# The Israel Lobby **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 30, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502 "2006-03-30T04:06:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/1 "2006-03-30T04:06:55Z")
[http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01\_.html](http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html) This article from the London Review of books. has been floating around for a while and I was curious to see what dopers thought of it. Basically it paints a pretty damning portrait of an extermely powerful lobby (second only to the AARP in terms of influence according to the article) that influences America to act contrary to its own interest: > [@Mearsheimer and Walt](#): > > For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides. > > Instead, the thrust of US policy in the region derives almost entirely from domestic politics, and especially the activities of the ‘Israel Lobby’. Other special-interest groups have managed to skew foreign policy, but no lobby has managed to divert it as far from what the national interest would suggest, while simultaneously convincing Americans that US interests and those of the other country – in this case, Israel – are essentially identical. It’s long but well written and very important IMO. It is not anti-semitic, again, IMO, but opposed to the actions of a small powerful lobby not all of whose members are Jewish. Christian Zionists, for example, make up a signifigant number of AIPAC’s backers. > [@](#): > > Although neo-conservatives and other Lobby leaders were eager to invade Iraq, the broader American Jewish community was not. Just after the war started, Samuel Freedman reported that ‘a compilation of nationwide opinion polls by the Pew Research Center shows that Jews are less supportive of the Iraq war than the population at large, 52 per cent to 62 per cent.’ Clearly, it would be wrong to blame the war in Iraq on ‘Jewish influence’. Rather, it was due in large part to the Lobby’s influence, especially that of the neo-conservatives within it. The authors also argue that the lobby’s actions are in fact bad for Israel in the long run, because they hamper efforts to arrive at a just peace. The longer tensions in the mid-east go on, the harder and harder it will be to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The article has been causing a bit of controversy. The [Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/24/AR2006032402147.html) put together a bunch of soundbites about it including one from, for some reason, David Duke. This annoyed me because it seems deliberatly inflammatory, as though they were hoping people would read the article and say “Well, if David Duke says nice things about it it can’t be true!” Who cares what David Duke thinks? It seems he didn’t actually read the article–he probably doesn’t have the mental acuity to read anything more involved than a neo-nazi tract–since the article is not anti-Jewish, and discounts the idea of a “Jewish conspiracy.” Most of the soundbites were pretty uninformative. All you can get from short paragraphs is “well, that’s what that guy thinks,” without understanding their reasons for thinking that. So I’m curious what dopers think. Anyone have any criticisms of the article? Is there anything it says that is factually untrue, or at least are there flaws in its analysis? I’m curious because, while I’m more or less pro-Israel, it does seem to me that U.S. foreign policy descisions should be made with the best interests of the U.S. as the first concern. I’m not sure that’s happening with our policy towards Israel. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/2 "2006-03-30T07:48:47Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > [effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region Just that little part, with the quotes around democracy, makes me doubt the supposed neutrality of this article. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/3 "2006-03-30T08:36:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Just that little part, with the quotes around democracy, makes me doubt the supposed neutrality of this article. Um…why? I mean, considering the discrepancy between stated US foreign policy in the reason (i.e. promoting democracy) and actual practice (i.e. supporting dictators- Saudi monarchy, Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein) to put quotes around the word “democracy” to imply that this is a stated US goal, not one bourne out by their actions, seems perfectly reasonable to me. As to the OP, while being just a _leetle_ cynical about the British press (which tends to be fairly pro-Palestinian), the extract that I have read seems both reasonable and logical. And as for being attacked (either overtly or implictly) as being anti-semitic, well, that’s pretty standard for most criticism of policy involving Israel, and not worth seriously considering. The “Christian Zionist” point, BTW, seems to me to be spot-on. I recall speaking to an American who assured me that it was our duty to promote the Israeli cause above all others, since the Second Coming (and the subsequent conversion of the Jews, of course) couldn’t happen until Jerusalem was in the hands of the Muslims. I’m curious, though, as to whether the US Israeli policy can be entirely ascribed to this. I would have though that at least a portion of their policy, up to about 1973, was trying to promote Israel to counter Soviet influence among the Arab states. This issue obviously doesn’t apply today. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/4 "2006-03-30T13:55:44Z")
See this old thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=278908](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=278908) ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/5 "2006-03-30T14:53:05Z")
