Going way above and beyond for Israel BY STEALTH

[HHW]

By Walter Pincus, Published: May 16, 2012 Washington Post

Should the United States put solving Israel’s budget problems ahead of
its own?

When it comes to defense spending, it appears that the United States
already is.

Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, will meet Thursday in
Washington with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to finalize a deal
in which the United States will provide an additional $680 million to
Israel over three years. The money is meant to help pay for procuring
three or four new batteries and interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome
short-range rocket defense program. The funds may also be used for the
systems after their deployment, according to the report of the House
Armed Services Committee on the fiscal 2013 Defense Authorization
bill.

The Iron Dome funds, already in legislation before Congress, will be
on top of the $3.1 billion in military aid grants being provided to
Israel in 2013 and every year thereafter through 2017. That deal is
part of a 10-year memorandum of understanding agreed to in 2007 during
the George W. Bush presidency.

“Those funds are already committed to existing large-ticket purchases,
such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C-130J transport planes and
other items,” according to George Little, spokesman for Panetta. He
also said the Israelis had increased their own spending on Iron Dome
this year and the U.S. funds are to “augment” their funding.

And there’s more money involved. The House committee version of the
defense authorization bill, up for debate on the House floor this
week, includes another $168 million “requested by [the] Government of
Israel to meet its security requirements,” according to the panel’s
report. This money is to be added to three other missile defense
systems that have been under joint development by the United States
and Israel. The $168 million is in addition to another $99.9 million
requested by the Obama administration for those programs.

Israel has had its own debate over what its defense budget should
fund. Given its economic problems, the country has cut its defense
budget for this year by roughly 5 percent, with another 5 percent cut
planned for next year. Its defense experts have debated whether it was
more important to put scarce funds into offensive weapons that could
destroy enemy missiles or into missile defense systems to protect
civilian and military targets. In contrast to the United States, it
has also raised taxes on wealthier citizens and upped its corporate
tax rate.

The Israeli military has long-term plans to deploy 13 to 14 Iron Dome
batteries to defend military and civilian targets against rockets
launched from Gaza and Lebanon. If there is any doubt that the U.S.
Congress will continue to support the program, one only has to look at
the Iron Dome Support Act. The bill was introduced in the House in
March by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.), the ranking minority member
of the Foreign Affairs Committee, along with the panel’s chairman,
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). A companion measure is in the
Senate.

The first four batteries of Iron Dome, deployed last year in towns
near the Gaza Strip, have proved successful in protecting against
Hamas’s rocket attacks. Israeli military sources have said the system
had more than a 70 percent success rate last month against incoming
rockets.

In early 2007, then-Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz chose Iron
Dome to meet the short-range rocket threat. Testing began in 2008, and
by January 2010 the system showed it could be effective.

In May 2010, President Obama announced he would ask Congress to add
$205 million to the fiscal Pentagon budget for the production phase of
Iron Dome. The funds were approved, and in March 2011 the Israel
Defense Forces declared the first batteries operational.

Iron Dome was developed and built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems
Ltd., an Israeli government-owned, profit-making company that, since
2004, has been headed by retired Vice Adm. Yedidia Yaari, the former
commander in chief of the Israel Navy. Rafael’s board chairman is
retired Maj. Gen. Ilan Biran, former general director of the Ministry
of Defense. In August, Rafael joined Raytheon Co. to market the Iron
Dome system worldwide. The two are already partners in one of the
other anti-missile systems that is being jointly run by Israel and the
Pentagon.

The House committee report noted that the United States will have put
$900 million into the Iron Dome system if the full $680 million is
used on the program “yet the United States has no rights to the
technology involved.”

It added that Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Patrick J.
O’Reilly should explore opportunities to enter into a joint production
arrangement with Israel for future Iron Dome batteries “in light of
the significant investment in this system.”

So here is the United States, having added to its own deficit by
spending funds that it must borrow, helping to procure a missile
defense system for Israel, which faces the threat but supposedly can’t
pay for it alone.

To add insult to injury, Pentagon officials must ask the Israeli
government-owned company that is profiting from the weapons sales —
including Iron Dome — if the United States can have a piece of the
action.

For previous Fine Print columns, go to washingtonpost.com/fedpage.

