A Call to End the Bailout for the Middle East

Bailouts Need to Stay in America for Americans First

by Joe the Taxpayer

For over years and years, our taxpayers have been paying for the existence of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and now Iraq.  With our people losing jobs left and right and with our current state of the economy, it’s time we end this adventure.  For many years now these bad actors have brought us nothing in terms of returns, well, unless you consider grief and suffering something of value.

Here at home, We are getting our economic butts handed to us and we need to support America first now.  Having our hard working taxpayers continue to pay for bad actors in the Middle East Theatre makes no cents.

Governor Ah-Nald Terminator of California is getting ready to cut 5 billion from its education programs and they are cutting their school time by 1 week.  The first time in history!  There are so many examples of getting our collective asses being kicked at home that there is not enough space to list them all.  I am sure you have your list!  Look, we are losing at home folks yet we continue to pay for others and their experiments without benefit to our country and people.  People are dying and we’re not trying!  This madness must stop and stop now.

Admittedly, we may be afraid of losing influence over regimes that have Middle East Oil thus fueling our economy.  I say okay, support them directly just not in places like Egypt, Jordan and Israel that have no oil.   And only do it for a limited amout of time until we GET OFF OIL!  Then dump them too!  With no need for big oil, this will shut them all down!  So no worries about extremism, they will be too busy trying to find a goat to eat.  They will have no economies in the Middle East and let them suck on that! 

Oh by the way, What happened to all the talk about GREEN and energy efficient America?  What the heck happened? Are we being manipulated again!  Where’s Obama on this thing?  I don’t think this high priced oil is over, its’ on it’s way back folks and get ready for the tidal wave! But that’s another story.

Look, I am tired of paying for everyone else!  I need a bailout.  I am about to lose my home!  Yes, my home!  Why am I paying for this King of Jordan guy or his pharoah-ness Mr President for life Mubarek’s homes and while we are at it, lets get our ass out of Iraq already to heck with Afghanistan too.  Let them worry about their poppy seeds and idiotic 7th century losing ideas!

As for funding the biggest recipient of our aid, well everyone knows Israel has maintained an illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Palestinian territories) for years, entrenching it’s ugly self into a occupation. Great!  If they want to continue this religious experient and kill in the name of God, let them do it without our money.  If they want to bulldoze more Palestinian homes and drop phosphorus bombs on Gaza children, go ahead – just not with our bulldozers and our taxpayers paying for it. 

For many it’s a moral quandry, for me, it’s a money thing. I am a military man.  I don’t think twice about going to war when needed but I am also pragmatic and practical man as well.  We get nothing from them, so to heck with them.  Let them deal with it.

The Israeli military (IDF)—the third or forth most powerful army in the world—routinely uses tanks, Apache helicopter gunships, and F-16 fighter jets (all subsidized by the U.S.) against a population that has no military and none of the protective institutions of a modern state. 

All of this, Israel tells its citizens and the international community, is for "Israeli security."  The reality, not surprisingly, is that these policies have resulted in a drastic increase in attacks on Israel. These attacks are then used as a pretext for further Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas and more violations of Palestinian human rights which makes Israeli civilians more secure; all of which further entrenches Israels colonial apartheid regime.

Most Americans do not realize the extent to which this is all funded by U.S. aid, nor do they understand the specific economic relationship the U.S. has with Israel and how that differs from other countries. 

You know all these people are nuts!  Why are we supporting them?  Let them live and die by their wayward lunacy and crazy ideas.  They will either live as neighors or kill each other off.  Either way works for me.

The aid pipeline to Israel

There are at least three ways in which aid to Israel is different from that of any other country. First, since 1982, U.S. aid to Israel has been transferred in one lump sum at the beginning of each fiscal year, which immediately begins to collect interest in U.S. banks. Aid that goes to other countries is disbursed throughout the year in quarterly installments.

Second, Israel is not required to account for specific purchases. Most countries receive aid for very specific purposes and must account for how it is spent. Israel is allowed to place US aid into its general fund, effectively eliminating any distinctions between types of aid. Therefore, U.S. tax-payers are helping to fund an illegal occupation, the expansion of colonial-settlement projects, and gross human rights violations against the Palestinian civilian population.

A third difference is the sheer amount of aid the U.S. gives to Israel, unparalleled in the history of U.S. foreign policy. Israel usually receives roughly one third of the entire foreign aid budget, despite the fact that Israel comprises less than .001 of the world’s population and already has one of the world’s higher per capita incomes. In other words, Israel, a country of approximately 6 million people, is currently receiving more U.S. aid than all of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean combined when you take out Egypt and Colombia.

The total amount of direct U.S. aid to Israel has been constant, at around $3 billion (usually 60% military and 40% economic) per year for the last quarter century.  I could use this money to pay for a better VA system! Heck, it would pay for a world class system!

In addition to nearly $3 billion in direct aid, Israel usually gets another $3 billion or so in indirect aid: military support from the defense budget, forgiven loans, and special grants. While some of the indirect aid is difficult to measure precisely, it is safe to say that Israel’s total aid (direct and indirect) amounts to at least five billion dollars annually.

According to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE), from 1949-2008 the U.S. has given Israel a total of over 100 billion dollars. 100 billion!  wholly moley Batman, that would bailout every single american who’s in foreclosure.

To understand why the U.S. spends this much money funding the Middle East regimes, it is necessary to examine the benefits for weapons manufacturers and, particularly, the role that Israel plays in the expansion and maintenance of U.S. imperialism.  Now, I am not against our military industrial complex but really, we need to manage it better and get off this diet of war mongering.  There has to be a better way to manage our country.  Or maybe there is now way and I am just ignorant, crazy, idealistic, and naive.  Maybe war is the only way to live!

In conclusion, before you start writing comments that I hate Israel, be advised that I don’t hate Israel.  I just hate paying for someone else’s adventures.  Heck, I don’t even pay for my own kids adventures why I am paying for some guy who takes my money and then laughs at me behind my back!

And before all you start yelling that I don’t support moderate Arab regimes, I do.  I wish them well.  I just think that they need to pay for themselves and operate by their own abilities and negotiate and live with their neighbors without artificially being propped up by Joe the Taxpayer.  If they want to be stubborn jerk offs and strap bombs around them, then be my guest.  It’s no my problem!  It’s their collective problem! 

It’s time we bail ourselves out and not other countries, especially those that have nothing but grief and suffering to offer. 
Now bail me out please!  Okay, now go ahead and slam me with comments!  Literary Bombs Away!