What the Foes of U.S. Military Aid to Israel Don’t Understand

The money given to Israel is spent almost entirely on American weapons. Israel’s spectacular success in using those weapons increases their attractiveness on the world arms market: they have been used by the IDF, and proven their worth on the battlefield. Israeli defense experts have also made improvements on some American equipment, and shared that information with their American counterparts. Israel is also the most steadfast military ally of the United States, not just in the Middle East, but in the world. It has managed to devastate two terror groups — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon — that are threats not just to Israel, but to the wellbeing of Arabs in both places.. It is Israel that has foiled the Iranian attempt to build a Shi’a crescent, that would threaten the rich Sunni Arab states of the Gulf; the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have in the past attacked Saudi Arabia’ s oil installations.

Now the Houthis have been under assault by a series of Israeli airstrikes on their main port of Hodeidah, making it extremely difficult for the Iranians to deliver weapons by sea to the Shi’a terror group. The Israelis have also attacked the international airport in Sana’a, preventing Iran from making delivers of weapons to the Houthis by air. The IDF’s attacks on the Houthis make Israel safer, promote the safety of world shipping in the Red Sea, and, in addition, make Saudi Arabia’s oil installations more secure.

Those who now insist that American military aid to Israel takes money away from other, more worthy recipients, such as the fire departments in Los Angeles, fail to understand that such aid is, rather, not a gift but an investment that pays enormous dividends: by allowing American weapons to be tested on the battlefield, and in proving their worth, make them more attractive to foreign buyers. Israeli defense experts make improvements to those American weapons, and share those improvements with their American counterparts. Israel is the main bulwark against international terrorism. It has devastated Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, battered Hezbollah in Lebanon so much that it was unable to offer military support for the beleaguered Assad, and hampered the Shi’a Houthis in Yemen from receiving Iranian weapons by blasting both Yemen’s main port of Hodeidah and its main airport at the capital, Sana’a.

One might respond to those now “blaming Israel” for the wildfires in Los Angeles by asking why it is only Israeli aid they focus on. Why not blame the countries of NATO that do not spend, as agreed, their fair share — 2% of their GDP — on defense spending. For that dereliction of duty has forced America to spend more than 2% to make up the difference. Trump keeps saying he will force NATO members to start paying their agreed-upon fair share, or else they may no longer count on the American defense umbrella. Or why shouldn’t we instead of Israel blame Ukraine for the wildfires in California. After all, we have provided Zelensky, in money and weapons, $105 billon so far — more than ten times more than what Israel has received during the same period. Yet no one is out on the street claiming that “aid to Ukraine is responsible for the wildfires in Los Angeles.”

And why not focus attention on the fact that four of the seven top recipients of American aid for the last three-year period for which data is available, 2020-2022 — are Muslim countries — Egypt, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Yemen. Together these four countries have received a total of $7 billion. As Muslim lands, these countries cannot be trusted to be firm geopolitical friends — unlike Israel — of the United States. In fact, one of them, Afghanistan, is now in the control of the Taliban, a group of Muslim fanatics. Yet in 2024, Afghanistan received close to $900 million in American aid. It makes more sense to blame the failure to control the California wildfires on the enormous sums going to these Muslim states, far greater than what is being provided to Israel.

Let’s go over the foreign aid, economic and military, for the year 2024. Here is the list of countries receiving the most foreign aid from the US that year:

1.    Ukraine ($17.2B)

2.    Israel ($3.3B)

3.    Jordan ($1.7B)

4.    Egypt ($1.5B)

5.    Ethiopia ($1.5B)

6.    Somalia ($1.2B)

7.    Nigeria ($1B)

8.    Congo (Kinshasa) ($990M)

9.    Afghanistan ($886.5M)

10.   Kenya ($846M)

The Palestinians — not in the top ten recipients of American aid — received about $300 million in direct foreign aid, but much more in payments to UNRWA and other organizations that spend their money exclusively on the Palestinians. In the year following October 7, 2023, more than $1 billion was spent by the American government on the Palestinians. And this massive sum was given despite the continuing insistence of the Palestinian Authority to fund its “Pay-For-Slay” program. The Biden administration chose not to enforce the Taylor Force Act that would have required it to cut aid to the PA until its “Pay-For-Slay” program was discontinued.

Four of the top ten recipients of foreign aid are Muslim states. Why are we providing them with any money, when they clearly see the Muslim and non-Muslim peoples as in a state of permanent war, even if at times that war is not actively being fought? Between them, the four — Jordan, Egypt, Somalia, and Afghanistan — were given directly by the American government more than $5.3 billion dollars, compared to the $3.3 billion provided to Israel. And the Palestinians received another $1 billion. If more money is needed to prepare for the next massive fire — mainly, by buying more firetrucks, more air-borne water scoopers, and hiring more firemen — then wouldn’t it make more sense to cut the foreign aid given to Muslim lands that have somehow managed over the years to inveigle so many tens of billions of dollars out of us? Why are we supporting them, instead of leaving that burden to their fellow Muslims, the colossally rich Arabs of the Gulf?

Of course, those people marching around southern California trying to lay the blame for the Los Angeles fires on Israel will not listen to reason. They blame Israel, and then, by natural extension, “the Jews.” They still maintain that the American military aid given to Israel — and only to Israel, because no other recipient of aid is ever mentioned — costs money that otherwise would have been spent on men and machines to more effectively suppress the wildfires. Never mind that the same argument could be made, with greater justification, about the far larger sums given to Muslim states. Those denouncing aid to Israel long ago made up their minds about the worthless and wicked Jewish state. “From the river to the sea/Palestine shall be free” and “Intifada Forever” are the demands they make of Israel, meaning by such remarks that the Jewish state must disappear, while “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” are their charges made against Israel. Nothing will change them. Their anti-Israel animus has descended into antisemitic hate. Don’t pay attention to these brain-addled neo-Nazis. Horseman, pass by!