On www.antiwar.com today, Philip Giraldi, executive director for the
Council for the National Interest, writes about H.R. 4133. Although it
is not a funding measure per se, “The House bill basically provides
Israel with a blank check drawn on the U.S. taxpayer to maintain its
‘qualitative military edge’ over all of its neighbors combined,”
Giraldi explains. It also calls for “an expanded role for Israel”
within NATO. The only congressmen to vote against the measure were
Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX) and John Dingell (D-MI).

http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/
House Passes Stealth Legislation

[HHW]

On May 17, 3:05 pm, HHW <coaster132...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> By Walter Pincus, Published: May 16, 2012 Washington Post
>
> Should the United States put solving Israel’s budget problems ahead of
> its own?
>
> When it comes to defense spending, it appears that the United States
> already is.
>
> Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, will meet Thursday in
> Washington with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to finalize a deal
> in which the United States will provide an additional $680 million to
> Israel over three years. The money is meant to help pay for procuring
> three or four new batteries and interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome
> short-range rocket defense program.

End your oppression of the Palestinian people, strike a deal, and this
huge waste of borrowed taxpayer money won't be necessary. We're
continuing to pay for the effects of messianic Zionism, an essentially
criminal ideology no matter how you look at it. All we have to do is
say no.

The funds may also be used for the
> systems after their deployment, according to the report of the House
> Armed Services Committee on the fiscal 2013 Defense Authorization
> bill.

Sure, way out into the indefinite future we're expected to pay on
demand while receiving nothing in return, not even recognition of our
own interests.

> The Iron Dome funds, already in legislation before Congress, will be
> on top of the $3.1 billion in military aid grants being provided to
> Israel in 2013 and every year thereafter through 2017. That deal is
> part of a 10-year memorandum of understanding agreed to in 2007 during
> the George W. Bush presidency.

It is not contractually binding and could be cancelled with the stroke
of a pen but our leaders haven't the guts to put an end to it. If they
did the Israelis would come to heel immediately.

> “Those funds are already committed to existing large-ticket purchases,
> such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, C-130J transport planes and
> other items,” according to George Little, spokesman for Panetta. He
> also said the Israelis had increased their own spending on Iron Dome
> this year and the U.S. funds are to “augment” their funding.

They never get enough precisely because they *control our
appropriations process*. It's scandalously weak of us to allow them to
do it.

> And there’s more money involved. The House committee version of the
> defense authorization bill, up for debate on the House floor this
> week, includes another $168 million “requested by [the] Government of
> Israel to meet its security requirements,” according to the panel’s
> report. This money is to be added to three other missile defense
> systems that have been under joint development by the United States
> and Israel. The $168 million is in addition to another $99.9 million
> requested by the Obama administration for those programs.

Even more! And look how entangled we are. "Joint development", indeed.

> Israel has had its own debate over what its defense budget should
> fund. Given its economic problems, the country has cut its defense
> budget for this year by roughly 5 percent, with another 5 percent cut
> planned for next year.

That's meaningless when the American honey-pot is accessed at will.

Its defense experts have debated whether it was
> more important to put scarce funds into offensive weapons that could
> destroy enemy missiles or into missile defense systems to protect
> civilian and military targets. In contrast to the United States, it
> has also raised taxes on wealthier citizens and upped its corporate
> tax rate.

In contrast, indeed. We give ever more to Israel yet the obscenely
wealthy right which demands it and corrupts our system to get it is
taxed at lower rates than than our blue collar 'middle class'.

> The Israeli military has long-term plans to deploy 13 to 14 Iron Dome
> batteries to defend military and civilian targets against rockets
> launched from Gaza and Lebanon. If there is any doubt that the U.S.
> Congress will continue to support the program, one only has to look at
> the Iron Dome Support Act. The bill was introduced in the House in
> March by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.),

A fanatical Zionist agent in our Congress, a man with a giant conflict
of interest who simply can not put the American interest in the
relationship first.

the ranking minority member
> of the Foreign Affairs Committee, along with the panel’s chairman,
> Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.). A companion measure is in the
> Senate.

It's always the same people, over and over again.

> The first four batteries of Iron Dome, deployed last year in towns
> near the Gaza Strip, have proved successful in protecting against
> Hamas’s rocket attacks. Israeli military sources have said the system
> had more than a 70 percent success rate last month against incoming
> rockets.

That's not enough. We'll keep paying until it's 100% effective and
then we'll improve and maintain it forever so as to give the Israeli
Likudistas the freedom from political and moral responsibility
necessary to continue indefinitely the imposition of apartheid on the
Palestinian people. Or until another "opportunity" arises to finish
the ethnic cleansing project. After all, in this case Nazi crimes in
Europe justify reflexive criminality in Palestine. That's not true
with Armenians or Ukrainians or American Indians, but then they
weren't The Chosen. Why are we supporting this behavior?!?

