April 7 (Bloomberg) — The argument that American military aid to Israel is damaging to the U.S. is not only erroneous, it hurts the national security interests of this country and threatens the survival of Israel.
U.S. support for Israel is essential, not only for Israel’s national security, but for America’s. Every bit of that support — and more – withstands all reasonable scrutiny.
Under the 2010 U.S. budget, about $75 billion, $65 billion and $3.25 billion will be spent on military operations and aid in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan during this fiscal year, respectively. Israel will receive $3 billion, in military aid only.
There is no economic aid to Israel, other than loan guarantees that continue to be repaid in full and on time.
There isn’t enough space here to discuss the relative merits of the expenditures in these other countries, but we already know the critically important return the U.S. gets for helping its oldest, most trusted ally in the strategically important Middle East — the most powerful military force in that region, the pro-U.S., pro-West and democratic Jewish state of Israel.
Here’s how.
First, it’s important to remember that about 70 percent of the $3 billion aid must be used by Israel to purchase American military equipment. This provides real support for U.S. high- tech defense jobs and contributes to maintaining our industrial base.
This helps the U.S. stay at the very top in the manufacturing of our own cutting-edge military munitions, aircraft, vehicles, missiles and virtually every defensive and offensive weapon in the U.S. arsenal — with the added contribution of Israel’s renowned technical know-how.
Research Cooperation
Second, the U.S. and Israel are jointly developing state-of-the-art missile defense capabilities in the David’s Sling and Arrow 3 systems. These two technologies build on the already successful Arrow 2, jointly developed by our two countries, which is already providing missile defense security to Israel and U.S. civilians and ground troops throughout the region. The knowledge the U.S. gains from these efforts also has a positive multiplier effect on applications to other U.S. military and non-military uses and U.S. jobs.
Third, given Israel’s strategic location on the Mediterranean, with access to the Red Sea and other vital international shipping and military lanes of commerce and traffic, it is critically important to the U.S. that Israel continues to serve as a port of call for our troops, ships, aircraft and intelligence operations.
Forward Base
Israel also has permitted the U.S. to stockpile arms, fuel, munitions and other supplies on its soil to be accessed whenever America needs them in the region.
Fourth, America’s special relationship with Israel provides the U.S. with real-time, minute-to-minute access to one of the best intelligence services in the world: Israel’s. With Israeli agents gathering intelligence and taking action throughout the Middle East and, literally, around the world, bv regarding al- Qaeda, Hezbollah, Iran and Hamas, among others, the U.S. receives invaluable information about anti-U.S. and terrorist organizations and regimes.
Fifth, imagine the additional terrible cost in U.S. blood, and the hundreds of billions more of American taxpayer dollars, if Saddam Hussein had developed nuclear weapons, or if Syria possessed them.
Then remember that it was Israel that destroyed the almost- completed nuclear reactor at Osirak, Iraq, in 1981 and Syria’s nuclear facility under construction at Deir-ez-Zor in 2007.
Foiling Iran
And think about the many operations that Israel’s Defense Forces and intelligence agents have undertaken to foil, slow and disrupt Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability. A nuclear-armed Iran would threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the region, all of Iran’s Arab neighbors, the world’s largest oil supplies and those who rely on that oil. It also would provide anti-U.S. terrorists with access to the most lethal Iranian technology and probably set off a nuclear arms race in
the region.
For about 2 percent of what the U.S. spends in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan this year, Americans can take pride in the return on our investment in aid to Israel.
And with Israel’s truly invaluable assistance to America’s vital national security, we can take comfort that — in actions seen in Tehran and Damascus and noticed by al-Qaeda and other anti-U.S. terrorists everywhere - - the U.S. is safer and made more secure because of the mutually dependent and beneficial relationship
between the U.S. and Israel.
—————–
Steve Rothman is a Democratic congressman from New Jersey who serves on the House committees responsible for U.S. military and foreign aid. The opinions expressed are his own.
Russia's Putin hugging Chevz ... no hugs for the United States!The relationship between Moscow and Caracas has strengthened in recent years, with Venezuela buying military equipments worth $4 billion from Russia, including Sukhoi jet fighters, helicopters, tanks and assault rifles, since 2005.
During his latest visit to Venezuela, Putin had personally delivered four Russian Mi-17 helicopters President Chavez, the last of a batch of 38 military helicopters the South American country purchased from Russia in 2006.
We are not going to build the atomic bomb but we will develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. We have to prepare for the post-petroleum era," Chavez said on Thursday.
Russia has delivered 15 batteries of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to China, Interfax news agency reported, under a contract analysts said could be worth as much as $2.25 billion.China is a major buyer of Russian weapons, and the two countries say they are trying to forge a strategic partnership, though senior Russian officials are privately concerned about an increasingly assertive China.