The article is obviously polemic in intent, and I don’t doubt factually wrong in places. However, it raises a major issue that goes virtually unaddressed in this country – why have we placed so many eggs in the Israel basket? What’s in it for the U.S.? When you consider the stakes (just how many trillions of dollars have we spent since 9/11?), you’d think we’d have more discussion about what our support for Israel gets us, and what it costs us. That’s from a _realpolitik_ perspective; a moral perspective might have us wondering why the U.S. supports so unreservedly a country that has made ethnic discrimination its founding principle. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/6 "2006-03-30T15:02:40Z")
Can someone link me to some actual facts about how much, in dollar terms, the US devotes to Israel as opposed to (say) Egypt in aid and loan guarantees? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/7 "2006-03-30T15:24:11Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Can someone link me to some actual facts about how much, in dollar terms, the US devotes to Israel as opposed to (say) Egypt in aid and loan guarantees? FWIW, this is from another article “polemic in intent,” from [http://www.wrmea.com/html/us\_aid\_to\_israel.htm](http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm) (scroll down to middle of page, look for article “The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers: True Lies About U.S. Aid to Israel,” By Richard H. Curtiss: > [@](#): > > For many years the American media said that “Israel receives $1.8 billion in military aid” or that “Israel receives $1.2 billion in economic aid.” Both statements were true, but since they were never combined to give us the complete total of annual U.S. aid to Israel, they also were lies—true lies. > > Recently Americans have begun to read and hear that “Israel receives $3 billion in annual U.S. foreign aid.” That’s true. But it’s still a lie. The problem is that in fiscal 1997 alone, Israel received from a variety of other U.S. federal budgets at least $525.8 million above and beyond its $3 billion from the foreign aid budget, and yet another $2 billion in federal loan guarantees. So the complete total of U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel for fiscal 1997 was $5,525,800,000. > > One can truthfully blame the mainstream media for never digging out these figures for themselves, because none ever have. They were compiled by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. But the mainstream media certainly are not alone. Although Congress authorizes America’s foreign aid total, the fact that **more than a third of it** goes to a country smaller in both area and population than Hong Kong probably never has been mentioned on the floor of the Senate or House. Yet it’s been going on for more than a generation. > > Probably the only members of Congress who even suspect the full total of U.S. funds received by Israel each year are the privileged few committee members who actually mark it up. And almost all members of the concerned committees are Jewish, have taken huge campaign donations orchestrated by Israel’s Washington, DC lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), or both. These congressional committee members are paid to act, not talk. So they do and they don’t. I’m looking for some kind of chart showing a breakdown of U.S. foreign aid by country, but I can’t seem to find such a thing even on the website of the government agency USAid – [http://www.usaid.gov/fani/overview/](http://www.usaid.gov/fani/overview/). ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/8 "2006-03-30T15:33:09Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > FWIW, this is from another article “polemic in intent,” from [http://www.wrmea.com/html/us\_aid\_to\_israel.htm](http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm) (scroll down to middle of page, look for article “The Cost of Israel to U.S. Taxpayers: True Lies About U.S. Aid to Israel,” By Richard H. Curtiss: > > I’m looking for some kind of chart showing a breakdown of U.S. foreign aid by country, but I can’t seem to find such a thing even on the website of the government agency USAid – [http://www.usaid.gov/fani/overview/](http://www.usaid.gov/fani/overview/). That’s the problem. All I can find is stuff which is _intended_ as polemics, and generally as anti-Israel polemics. I generally don’t trust articles of the foaming-at-the-mouth variety on this sort of subject. But surely it is necessary to have some actual facts and figures before embarking on the argument, either for or against. I read somewhere (and it may be total trash, how would I know?) that Egypt receives loan guarantees, cash and other benefits in the same ballpark range as Israel. If true, or even remotely true, that would tend to undercut the “Israel lobby” argument, and indicate that other purposes were in play for financial support for Israel. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/9 "2006-03-30T15:39:56Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > That’s the problem. All I can find is stuff which is _intended_ as polemics, and generally as anti-Israel polemics. I checked AIPAC’s website – once might expect to find some corrective information there – but all I could find was this PDF file on “Foreign Aid” – [http://aipac.org/leg-briefing%20book/7.%20Foreign%20Aid.pdf](http://aipac.org/leg-briefing%20book/7.%20Foreign%20Aid.pdf) – which includes a pie chart at the bottom, breaking down U.S. foreign aid by nature/purpose, but not by country. