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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Constant Reader who wrote (29433)	9/25/2001 10:42:24 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

Prior to the attack, according to a CNN report, we were scheduled to ramp up to $2.4 Billion US by 2008 in direct military aid alone. Human Rights watch says that we've given a total of $40 Billion to the defense of Israel. Congression Research Report says $91 Billion since 1949-2000 cumulatively. [from another site] Department of Defense: Examining specific items from the DOD to Israel and from there estimating on the total costs, I arrived at approximately $3.42 billion. The largest expenditures were $1.3 billion for the cancelled Lavi attack fighter project, $628 million for the ongoing Arrow anti-missile project, and $200 million for the completed Merkava tank. The fact that the U.S. military was not interested in the Lavi, the Arrow, or the Merkava for its own use would seem to call into serious question the argument that these are "joint defense projects." Interest: Foreign aid is typically allocated out in quarterly installments. However, Israel began receiving early disbursement of U.S. economic aid in 1982, and of military aid in 1991. This special treatment has resulted in a significant payoff for Israel. According to the CRS statement cited earlier, in 1991 it was reported that Israel earned $86 million in interest on the economic aid money deposited in the U.S. Treasury. Since the period from 1982 to 1991 had relatively high interest rates, I used the figure of $860 million (86 x 10) as a conservative estimate for those 10 years. For the nine years since 1991, I used a six-percent rate for one-half of the economic aid, resulting in a total of $324 million. Regarding military aid, I applied the six-percent rate to one-half of the amount for the 10 years of aid that was disbursed early, or $540 million. I employed this reduced rate on only half of the amount because one must assume that the aid monies were drawn down over the course of the year. Loans and Loan Guarantees: Israel owes the U.S. government almost $3 billion in economic and military loans. Israeli officials are fond of saying that Israel has never defaulted on a loan from the United States. While this is technically true, the CRS report states that from FY 1994 through FY 1998, Israel received $29 billion in waived loans. It is, therefore, reasonable to consider all loans to Israel as generally the same as grants.