Israel Never Pays - Cranston Amendment
torresD
http://www.balochistanpost.com/item.asp?ID=1176
These comparisons already seem shocking,
but they are far from the whole truth.
Using reports compiled by Clyde Mark of the
Congressional Research Service and other sources,
freelance writer Frank Collins tallied
for the Washington Report all of the
extra items for Israel buried in the budgets
of the Pentagon and other federal agencies
in fiscal year 1993.
Washington Report news editor Shawn Twing
did the same thing for fiscal years 1996 and 1997.
They uncovered $1.271 billion in extras in FY 1993,
$355.3 million in FY 1996 and $525.8 million in FY 1997.
These represent an average increase of
12.2 percent over the officially recorded foreign
aid totals for the same fiscal years, and they
probably are not complete.
It's reasonable to assume, therefore,
that a similar 12.2 percent hidden increase
has prevailed over all of the years Israel
has received aid.
As of Oct. 31, 1997 Israel have received
$3.05 billion in U.S. foreign aid for fiscal year
1997 and $3.08 billion in foreign aid for fiscal
year 1998.
Adding the 1997 and 1998 totals to those of
previous years since 1949 yields a total of
$74,157,600,000 in foreign aid grants and loans.
Assuming that the actual totals from other
budgets average 12.2 percent of that amount,
that brings the grand total to $83,204,827,200.
But that's not quite all.
Receiving its annual foreign aid
appropriation during the first month
of the fiscal year, instead of in quarterly
installments as do other recipients,
is just another special privilege
Congress has voted for Israel.
It enables Israel to invest the money in U.S. Treasury notes.
That means that the U.S.,
which has to borrow the money it gives to Israel,
pays interest on the money it has granted to Israel
in advance, while at the same time Israel is collecting
interest on the money.
That interest to Israel from
advance payments adds another
$1.650 billion to the total,
making it $84,854,827,200.
That's the number you should write
down for total aid to Israel.
And that's $14,346 each for each
man, woman and child in Israel.
It's worth noting that that figure does not include
U.S. government loan guarantees to Israel,
of which Israel has drawn $9.8 billion to date.
They greatly reduce the interest rate the Israeli
government pays on commercial loans,
and they place additional burdens on
U.S. taxpayers,
especially if the Israeli government
should default on any of them.
But since neither the savings to Israel
nor the costs to U.S. taxpayers can be
accurately quantified, they are excluded
from consideration here.
Further, friends of Israel never tire of saying
that Israel has never defaulted on repayment
of a U.S. government loan.
It would be equally accurate to say Israel has
never been required to repay a U.S. government loan.
The truth of the matter is complex,
and designed to be so by those who
seek to conceal it from the U.S. taxpayer.
Most U.S. loans to Israel are forgiven,
and many were made with the explicit
understanding that they would be forgiven
before Israel was required to repay them.
By disguising as loans what in fact were grants,
cooperating members of Congress exempted
Israel from the U.S. oversight that would have
accompanied grants.
On other loans, Israel was expected to pay
the interest and eventually to begin repaying
the principal.
But the so-called Cranston Amendment,
which has been attached by Congress to
every foreign aid appropriation since 1983,
provides that economic aid to Israel will never
dip below the amount Israel is required to pay
on its outstanding loans.
In short, whether U.S. aid is extended as
grants or loans to Israel, it never returns
to the Treasury.
Israel enjoys other privileges.
While most countries receiving
U.S. military aid funds are expected
to use them for U.S. arms, ammunition
and training,
Israel can spend part of these funds on
weapons made by Israeli manufacturers.
Also, when it spends its U.S. military aid
money on U.S. products, Israel frequently
requires the U.S. vendor to buy components
or materials from Israeli manufacturers.
Thus, though Israeli politicians say that their
own manufacturers and exporters are making
them progressively less dependent upon U.S. aid,
in fact those Israeli manufacturers and exporters
are heavily subsidized by U.S. aid.
Although it's beyond the parameters of this study,
it's worth mentioning that Israel also receives
foreign aid from some other countries.
After the United States,
the principal donor
of both economic and
military aid to Israel is Germany.
By far the largest component of German aid
has been in the form of restitution payments to
victims of Nazi attrocities.
But there also has been extensive German military
assistance to Israel during and since the Gulf war,
and a variety of German educational and research
grants go to Israeli institutions.
The total of German assistance in all
of these categories to the Israeli government,
Israeli individuals and Israeli
private institutions has been some
$31 billion or $5,345 per capita,
bringing the per capita total of U.S.
and German assistance combined to
almost $20,000 per Israeli.
Since very little public money is spent on
the more than 20 percent of Israeli citizens
who are Muslim or Christian,
the actual per capita benefits received by
Israel's Jewish citizens would be considerably higher.