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/10 "2006-03-30T15:59:04Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I read somewhere (and it may be total trash, how would I know?) that Egypt receives loan guarantees, cash and other benefits in the same ballpark range as Israel. If true, or even remotely true, that would tend to undercut the “Israel lobby” argument, and indicate that other purposes were in play for financial support for Israel. Not necessarily. I would argue that our outsize financial support to Egypt is a _quid pro quo_ to them for maintaining non-hostile relations with Israel. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/11 "2006-03-30T16:06:51Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I checked AIPAC’s website – once might expect to find some corrective information there – but all I could find was this PDF file on “Foreign Aid” – [http://aipac.org/leg-briefing%20book/7.%20Foreign%20Aid.pdf](http://aipac.org/leg-briefing%20book/7.%20Foreign%20Aid.pdf) – which includes a pie chart at the bottom, breaking down U.S. foreign aid by nature/purpose, but not by country. You can look at it country-by-country, though. Here’s Israel’s totals, (in thousands) [http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/il.html](http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/il.html) FY 2004=477,168 FY 2005=357,120 FY 2006=240,000 Here’s Egypt’s (in thousands, aggregates) [http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/eg.html](http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/eg.html) FY 2004=571,608 FY 2005=530,720 FY 2006=495,000 Of course, it’s more complicated than that, because the Israeli aid is a strict cash transfer (intended to allow Israel to repay US loans and purchase US goods and services), while the Egyptian aid is earmarked (so some of the aid has to go to Egyptian infrastructure improvements, some to education, some to family planning, some to democratic initiatives, etc.) And, of course, that’s just USAID aid. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/12 "2006-03-30T16:09:43Z")
Further complicating it, btw, is that USAID gives money to the West Bank and Gaza, and that money isn’t included in Israel’s totals, above. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/13 "2006-03-30T16:57:19Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > Further complicating it, btw, is that USAID gives money to the West Bank and Gaza, and that money isn’t included in Israel’s totals, above. Gives it to whom, exactly? The PA? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/14 "2006-03-30T17:04:29Z")
> [@Sal Ammoniac](#): > > The article is obviously polemic in intent, and I don’t doubt factually wrong in places. However, it raises a major issue that goes virtually unaddressed in this country – why have we placed so many eggs in the Israel basket? What’s in it for the U.S.? When you consider the stakes (just how many trillions of dollars have we spent since 9/11?), you’d think we’d have more discussion about what our support for Israel gets us, and what it costs us. That’s from a _realpolitik_ perspective; a moral perspective might have us wondering why the U.S. supports so unreservedly a country that has made ethnic discrimination its founding principle. Yeah, that’s my feeling as well. Sure the piece is a polemic, and it would have been nice to see more facts and figures, (perhaps there were some in the original unedited version), but I think there’s an undeniable truth at it’s core. It’s not just the aid that’s the problem, it’s also that the U.S. seems to take Israel’s side without reservation in its disputes with Palestinians. The fact is the Palestinians are treated horribly by the Israelis, a fact which is very much underreported in the U.S. I’ve spoken with several people who’ve traveled in the West bank and Gaza, and the picture they paint, with photos, is a lot worse than you get in the U.S. media. U.S. policy on Israel is completely one-sided, a fact which is neither moral nor practical for American interests. It’s not going to be good for Israel in the long run either. I worry that AIPAC and it’s “Christian Zionist” friends are a huge obstacle for peace in that region. ---
**Author:** ![FWorld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FWorld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FWorld)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/15 "2006-03-30T17:16:31Z")
From the OP > [@](#): > > …[Israel] has been the largest annual recipient of direct economic and military assistance since 1976, and is the largest recipient in total since World War Two, to the tune of well over $140 billion (in 2004 dollars). Israel receives about $3 billion in direct assistance each year, roughly one-fifth of the foreign aid budget > > Other recipients get their money in quarterly installments, but Israel receives its entire appropriation at the beginning of each fiscal year and can thus earn interest on it. Most recipients of aid given for military purposes are required to spend all of it in the US, but Israel is allowed to use roughly 25 per cent of its allocation to subsidise its own defence industry. It is the only recipient that does not have to account for how the aid is spent [Here is another source](http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm) , which is slightly outdated and provides a smaller number. [Another figure](http://www.peacenowar.net/Palestine/News/US%20aids.htm) , from a pro-Palestinian source and with a larger total. [And last](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/U.S._Assistance_to_Israel1.html) from the Jewish Virtual Library. