$2.2 billion in very annoying aid
Tigerhawk
Israel will ask the United States for $2.2 billion, one of the largest aid requests by the Jewish state, to pay for its planned withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip, Israeli political sources said on Monday.
The special funding would be used to pay for the evacuation, slated to begin in mid-August, of all 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank, and the relocation of the 9,000 settlers to underpopulated areas of Israel.
Even if this is just a down payment on a much larger nut (probably north of $20 billion) that we will have to pay to resettle Israelis who have moved to the West Bank, it is a good value. Israel cannot afford to relocate 5% (including the West Bank settlers) of its population without substantial foreign aid (the equivalent relocation in the United States would involve 15,000,000 people). Also, even if it could afford it, the cost might well shift the sensitive political consensus just enough so that the withdrawal would never happen. Therefore, somebody will have to cough up the money, and that somebody will be the United States.
Nevertheless, it is extremely annoying. Those settlers are there over at least the formal objection of the United States. They may well have increased Israel's leverage over the years and ultimately enhanced Israel's security, but that does not make it any less galling that the American taxpayer will now have to pay for their relocation.
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