security offenses, weapons offenses, money laundering, violating the Defense Export Control Law and more.

The Defense Ministry’s Defense Export Controls Agency (DECA), established in 2006, manages the export and licensing of all Israeli-made defense equipment and technologies, and relevant companies are required to apply for a permit before brokering any overseas deals.

Israel is home to some 1,600 licensed arms exporters, which employ 150,000 to 200,000 people. In addition, there is a large supply chain of subcontractors who supply software, hardware, raw materials, and other goods necessary for arms production.

DECA is supposed to watch over this massive system, guided by strict rules governing Israel’s arms export industry. The body, which operates with nearly no transparency, is supposed to vet deals to ensure that arms do not go to enemy countries, endanger Israel in any way, include classified technology, or stand to harm Israel’s international standing.

The DECA mechanism was created in 2007,
years after an Israeli fighter jet deal got tangled up in US-China tensions.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s,

the US demanded Israel Aerospace Industries cancel separate deals with China for Phalcon airborne early detection radar systems and Harpy drones. Israel complied both times, after numerous threats from the US, and agreed to stop selling military hardware to China, drawing anger from Beijing and damaging ties.

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Bobby.

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Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Reply #4 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:35am

and a 58 page pdf here

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf

U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel

This report provides an overview of U.S. foreign assistance to Israel. It includes a review of past
aid programs, data on annual assistance, and analysis of current issues. For general information
on Israel, see Israel: Background and U.S. Relations in Brief, by Jim Zanotti.
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.
Successive Administrations, working with Congress, have provided Israel with assistance
reflective of robust domestic U.S. support for Israel and its security; shared strategic goals in the
Middle East; a mutual avowed commitment to democratic values; and historical ties dating from
U.S. support for the creation of Israel in 1948. To date, the United States has provided Israel $158 billion (current, or non-
inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. At present, almost all U.S. bilateral aid to
Israel is in the form of military assistance; from 1971 to 2007, Israel also received significant economic assistance.
In 2016, the U.S. and Israeli governments signed their third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid,
covering FY2019 to FY2028. Under the terms of the MOU, the United States pledged to provide—subject to congressional
appropriation—

$38 billion in military aid ($33 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants plus $5 billion in missile
defense appropriations) to Israel.

Israel is the first international operator of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Department of Defense’s fifth-generation stealth
aircraft, considered to be the most technologically advanced fighter jet ever made. To date, Israel has purchased 50 F-35s in
three separate contracts, funded with U.S. assistance, and has taken delivery of 36.
For FY2023, Congress authorized $520 million for joint U.S.-Israel defense programs (including $500 million for missile
defense) in the FY2023 James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act. Per the terms of the MOU, Congress
appropriated $3.8 billion for Israel (FMF and missile defense) in the FY2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, and added
$98.58 million in funding for other cooperative defense and nondefense programs.

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Bobby. Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 120675 Melbourne Gender:	Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached? Reply #5 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:38am So what can we deduce from this? If the USA didn't give foreign aid to Israel - Israel could easily make far more money by exporting its military technologies to other countries like China. The USA is sort of paying a ransom in order to have some control of Israel.
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Bobby.

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Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Reply #6 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:48am

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/15/big-us-military-aid-package-to-israel-has-string...

Big US military aid package to Israel has strings attached

Published Thu, Sep 15 2016

After months of negotiating, the United States and Israel have signed a huge, $38 billion deal for military aid to the Jewish state — with some changes from previous pacts between the countries.

The 10-year agreement is the largest in U.S. history, with a significant portion of the money expected to be used to upgrade Israel’s air force to Lockheed Martin’s

F-35 fighter aircraft.

But while the actual memorandum of understanding hasn’t been officially released by either country, it has a number of conditions that are different from previous U.S.-Israel aid deals.

Most importantly, it’s structured so that more Israeli defense spending goes to U.S. companies. Israel’s long-standing special arrangement for funds from the United States previously allowed Israel to spend 26 percent of the money in Israel — on Israeli-made defense products. But that provision is being phased out over the first five years of the deal.

Sources on Capitol Hill with knowledge of the agreement said the deal states that Israel can’t lobby Congress for more money unless a war breaks out. It says that funds for missile defense are included in the $38 billion — previously, that money was negotiated separately. And it states that Israel can’t use any of the U.S.-provided funds for fuel, meaning more of the aid comes back to U.S. defense manufacturers.

The U.S. State Department referred an inquiry from CNBC to the White House, which said it would not comment on the deal beyond a fact sheet it released online. That document notes that the new agreement for $3.8 billion per year compares with the previous annual allotment of $3.1 billion, and it refers to the new pact as an increase “by every measure.”