The S-300 is considered to be one of the most advanced air defense systems in the world, and its capabilities allow it to intercept aircraft flying 30,000 meters up, from 150 kilometers away.
Although the sale of the S-300 to Iran is not prohibited, such a deal would be a game changer in the Middle East. Tehran could threaten U.S. and allied troops' aerial assets in Afghanistan and Iraq if Iran were to deploy the system along its borders. Furthermore, it would boost the defense of Iran's Bushehr reactor, which Russia has built. Finally, Tehran could also use S-300s to protect its Natanz uranium enrichment plant, Arak heavy water plant, and other components of its sprawling nuclear and missile complex.
Humpty Dumpty has been broken and the absolute trust needed between allies is no longer there. How sad it is for the supporters of Israel who put their trust in President Obama.
Friday, Russia's prime minister made his first trip to Caracas, jetting in with little fanfare to sign deals. The urgency baffled many, but Putin got right down to business, announcing that Russia had gotten the right to develop Venezuela's Hunin-6 field, the world's largest oil deposit.
He also announced that Russian companies would build refineries and handed Chavez a $1 billion "entry fee." Meanwhile, he said Russia would sell more than $5 billion in arms to Venezuela and build a Bolivian aircraft refueling stop, effectively a Russian military base near the center of South America.
This is bad news for the U.S. and its regional allies such as Colombia and Chile, all of whom face new threats after Putin's trip.
The U.S. faces the growing possibility of Russian control of its second largest foreign oil supplier. Putin clearly sees PresidentObama's promises to drill oil in U.S. waters as hollow.
Russian control of Venezuelan oil means more leverage over U.S. energy than Venezuela has, given the new refineries. In the past, the U.S. could check Chavez to some extent because of its near monopoly in refining Venezuela's specialized heavy oil.
Putin's move ends even that.
| Apr 07, 03:23 AM |
| Apr 07, 04:17 AM |
| Apr 07, 04:27 AM |
| Apr 07, 04:40 AM |
| Apr 07, 05:27 AM |
| Apr 07, 05:44 AM |
| Apr 07, 05:47 AM |
My column in Human Events this morning:
Barack Obama's unrelenting pressure on Israel and appeasement of the Palestinian jihadists is not unique: There are signs this week that he is about to start behaving the same way toward Pakistan and India.The Wall Street Journal revealed Monday that Obama penned a secret directive last December, stating that India had to work harder to resolve its issues with Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan is growing more demanding that the United States intervene in its disputes with India, and both American and Indian officials have acknowledged that the Pentagon wants the U.S. to put more pressure upon India.
All this comes in the context of a new $7.5 billion aid package to Pakistan and a solicitude toward the Pakistanis from the Obama Administration that borders on obsequiousness. Pakistani officials recently visiting the U.S. were enraged when they were subjected to extra airport scrutiny, in line with a new program that mandated additional screening for entrants into the U.S. from 13 jihadist-heavy Muslim countries (including Pakistan), as well as Cuba. They cut short their visit and returned to Pakistan, where they were widely hailed as heroes.
In response, Obama did not point to the high level of jihadist activity in Pakistan, or to the Pakistani connections of the July 7, 2005, London bombers or the New York bomb plotters who were arrested several months ago. Instead, when Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi flew into Manchester, England, on his way to the United States, the American Ambassador to Great Britain, Louis B. Susman, hurried from London to Manchester (a four-hour drive) to make sure that American airline security personnel didn't subject Qureshi to extra screening before he boarded his flight to the U.S.
According to the Washington Post, Susman hastened to Manchester in order to "avoid any unpleasantness-including the possibility that British-based U.S. airline security might insist on body-scanning Qureshi that might start the U.S.-Pakistan strategic dialogue in Washington off on the wrong foot."
In general, the Obama Administration is working hard to overcome what it calls a "trust deficit" with Pakistan--meaning that the United States needs to rebuild Pakistan's trust in it. And what has the U.S. done to shake Pakistan's trust in the first place? Why, ask that the Pakistanis honor their repeated commitments to fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda. The Post reported that Obama was courting Pakistan so assiduously in the hope of gaining "Pakistan's cooperation in shutting down Taliban and al Qaeda havens in that country."
We have been down this road before. In late February 2009, Qureshi declared that "Pakistan is willing to work with the American administration to fight extremism and terrorism. We are determined to defeat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations." This came five months after Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, declared: "I will work to defeat the domestic Taliban insurgency and to ensure that Pakistani territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on our neighbors or on NATO forces in Afghanistan."
