Israel Eyes up to $10 Billion in US Aid (History Repeats itself... another Rabin will elected)

Washington Post ^ | 7:30 pm 11/21/02 | Dan Perry - AP

[OReilly]

History Repeats Itself... 11 years later

The request for guarantees on foreign bank loans would be in addition to the $2.9 million in direct loans and grants that Israel receives annually from the United States, the official said...

Israel, which receives the largest U.S. aid package of any country, relies on the loan guarantees to borrow at lower interest rates.

...The United States guaranteed $10 billion in loans for Israel a decade ago to help it absorb immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Angry over Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, then-President George Bush(41) held up the guarantees until the hard-line Yitzhak Shamir was replaced as Israeli prime minister by more moderate Yitzhak Rabin, who signed an interim peace treaty with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

[OReilly]

History Repeats Itself... 11 years later. Another Yitzhak will be elected...

[F16Fighter]

The obvious question: Wouldnt it be easier to merely make Israel the 51st state?? This is getting ridiculous...

[OReilly]

The request for guarantees on foreign bank loans would be in addition to the $2.9 million in direct loans and grants that Israel receives annually from the United States, the official said...

It is ridiculous (the amount of money)... and the obvious mistake in the Washington Post text will hopefully be corrected by the times the presses roll in an hour. I'm not going to call them, though. They should have to print a correction, the next day so more people will pay attention to the ridiculous amount. It is 2.9 Billion not Million dollars, plus the 10 Billion Sharon asked for!

[College Repub]

It's loan Guarantees. It costs the USA *NOTHING* Unless Israel defaults on its loans, which it has NEVER done. And almost all of the money (the $3bil a year anyway) is speant on US products.

[OReilly]

Wouldnt it be easier to merely make Israel the 51st state?? <<<<< Why would they want to be a state when they own the whole shebang now?

Right, Why pay taxes when they can threaten some (many) US Reps and Senators into a free lunch, sort of like Puerto Rico?

[TopQuark]

Wouldnt it be easier to merely make Israel the 51st state?? This is getting ridiculous...

Why do you single out Israel? Our help to Europeans far exceeds that to Israel, and no once anyone expresses a problem with that. Why?

[TopQuark]

plus the 10 Billion Sharon asked for!

YOu read well, so observe that $10B is not a loan.

[TopQuark]

This constitutes a well-known, standard anti-Semitic libel. Please refrain from such.

[OReilly]

plus the 10 Billion Sharon asked for! <<<<< YOu read well, so observe that $10B is not a loan.

So abserve that it is 10 billion dollars and 2.9 Billion dollars (just pocket change to you I guess). I call it Hutzpah, in the extreme! (...for you, make that Chutzpah)

[OReilly]

abserve SB observe

[TopQuark]

No, our aid to Israel is very similar. We spend almost twice more on defense than Europeans and that constitutes our help. The money given to Israel, similarly, buys our weapons.

The only difference is that our weapon with which we defend Europe are in the hands of our soldiers, whereas in the case of Israel they are given to IDF. We help Europeans much more, thus.

You are confused between economics and accouting: what matters is the total transfer of money (economics), not how it is recorded in books (accouning). AS I said earlier, our tranfer to Europe dwarfs that to Israel. Both are given for the same reasons. But only the aid to Jooooos ever bother people.

[TopQuark]

So abserve that it is 10 billion dollars and 2.9 Billion dollars (just pocket change to you I guess). No, what is means is that you cannot see a difference between a loan and a loan guarantee even when you stare at it.

I call it Hutzpah, in the extreme! (...for you, make that Chutzpah) What is this supposed to mean?