> In early 2007, then-Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz chose Iron
> Dome to meet the short-range rocket threat. Testing began in 2008, and
> by January 2010 the system showed it could be effective.

He chose, we pay.

> In May 2010, President Obama announced he would ask Congress to add
> $205 million to the fiscal Pentagon budget for the production phase of
> Iron Dome. The funds were approved, and in March 2011 the Israel
> Defense Forces declared the first batteries operational.

Shameful behavior by a government incapable of giving the Israelis a
choice. "If you want to continue the relationship, settle with the
Palestinians based on the green line with swaps. There is nothing
complex about it, nothing.

> Iron Dome was developed and built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems
> Ltd., an Israeli government-owned, profit-making company that, since
> 2004, has been headed by retired Vice Adm. Yedidia Yaari, the former
> commander in chief of the Israel Navy. Rafael’s board chairman is
> retired Maj. Gen. Ilan Biran, former general director of the Ministry
> of Defense. In August, Rafael joined Raytheon Co. to market the Iron
> Dome system worldwide. The two are already partners in one of the
> other anti-missile systems that is being jointly run by Israel and the
> Pentagon.

Making a buck is more important than restructuring the relationship
with this pipsqueak tyrant so that it is consistent with OUR
interests.

> The House committee report noted that the United States will have put
> $900 million into the Iron Dome system if the full $680 million is
> used on the program “yet the United States has no rights to the
> technology involved.”

No rights, indeed! No rights anywhere when we are only equipped with a
paralyzed Legislature.This is shameful. We should be determining
outcomes here.

> It added that Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Patrick J.
> O’Reilly should explore opportunities to enter into a joint production
> arrangement with Israel for future Iron Dome batteries “in light of
> the significant investment in this system.”

As if it hadn't occurred to the Americans involved that we should have
dominated the project from the beginning.

> So here is the United States, having added to its own deficit by
> spending funds that it must borrow, helping to procure a missile
> defense system for Israel, which faces the threat but supposedly can’t
> pay for it alone.

Israel can pay for what she actually needs alone. Switzerland does it.
It can cut back on defense! It can raise its taxes more. Its people
can suffer just as are the American people in this Great Recession---
but they certainly aren't now. Unlike ours, their subsidized war
economy is in good shape. The Israelis can do it on the backs of their
own taxpayers if they think that their perpetual aggression against
the Palestinian people is more important than honoring OUR interests,
the interests of their only ally. And that's especially true given the
fact that world-wide Israel's reputation is ranked with that of North
Korea. And justly so.

> To add insult to injury, Pentagon officials must ask the Israeli
> government-owned company that is profiting from the weapons sales —
> including Iron Dome — if the United States can have a piece of the
> action.

Damn this endless humiliation!

> For previous Fine Print columns, go to washingtonpost.com/fedpage.
>

> Onwww.antiwar.comtoday, Philip Giraldi, executive director for the

> Council for the National Interest, writes about H.R. 4133. Although it
> is not a funding measure per se, “The House bill basically provides
> Israel with a blank check drawn on the U.S. taxpayer to maintain its
> ‘qualitative military edge’ over all of its neighbors combined,”
> Giraldi explains. It also calls for “an expanded role for Israel”
> within NATO. The only congressmen to vote against the measure were
> Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX) and John Dingell (D-MI).
>
> http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/
> House Passes Stealth Legislation

Ha! no response.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:66ddc2c6-c1b5-43c1...@ri8g2000pbc.googlegroups.com...

By Walter Pincus, Published: May 16, 2012 Washington Post

Should the United States put solving Israel�s budget problems ahead of
its own?

When it comes to defense spending, it appears that the United States
already is.

----

Just following orders.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:d5f378c4-e2b9-4465...@hq4g2000vbb.googlegroups.com...

On May 17, 3:05 pm, HHW <coaster132...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> By Walter Pincus, Published: May 16, 2012 Washington Post
>
> Should the United States put solving Israel�s budget problems ahead
> of
> its own?
>
> When it comes to defense spending, it appears that the United States
> already is.
>
> Ehud Barak, Israel�s defense minister, will meet Thursday in
> Washington with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta to finalize a deal
> in which the United States will provide an additional $680 million
> to
> Israel over three years. The money is meant to help pay for
> procuring
> three or four new batteries and interceptors for Israel�s Iron Dome
> short-range rocket defense program.