None of that was new, either. In August 2005, then-Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz thundered against terrorism: "We will fight a war against this danger to protect our independence and we will defeat it at every level." In August 2004, then-President Parvez Musharraf vowed that he would not let jihadists from Pakistan cross into Afghanistan and attempt to disrupt the elections there-a vow that Western officials met with extreme skepticism, given the sympathy for the jihad that was manifest even then at high levels in Pakistan.
Asked if the Taliban's days were numbered, Musharraf said, "It appears so," on Oct. 1, 2001. And now eight years later, Obama is making concessions to the Pakistanis and pressuring India in order to induce Pakistan to fight against the Taliban.
The Pakistani government has proven itself again and again to be an untrustworthy ally, full of sympathizers of the Taliban and al Qaeda, and unable or unwilling or both to do anything effective to counter their power. Instead of pressuring India, Obama should be strengthening our alliance with India and pressuring Pakistan. How many more American billions is the State Department going to spend for Pakistan's deception and broken promises?
I thought this had been done some time ago, but in any case this "larger effort...to change not just how the United States talks to Muslim nations, but also what it talks to them about, from health care and science to business startups and education" reflects Obama's core assumption that the jihad against the United States is our fault, and can be quelled by our overtures of good will to the Islamic world. This is based on the further assumption that there is no Islamic imperative to jihad against unbelievers simply because they are unbelievers. Unfortunately, however, there is, and so Obama's exercise in willful blindness and obfuscation is as doomed to failure as was Bush's and all the rest.
"Obama Bans Islam, Jihad From National Security Strategy Document," from AP, April 7:
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's advisers will remove religious terms such as "Islamic extremism" from the central document outlining the U.S. national security strategy and will use the rewritten document to emphasize that the United States does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terror, counterterrorism officials said.The change is a significant shift in the National Security Strategy, a document that previously outlined the Bush Doctrine of preventative war and currently states: "The struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century."
The officials described the changes on condition of anonymity because the document still was being written, and the White House would not discuss it. But rewriting the strategy document will be the latest example of Obama putting his stamp on U.S. foreign policy, like his promises to dismantle nuclear weapons and limit the situations in which they can be used.
The revisions are part of a larger effort about which the White House talks openly, one that seeks to change not just how the United States talks to Muslim nations, but also what it talks to them about, from health care and science to business startups and education.
That shift away from terrorism has been building for a year, since Obama went to Cairo, Egypt, and promised a "new beginning" in the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. The White House believes the previous administration based that relationship entirely on fighting terror and winning the war of ideas.
"You take a country where the overwhelming majority are not going to become terrorists, and you go in and say, 'We're building you a hospital so you don't become terrorists.' That doesn't make much sense," said National Security Council staffer Pradeep Ramamurthy.
Ramamurthy runs the administration's Global Engagement Directorate, a four-person National Security Council team that Obama launched last May with little fanfare and a vague mission to use diplomacy and outreach "in pursuit of a host of national security objectives."...
Remember that the Obama regime always tries to mesmerize the viewer. So, never forget to watch the left hand while the right hand seeks the viewer's attention.
Islam and terrorism are inseparable. Islam is such an evil, loathsome and irrational cult that it could not maintain itself, let alone spread, without terrorism, intimidation and the ever-present threat of violence.
....just another attempt to hide the truth about Islam from the populace....an attempt to ease the path to a victory for Islamic terrorists..
Hear no evil
See no evil
Speak no evil
.................
Israel stands at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. Geographically, it belongs to the Asian continent. Its western border is the Mediterranean Sea. To the north it is bound by Lebanon and Syria, to the east by Jordan and to the south by the Red Sea and Egypt. Long and narrow in shape, Israel is about 290 miles (470 km.) long and 85 miles (135 km.) across at its widest point. Its total area is 22,072 sq km, of which 21,643 sq km is land area (Sea of Galilee: 164 sq km; Dead Sea: 265 sq km). Israel's total land border measures 857 km, its Mediterranean coastline 194 km, and 12 km on the Red Sea.
The only river in Israel: The Jordan River, approximately 250 km.
Main streams: Alexander, Besor, Hadera, Yarqon, Sa'ar, Qishon, and Soreq.
Geographical Regions
| Arid zones | 45% |
| Plains and valleys | 25% |
| Mountains | 16% |
| Rift valley | 9% |
| Coastal strip | 5% |
Selected elevations:
| Mt. Hermon, Golan - highest point in Israel | 7,300 ft. | 2,224 m. |
| Mt. Meron, Upper Galilee | 3,964 ft. | 1,208 m. |
| Mt. Ramon, Negev | 3,396 ft. | 1,035 m. |
| Mt. of Olives, Jerusalem | 2,739 ft. | 835 m. |
| Mt. Tabor, Lower Galilee | 1,930 ft. | 588 m. |
| Mt. Carmel, Haifa | 1,792 ft. | 546 m. |
| Dead Sea - lowest point on earth | - 1,368 ft. | - 417 m. |
Natural resources
Raw materials for construction of buildings and roads: gravel and stone, sand, kurkar, clay, limestone, gypsum, and tuff.
