The case for the US military aid to Israel or Why actually Israel does not need USD 3 billion annually

Prominent US figures like Senator Bernie Sander, Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Rashida Talib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are demanding that the US military aid to Israel be reconsidered.

It was a historical moment to see a bunch of congressmen and congresswoman demanding what seemed to be impossible to demand at the US Congress from two days ago.

US protesters in solidarity with Palestine 
against US aid to Israel in Atlanta on Saturday 

Protesters all over the United States on Saturday held signs demanding Joe Biden to cut off the US military aid to Israel. “Many Egyptians envy them but I believe the voices in the States were louder and more heard in the West than our Arabic voice that has longed protested but always ignored”.

The protesters held banners saying that the US military aid to Israel kills babies.

Israel is the biggest recipient of US aid. It started as economic aid at first in the 1970s but in the 1990s, it became a military aid

Morally speaking, I do not understand how the US lectures China and Russia “and rightly so” when it supports the Israeli state which is an apartheid state with a very long record of breaking international laws and UN Security Council resolutions. Israel has been occupying Arab land for decades now and discriminants between Jews and Arabs systematically.

So Why does the US support it with the US taxpayers money? 

There are unconfirmed reports already that Israel deployed its F-16s and F-35s in its attacks to Gaza where so far not less than 40 children have been killed alone according to the latest tolls of the Palestinian Health Ministry.

Israeli forces have been targeting many civilian targets from houses and towers from the Upper Middle Palestinian class claiming to be legitimate targets of Hamas, but it is untrue, and it is reportedly a tactic used by Israel to create public pressure and anger from the militant group in Gaza. It has yielded negative results.

Away from morals and my Egyptian Arab emotional talks, any fair and balanced observer would wonder why the US would give Israel with its military production excellence military aid in the first place.

Away from morals and emotions, here is a quick round with numbers.

Israel’s arms exports reached a record in 2017 of USD 9.2 billion while it receives from the United States annually USD 3.8 billion as military assistance aid.

Before anyone speaks and mentions the US military aid to Egypt, this is what the Egyptian army has got from the Camp Davide accords and honestly, the only benefactor from it is the US arms companies because Egypt must buy US arms and weapon equipment according to it.

Personally, I have expressed over and over here that as an Egyptian citizen, I will not be sad or angry if the US decides to stop sending the US military aid to Egypt to spend it on its own people because they need it.

Those US arms and equipment are not the state of the art and they are defensive and not offensive because Israel must keep its military excellence and superiority in the region. Ironically, the latest battle with the Palestinian resistance militant factions proved that you do not have to multi-billion weapon arsenal to stand in a battle against the IDF.

Back to Israel, with my all-due respect and knowing its arms exports record especially recently in Azerbaijan, I do not think it needs again this military assistance.

It is also worth noting that Israel has the third-highest GDP per Capita following Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and it is quite impressive considering that Israel is not an oil or gas producing giant as both countries.

In fact, according to IMF Data, Israel entered the top 20 Club of nations with the highest GDP per Capita in 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic and again it is impressive. I do not think the rest 19 countries take military aid annually from the United States.

By the way, according to a study made by the Arab Center for Alternative Planning in 2007 “Yes, it is a bit old” the GDP per Capita in Jewish sectors of Israel was three times more than among the Arab Israelis and Palestinians in occupied territories.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to inequalities and injustice the Arab citizens mostly Palestinians suffer at the hands of the Israeli regime. We are speaking about a true apartheid state.

The question is here for the US taxpayer, do you agree to fund annually a rich apartheid state with state-of-art weaponry to kill civilians only to support the political career of a foreign corrupted politician?

If you do not, then please speak to your representative.

Thanks to Professor Sultan Barakat for hinting at those facts usually neglected and overlooked by the international mainstream media.