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/16 "2006-03-30T17:34:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Gives it to whom, exactly? The PA? No, not primarily. It’s private charitable and UN organizations, primarily. Here’s the budget page on the West Bank and Gaza: [http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/wbg.html](http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/wbg.html) About 75 mil in 2004-2005, doubling in 2006 to 150 mil. If you click on the line items, you can see exactly what the money goes to, as well as who gets the money. For instance, under USAID’s Community Service Program, which in 2005 focused on improved schools and water infrastructure, you can see: > [@](#): > > The principal grantees are: Save the Children Federation (SCF), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), YMCA, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), World Vision International (WVI), Cooperative Housing Foundation (CHF), International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Although, you can see from the Democracy and Governance aid, some money did go to the PA: > [@](#): > > As tangible support for the new leadership of the PA, and in recognition of the PA’s improved financial reforms, the U.S. Government provided extraordinary budget support in the form of a cash transfer of $20 million to the Palestinian Authority. This direct budgetary support has been transferred to the PA Ministry of Finance and was used for the payment of utility arrearages to the Government of Israel. So basically, we’re giving aid to the PA so they can pay off debts to Israel, and giving aid to Iisrael so they can pay off debts to us. What a world we live in, huh? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/17 "2006-03-30T17:57:36Z")
Is there a large / powerful Egyptian lobby in the US? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/18 "2006-03-30T18:13:13Z")
> [@PatriotX](#): > > Is there a large / powerful Egyptian lobby in the US? no, why? As pointed out earlier in the thread, much of our aid to Egypt is basically a bribe to get them to adhere to the peace agreement. Also, as I said, the problem isn’t aid, it’s policy. I’d personally be happy with the aid we send to Israel, if it came with huge strings attached, like making real concrete steps to set up a real Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. BTW, the Israeli settlements are gone from Gaza, but it is still under military occupation. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/19 "2006-03-30T20:13:49Z")
> [@Sal Ammoniac](#): > > Not necessarily. I would argue that our outsize financial support to Egypt is a _quid pro quo_ to them for maintaining non-hostile relations with Israel. It seems to me that this cuts against the theory espoused by the paper in the OP - namely, that the financial aid given to Israel is _not_ in the interests of peace, and not in the interests if the US, but rather dictated by an over-powerful “Israel Lobby” _against_ the interests of peace and against US interests. If Egypt is getting the same amount of aid as Israel, the notion that aid is apportioned or inspired by an “Israel lobby” surely loses force. It appears to me that (and I had no idea before participating in this thread whether it was true or not) if (a) significantly more aid went to Israel than to other countries in the region, the theory was plausable; but (b) if Israel was only one recepient, along with others, and that aid is distributed between (say) Egypt and Israel rather evenly, that the theory is **not plausable** (except to those really wedded to it for ideological reasons). Because if (b) is the case, then it appears to me on the actual evidence that a better explaination for the aid is that US policy makers have concluded that it is in their interests to use aid to maintain peace in the region by subsidizing the likely combattants - and I must say, it probably is, given the importance of the Suez Canal among other things. I recall the US reaction to the Suez Crisis here. In short, the _ostensible purpose_ for the aid makes more sense and is better suited to the actual evidence than the conspiracy theory. To my mind, absent contradictory evidence, that closes the case, given that the burden of proof ought rightfully be on those proposing a conspiracy. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502/20 "2006-03-30T20:24:22Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > You can look at it country-by-country, though. Here’s Israel’s totals, (in thousands) > > [http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/il.html](http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/il.html) > > FY 2004=477,168 > FY 2005=357,120 > FY 2006=240,000 > > Here’s Egypt’s (in thousands, aggregates) > > [http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/eg.html](http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/eg.html) > > FY 2004=571,608 > FY 2005=530,720 > FY 2006=495,000 > > Of course, it’s more complicated than that, because the Israeli aid is a strict cash transfer (intended to allow Israel to repay US loans and purchase US goods and services), while the Egyptian aid is earmarked (so some of the aid has to go to Egyptian infrastructure improvements, some to education, some to family planning, some to democratic initiatives, etc.) > > And, of course, that’s just USAID aid. Thanks, **Captain Amazing** BTW, Jordan receives the same order of aid as Israel: [http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/jo.html](http://www.usaid.gov/policy/budget/cbj2006/ane/jo.html) 2004= 348,525 2005 = 248,000 2006 = 250,000 Jordan is in no position to go to war with Israel, so it makes no sense to think of this as a “bribe to not go to war with Israel”. Though of course these figures only show part of the story - as you say, it is just USAID. Are there any available comparative country figures for things like military aid? Total aid from all sources? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-israel-lobby/350502.md?page=2)