‘There Is No Balance in This Relationship’: Knesset Debates Israeli Reliance on US Aid

Members of the Israeli Knesset held a session debating Tel Aviv’s reliance on aid from Washington. The US sends Israel at least $3.8 billion in annual military assistance, and in 2024, aid to Israel surged to over $20 billion.

The Knesset members debated with officials and experts about Tel Aviv’s dependence on Washington for weapons and funding to operate its military. “Isn’t it strange that within 24 hours of Oct 7, we were asking for aid from the US? That we couldn’t fight the war on our own? Not three weeks passed and we already had a package of requests for $15 billion of aid?” Gideon Israel, president of the Jerusalem-Washington Center, told the committee.

He continued, “This tendency to beg, where not a moment goes by and we already ask for help from the US is an Israeli quality that has existed for over 50 years … and no one thinks, ‘wait a minute, maybe we need to reevaluate.’”

Dor Shapira, head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s North America Bureau, noted, “The fact that we have a partnership with the U.S. doesn’t mean that the sides are even. We get a lot of help in defense and diplomatically, so there is no balance in this relationship.”

In 2016, President Obama signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Israel, promising Tel Aviv $3.8 billion in military aid every year. Following the October 7 attack, assistance to Israel increased to $22 billion.

Gideon Israel explained that “there are no free lunches,” and Washington can use the aid to force Tel Aviv to make certain decisions. However, during Israel’s 15-month-long onslaught in Gaza, the Biden administration refused to leverage military support to Tel Aviv to force Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt military operations and allow aid to reach the starving Palestinian people.

Raphael BenLevi, a research fellow at the Misgav Institute for Zionist Strategy and National Security, told the Knesset that US aid has become “part of the central policy considerations of Israel in the last 30 years” but noted that Washington tended to use the aid as a “carrot, not a stick.”

Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli diplomat, argued that Tel Aviv should reframe the way it discusses US aid. Rather than being grateful to the US for support, Tel Aviv should tell Washington, “No American investment brings in a greater return on investment.”

“We are the flagship store of the American defense industry,” Ettinger said. “When on Oct. 26 [2024] there was an Israeli Air Force operation and 100 American-made planes flew over Iran,” he explained. “This immediately promoted the American industry’s sales. We are a laboratory in battle conditions.”

While Israel’s use of US weapons may present an opportunity to display its capabilities, Tel Aviv’s military operations in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Yemen created a huge surge in anti-American sentiment in the Middle East.

Former Israeli Deputy National Security Advisor Chuck Freilich, explained that American support for Israel stretches beyond aid, and losing the assistance could jeopardize the wider relationship.

He noted the “diplomatic umbrella” that Tel Aviv receives from Washington. Freilich is likely referring to the US using its veto at the UN Security Council to prevent the body from adopting relations critical of Israel or punishing Tel Aviv for the genocide in Gaza.

He went on to say, “Maybe, but it is a much less safe existence and with much less economic and social welfare. It’s a reality no one wants to return to, the security and economic level of the ‘70s.”

A report by the Israeli outlet Calcalist in October 2024 reviewed Israel’s spending on wars since October 7, 2023, it found that Washington is funding 70% of Tel Aviv’s military costs.

At present, Israel maintains significant influence in Washington. However, younger Americans increasingly view the Palestinians more sympathetically, are against Washington’s support for Tel Aviv, and half believe Israel’s war in Gaza to be a genocide.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/foreign-policy/there-is-no-balance-in-this-relationship-knesset-debates-israeli-reliance-on-us-aid/

Why are they not arrested for TREASON

Aiding and abetting the enemy!

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Ends Payments to NGOs That Facilitate the Border Invasion

https://rumble.com/embed/v6cn384/?pub=4

Jolani Declares Himself President Of Syria After Canceling Elections & Constitution

Last month the de facto leader of Syria, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani (aka Ahmad al-Sharaa), told Al Arabiya TV that it would take up to four years in hold new elections after Assad was ousted and fled the country on Dec. 8. This obviously undemocratic pronouncement was met with silence among Western leaders, who had long supported the anti-Assad 'revolution' and regime change efforts.

In a 'victory' speech given Wednesday night, Jolani declared himself president of Syria, claiming that this would be for an unspecified transitional period. "We announce the appointment of Commander Ahmad al-Sharaa as head of state during the transitional period. He will assume the duties of the president of the Syrian Arab Republic and represent the country in international forums," a statement said.

"The president is authorized to form a temporary legislative council for the transitional phase, which will carry out its duties until a permanent constitution is enacted and put into effect," the announcement added.

The statement further confirmed the cancellation of Syria's 2012 constitution and the dissolution of the former government's parliament, the army, as well as security agencies, state SANA noted. Additionally all armed factions which previously fought Assad and the Syrian army have been declared dissolved and will be integrated into state institutions.

Western mainstream media spent years whitewashing the hardline Islamist-led regime change war, as it was also backed by US intelligence, NATO allies, and the Gulf states. Al-Qaeda linked militants were presented all along as somehow being enlightened Jeffersonian Democrats.

Yet CNN admits that Jolani/Sharaa himself - Syria's new self-appointed president - is a foreign fighter with clear past links to ISIS:

Al-Sharaa became a Syrian “foreign fighter” in his early 20s, crossing into Iraq to fight the Americans when they invaded the country in the spring of 2003. That eventually landed him in the notorious US-run Iraqi prison, Camp Bucca, which became a key recruiting ground for terrorist groups, including what would become ISIS.

Freed from Camp Bucca, he crossed back into Syria and started fighting against the Baathist Assad regime, doing so with the backing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who would later become the founder of ISIS.

In Syria, he founded a militant group known as Jabhat al-Nusra (“the Victory Front” in English), which pledged allegiance to al Qaeda, but in 2016, he broke away from the terror group, according to the US Center for Naval Analyses.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/jolani-declares-himself-president-syria-after-canceling-elections-constitution

>>22469281

he is

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4422919,00.html

Trump 2.0

ZERO arrests

New laws to protect Israel as they destroy America and the world.

Big profits for billionaires

Chemtrails still spraying

Wars still going

Nothing for homeless and addicts

Fed still in control

Deep state still deep stating

>>22469438

Central banks enslave

The deflection used to trick people doesn't work anymore

The BANKS and FED are criminal and need to be shut. Those running and profiting from such arrested and executed for TREASON.