End your oppression of the Palestinian people, strike a deal, and this
huge waste of borrowed taxpayer money won't be necessary.

------

No terrorist group will negotiate in good faith. These groups are the
same ones that the PA cannot or will not attempt to control.

[HHW]

On May 19, 6:40 am, "Stewart" <gorta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "HHW" <coaster132...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

You hope that the readers will conclude that no enemy of Israel will
ever negotiate in good faith.

[Carolina Reb]

On May 19, 7:38 am, "Stewart" <gorta...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Just following orders.

No. Just following the money.

[Stewart]

"Carolina Reb" <walt.h...@att.net> wrote in message
news:afeb1b14-8182-4af1...@w19g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...

On May 19, 7:38 am, "Stewart" <gorta...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Just following orders.

No. Just following the money.

-----

Same thing.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:2473d2f2-9705-4545...@m3g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...

------

Go ahead and try to negotiate with them. You might as well bring a
prepaid shipping crate along with you, and they might even return your
head to your family.

[HHW]

Your modern Zionist founders chose it without advice from us or
consultations with the Palestinians.

[HHW]

On May 19, 6:38 am, "Stewart" <gorta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "HHW" <coaster132...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

And you presume that will be so forever.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:8f765647-d066-42e9...@q2g2000vbv.googlegroups.com...

-----

When we want your opinion, we'll give it to you.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:dd404427-2313-4df7...@p27g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...

======

So what will you personally do about it besides whining on usenet?

[HHW]

On May 22, 6:24 pm, "Stewart" <gorta...@gmail.com> wrote:
> "HHW" <coaster132...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:dd404427-2313-4df7...@p27g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
> On May 19, 6:38 am, "Stewart" <gorta...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > "HHW" <coaster132...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> >news:66ddc2c6-c1b5-43c1...@ri8g2000pbc.googlegroups.com...
>
> > By Walter Pincus, Published: May 16, 2012 Washington Post
>
> > Should the United States put solving Israel s budget problems ahead
> > of
> > its own?
>
> > When it comes to defense spending, it appears that the United States
> > already is.
> > ----
>
> > Just following orders.
>
> And you presume that will be so forever.
> ======
>
> So what will you personally do about it besides whining on usenet?

Nothing, I'm not a Nazi.

[HHW]

Precisely, that's the m.o. of AIPAC and the rest of the Israel Lobby.
Read Mearsheimer and Walt's "The Israel Lobby and American Foreign
Policy".

[plainolamerican]

On May 17, 3:05 pm, HHW <coaster132...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Onwww.antiwar.comtoday, Philip Giraldi, executive director for the

> Council for the National Interest, writes about H.R. 4133. Although it
> is not a funding measure per se, “The House bill basically provides
> Israel with a blank check drawn on the U.S. taxpayer to maintain its
> ‘qualitative military edge’ over all of its neighbors combined,”
> Giraldi explains. It also calls for “an expanded role for Israel”
> within NATO. The only congressmen to vote against the measure were
> Reps. Ron Paul (R-TX) and John Dingell (D-MI).
>
> http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/
> House Passes Stealth Legislation

Should the United States put solving Israel’s budget problems ahead of
its own?

---
we know who supports israel ... jews and xians in our government.
who else would you add?

[HHW]

Zionists in our government.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:9203f3b7-58b6-4f7c...@e18g2000yqc.googlegroups.com...

--------

The m.o. of the ignorant goy is to repeat their trivial diatribes.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:4a6ba398-9095-4751...@l17g2000vbj.googlegroups.com...

--------

Maybe, maybe not...but you are fucking lazy.

[HHW]

You need finesse, Stuart. In the long run it's not a good career move
to piss-off the other 98.2% of the population *continuously*. In your
history they have been known to become surly and to put on black or
brown shirts and to organize into para-military formations. As a
minority ethnic group you whistle past the panteon with this anti-Goy
chest-beating. There's a long history showing it to be unwise. Try the
late Middle Ages in Europe.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:54b8ab9a-d6eb-491d...@a1g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...

-------

Stop whining.

[HHW]

Start contributing.

[Stewart]

"HHW" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:ade8fcfe-b792-441c...@a1g2000yqd.googlegroups.com...

-------

Only you contribute to your whining.