Israel is the largest recipient of American military aid. The country began receiving an allotment for defense spending in 1985, shortly after Israel and Egypt signed a landmark peace deal. Egypt is the second-largest recipient of U.S. military aid.

Israel also spends its own funds on its military. Its budget for the past year, not including U.S. aid, was approximately $16 billion, or 5.4 percent of Israel’s gross domestic product. By comparison, the United States spends just more than 3 percent of its GDP on defense.

In addition, Israeli defense companies have opened markets for themselves all over the world. Israeli defense firm IMI announced this week that exports of bullets to the United States have increased tenfold over the last two years.

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Bobby.

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Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Reply #7 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:52am

https://www.quora.com/Does-US-foreign-aid-to-Israel-have-strings-attached

Mark Hyatt Tynan

BA in Political Science & Literature, University of California, San Diego (Graduated 1976)
Author has 6.6K answers and 1.6M answer views1y

Originally Answered: Does American aid to Israel come with any unofficial strings attached?

American military aid to Israel is complex. The American defense establishment views the 3.8 billion dollars allocated for military aid to be a bargain. As was explained elsewhere, it all has to be spent here in the United States on American Military systems and equipment. Along with systems and Equipment Israel receives the computer code. Israel is the only country in the whole world that receives American computer code the reason for this is Israel improves upon everything it purchases for the United States and then the United States receives those improvements as a part of the deal. Israel also receives the data gathered from using this equipment in real situations. When Israel sends Jets over Syria and avoids Russian defense systems then the United States receives that data. When American missiles get through Syrian defenses which are really rushing defenses then the United States gets that data. There is a lot of discussion regarding Iron Dome which was developed by Israel but they came a joint program between Israel and the United States. I do not know exactly how it works but there have been Iron Dome installations that did not cost Israel anything and then there were Iron Dome installations that Israel had to pay something for. United States also has a license to sell Iron Dome to other countries. As was pointed out elsewhere, Iron Dome will soon be replaced by Iron beam which is being prepared for deployment now. Iron beam has two distinct advantages over Iron Dome. The first is it is far less expensive to operate and it destroys its Target much closer to the launch point and turn debris into a weapon against the people firing the projectile. There is a lot more that goes into the give and take of American military aid to Israel. Israel is incorporating Iron Dome into the American military defense array. Is really pilots, acting as Russian Pilots, engage American pilots and dogfights in Southern Arizona. Israel hardened American electronic communications both in individual systems and generally. This was a part of the military aid deal. Every time I stop I remember more. I always remember things I cannot discuss. I hope that now anyone reading this understands that American military aid to Israel is not just to put money into the pockets of the American defense establishment business.

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Bobby.

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Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached?
Reply #8 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 7:56am

https://time.com/7058551/us-record-military-aid-israel/

U.S. Spent a Record $17.9 Billion on Military Aid to Israel Since Last Oct. 7

5 minute read

October 7, 2024

WASHINGTON — The United States has spent a record of
at least

$17.9 billion on military aid to Israel

since the war in Gaza began and led to escalating conflict around the Middle East, according to a report for Brown University's Costs of War project, released Monday on the anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel.

An additional $4.86 billion has gone into stepped-up U.S. military operations in the region since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, researchers said in findings first provided to The Associated Press. That includes the costs of a Navy-led campaign to quell strikes on commercial shipping by Yemen's Houthis, who are carrying them out in solidarity with the fellow Iranian-backed group Hamas.

The report — completed before Israel opened a second front, this one against Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, in late September — is one of the first tallies of estimated U.S. costs as the Biden administration backs Israel in its conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon and seeks to contain hostilities by Iran-allied armed groups in the region.

The financial toll is on top of the cost in human lives: Hamas militants killed more than 1,200 people in Israel a year ago and took others hostage. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

At least 1,400 people in Lebanon, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed since Israel greatly expanded its strikes in that country in late September.

Record military aid to Israel

Israel — a protege of the United States since its 1948 founding —
is the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid in history,
getting

$251.2 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1959

, the report says.

Even so, the $17.9 billion spent since Oct. 7, 2023, in inflation-adjusted dollars, is by far the most military aid sent to Israel in one year. The U.S. committed to providing billions in military assistance to Israel and Egypt each year when they signed their 1979 U.S.-brokered peace treaty, and an agreement since the Obama administration set the annual amount for Israel at $3.8 billion through 2028.

The U.S. aid since the Gaza war started includes military financing, arms sales, at least $4.4 billion in drawdowns from U.S. stockpiles and hand-me-downs of used equipment.

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Bobby. Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 120675 Melbourne Gender:	Re: Does US aid to Israel have strings attached? Reply #9 - Oct 20^th, 2024 at 12:12pm Any comments?
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