Raw materials for manufacturing: potash, bromine, magnesium, salt, phosphates, sand, clay, and limestone.
Energy sources: natural gas, oil shale.
Climate
Israel is on a "climatic crossroad", which is a transitional area between a temperate and arid climate. The southern and eastern areas of Israel are characterized by an arid climate, while the other areas are characterized by a Mediterranean climate. Due to this climatic formation, there is high variability in the amount of precipitation from year to year, and in the different areas of the country.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Israel was 54°C (Tirat Zvi on 21 June 1942)
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Israel was -13.7°C (Bet Netofa Valley on 7 February 1950)
People
| 1980 | 1990 | 2008 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 3,921,700 | 4,821,700 | 7,374,000 |
| Civilian labor force | 1,318,100 | 1,649,900 | 2,893,800 |
| Jews in Israel, as a percentage of world Jewry | 25 | 30 | 42 |
| Life expectancy Females Males | 75.7 72.1 | 78.4 75.7 | 83.0 79.1 |
| Infant mortality (per 1000 live births) | 15.6 | 9.9 | 3.9 |
| Percentage of the population (15+) with 13 years or more of formal schooling | 19.2 | 25.3 | 43.0 |
| Population by Religion
| Population Distribution
|
Largest cities by population
| Jerusalem | 755,600 |
| Tel Aviv-Yafo | 391,300 |
| Haifa | 264,900 |
| Rishon Lezion | 225,200 |
| Ashdod | 208,100 |
| Immigrants by Continent 1948-2008
| Immigrants by Year of Immigration
|
Today, 70.7 percent of Israel's Jewish population were born in Israel.
Economy
| 1980 | 1990 | 2008 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross Domestic Product (NIS million) | 116 | 111,804 | 725,142 |
| Net exports of goods (US$ billions) | 5,291.9 | 11,603.1 | 51,320.7 |
| thereof: Industrial products (excl. diamonds) Agricultural products | 3,340.4 555.7 | 7,696.8 657.2 | 40,396.4 1,225.8 |
| Net imports of goods (US$ billions) | 7,845.7 | 15,107.1 | 64,531.4 |
| Tourists arriving | 1,065,800 | 1,131,700 | 2,572,300 |
| Air passengers | 2,847,000 | 3,720,000 | 11,134,000 |
| Freight shipped by air (in tons) | 105,800 | 194,160 | 320,900 |
| Production of electricity (millions of kilwatt/hours) | 12,400 | 20,900 | 54,504 |
| Private cars | 410,000 | 803,000 | 1,875,765 |
Education
| University Students by Field of Study (Total 120,800 students in 7 universities) |
| Humanities | 22.0% |
| Social Sciences | 23.7% |
| Science and mathematics | 16.1% |
| Engineering | 14.1% |
| Medicine | 10.5% |
| Business & Administration | 7.4% |
| Law | 4.8% |
| Agriculture | 1.3% |
* Figures based on the Statistical Abstract of Israel 2009
|
I have to say this to Robert Spencer: THANKS !
There ARE some Americans who can see the reality clearly and, therefore, see value in allying with India. Let us hope the right thinking Americans and right thinking Indians will be together one day, in power, and fighting against jihad. Right now, both governments are headed by dhimmies (e.g. our Prime Minister) or half dhimmies (e.g. our Home Minister, who seems to draw the line somewhere).
I also take this opportunity to request all jihadwatchers to join the Facebook group: One Million for declaring Pakistan a terrorist state. Please do whatever bit is in your hands.
Sanjay
Bangalore, India
And you know what is real heartbreaking? It is that while Pakistanis, to a man, think of US as an enemy, many Indians admire USA and think Obama is a hero. Singing songs of worship to Obama they march towards the gallows that await them, a death orchestrated by their very own god, Obama.
The tragedy of Indians is that they never learn.
Obama is going to end up friendless. With friends like Pakistan who needs enemies.
hmmmm...Qureshi, Zardarwi. Aziz, and Musharraf....all promised to fight Taliban terrorism....but only after getting billions of dollars from the USA.....
Muslim con men...each and every one.....
All this comes in the context of a new $7.5 billion aid package ....
The US is like an inept parent,reinforcing bad behaviour.