Written by Yvonne Ridley
Long gone are the days of Israel being regarded by the West as a plucky little country in danger of being driven into the sea.
And while most Europeans have now woken up to the fact that this man-made Zionist entity is probably the biggest threat to world peace, some of our American friends are still in a deep slumber over the cost of their friendship with Israel.
Of course if they really knew just how much Israel was draining the US Treasury, I think they would start to view Tel Aviv in a different light.
For instance it is one of the smallest countries in the world but it has the fourth largest army, an army that uses its weapons on women and children.
But it also ranked as one of the world's 40 wealthiest countries thanks to huge wads of US taxpayers' money which is thrown at Israel on a regular basis ... it actually works out at $50,000 dollars in aid per head of every Israeli citizen directly and indirectly.
Unbelievable but true: the Bush Administration gives more federal aid to the average Israeli citizen in one year than it gives to the average American citizen.
This expensive affair with consecutive White House administrations can be traced back to 1974 and congressional researchers have discovered that in the 15 years since then a staggering $16.4 billion dollars in US military loans were converted to grants.
Since 1992 the US has also offered an additional $2 billion dollars annually in loan guarantees ... but let's remember every single US loan to Israel is eventually written off by Congress. Now you know why it ranks 36 in the world's top economies.
But the chutzpah of Israel never fails to leave me gasping for breath. In particular I am referring to the proud, and often stated boast that it has never defaulted on a US loan. Well how the hell can you default when your 'Sugar Daddy' writes off the debt?
So all this money goes one way to Israel and there's no interest or payback ... unless you count 9/11 which is a terrible price for any civilian population to pay for its government's foreign policy.
According to Dr. Stephen Zunes, an assistant professor in the influential Department of Politics at the University of San Francisco while other countries receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982 has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the US government to borrow from future revenues.
Israel, he says, even lends some of this money back through US treasury bills and collects the additional interest.
In a recent report, the proessor also points out: "In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private US funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country. Nor do these figures include short- and long-term commercial loans from U.S. banks, which have been as high as $1 billion annually in recent years."
Simply put, America gives around one third of its foreign aid budget to Israel even though this tiny state makes up 0.001 per cent of the world's population - put another way, it could disappear inside the Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Israel's citizens are among the wealthiest in the world, on a par just about with most European countries and way ahead of other Middle East citizens including Saudis, Syrians, Jordanians and Egyptians.
And, more importantly, these people are a lot better off than many American tax payers including the 50 million plus US citizens who can not afford basic health care, or the black men in Detroit who have a lower life expectancy than their counterparts in Bangladesh. Let's not forget expectant mums either, some of the infant mortality rates are higher than in latin American countries.
Imagine if the mega bucks thrown at Israel were invested in their own US citizens instead?
Even Israeli politicians are becoming embarrassed at the huge wedge they receive from America, and have been for many years. Why else would Yossi Beilen, deputy foreign minister of Israel and a Knesset member, pose the question: "If our economic situation is better than in many of your countries, how can we go on asking for your charity?"
As I said before, most American tax payers are not aware how much of their tax revenue their government sends to Israel, but let's just go through the figures we have available:
For the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the US has given Israel $6.72 billion dollars: $6.194 billion dollars falls under Israel's foreign aid allotment and $526 million dollars comes from agencies such as the Department of Commerce, the US Information Agency and the Pentagon.
The $6.72 billion dollar figure does not include loan guarantees and annual compound interest totalling $3.122 billion America coughs up on money borrowed to give to Israel.
It does not include the cost to US taxpayers of IRS tax exemptions that donors can claim when they donate money to Israeli charities. This is not chicken feed, by the way, since donors claim approximately $1 billion dollars in Federal tax deductions annually. This ultimately costs other US tax payers $280 million dollars to $390 million dollars.
When grant, loans, interest and tax deductions are added together for the fiscal year ending in September 30, 1997, the American taxpayer's special relationship with Israel cost more than $10 billion greenbacks!
Since 1949 Uncle Sam's indecent affair with Israel has cost a total of $83.205 billion dollars. The interest costs borne by US tax payers on behalf of Israel are $49.937 billion dollars, thus making the total amount of aid given to Israel since 1949 $133.132 billion dollar bills.
