Israel has received more cumulative American aid than any other country since the end of World War II

Ein el Helwe camp, Lebanon

It’s anyone’s guess if the just announced “latest ceasefire” between the Palestinians under siege in  Gaza and the colonial regime still occupying Palestine after 66 years, will hold.  But on 8/25/14 the White House agreed to meet the latest Zionist ceasefire conditions precedents. They include substantial aid demands from President Obama’s nemesis, Israeli PM Netanyahu.

Whether or not the latter stays in office given the widespread anger among the Zionist settler population over the regimes loss to the Resistance, US military and economic aid is being increased.

According to a recent Congress report, Israel has received more cumulative American aid than any other country since the end of World War II. Depending on which sources are credited and various aid amount calculations, since 1962, American military aid to Israel has amounted to nearly $200 billion.

For the past decades the United States has been regularly transferring aid of about $3 billion annually, but an equal amount via special ‘surplus’ weapons grants, excused loans and other arrangements. In addition, the U.S. has been funding Israeli projects that AIPAC claims are important both to it and to Israel without any evidence offer as to how America benefits.

According to John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt in their volume, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", “Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct U.S. economic and military assistance since 1976 and the largest total recipient since World War ll. Total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars. Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America's entire foreign aid budget. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year. This largesse is especially striking when one realizes that Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to South Korea or Spain.”

In the 1950s, America gave Israel only civilian aid, for economic purposes, and this was doled out in loans and small grants. In 1951 the United States refused to help Israel advance the reparations agreement with Germany, which was signed the following year and gave Israel some economic breathing room. The change began during Lyndon Johnson’s administration (1963-1969), when the United States began transferring more significant civilian aid to Israel, which increased over the years. Between the establishment of the state and 1962, the United States under Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower imposed a total arms embargo on Israel. The first president to lift the embargo was John Kennedy, who in 1962 allowed Israel to pay in full for surface-to-air Hawk missiles. In 1965 America sold offensive weapons – Patton tanks – to Israel for the first time. In the 1960s, France was Israel’s major arms supplier, until the turnaround after the Six-Day War, when the United States became its main supplier.

In 1984, following the 1982 invasion and occupation of Lebanon and the Sabra-Shatila Massacre, the Cranston Amendment stopped loans to Israel while increasing the grants in order to put an end to past debts. Senator Cranston, a long time agent of Israel, called it a ‘reward’ for Israel’s willingness to withdraw from Beirut.  From 1985 on, in the framework of the plan to stabilize the economy, American aid was pegged at a grant of $3 billion annually. In that year Israel also received another grant of $1.5 billion.

For the past quarter century, under the American-Israeli agreement, the grants from the United States are used for the purpose of purchasing arms for the Zionist war machine. One of the most expensive arms transfers were 20 F-35 fighter planes for $2.7 billion. Like much other US taxpayers largesse it will be financed entirely by aid money. The deal was signed towards the end of 2010 and the first planes are slated to be delivered to Israel next year.

Israel uses approximately 25% of this military aid to purchase equipment from Israeli manufacturers. According to CRS, “no other recipient of U.S. military assistance has been granted this benefit.” As a result of indirect U.S. subsidies, Israel’s arms industry has mushroomed and has become one of the largestin the world.  CRS: “Between 2001 and 2008, it was the 7th largest arms supplier to the world with sales worth a total of 9.9 billion.”

According to the CRS report, the President’s request for Israel for FY 2015 will encompass approximately 55% of total U.S. foreign military financing worldwide. According to the CRS report, "[a]nnual FMF grants to Israel represent 23% to 25% of the overall Israeli defense budget."

The Obama administration has sent some weak messages to Netanyahu over its current slaughter in Gaza. Shortly after the launching of the most recent Zionist aggression, “Operation Protective Edge” the White House ordered the Pentagon to cancel a shipment of Hellfire missiles for Israel’s US supplied Apache helicopters. This had zero effect of Israelis bombing campaign.

Under a special agreement, the United States maintains in Israel caches of $1 billion worth of emergency munitions, including rockets, artillery shells and armored combat vehicles. The project is operated by the European Command of the U.S. Army. During the July 2006 aggression against Lebanon, the United States delivered to Israel armaments from these caches.

Earlier this month the White House  also promised Netanyahu that the US will up its cash grants for Israel’s multi-layered defense system that includes Iron Dome, Magic Wand and the Arrow. The cost thus far has been about $3.5 billion, including more than $1.5 billion for Iron Dome. In May 2010 Netanyahu asked for and received a special allocation of $205 million for the Iron Dome project above and beyond the regular American military aid. Subsequent requests for funding for the project have also been approved, including $351 million that Israel requested for purchasing additional Tamir interception missiles for Iron Dome in the third week of July, during the current aggression against Gaza.  An additional aid package of $225 million for purchasing more Tamir missiles was approved this month. Only two weeks intervened between the time the request was submitted and its passage – which shows that the case of the Hellfire missiles was a mere slap on the wrist.

The ceasefire tentatively agreed to by Hamas and the Netanyahu regime assures that the American taxpayers will up the current $ 9 million per day military aid to Israel. They will have little voice in objecting.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians will continue to receive zero dollars in military aid from the US but will likely get more funds for its police agencies to keep West Bank Palestinians under control and out of Resistance activities against their occupiers.