"U.S. Aid to Israel: Interpreting the 'Strategic
Relationship"'
Report from a CPAP briefing by Stephen Zunes
The Palestine Center, Feb 2001
"The U.S. aid relationship with Israel is unlike any
other in the world," said Stephen Zunes during a January
26 CPAP presentation. "In sheer volume, the amount is the
most generous foreign aid program ever between any two countries,"
added Zunes, associate professor of Politics and chair of the
Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.
He explored the strategic reasoning behind the aid, asserting
that it parallels the "needs of American arms exporters"
and the role "Israel could play in advancing U.S. strategic
interests in the region."
Although Israel is an "advanced, industrialized, technologically
sophisticated country," it "receives more U.S. aid per
capita annually than the total annual [Gross Domestic Product]
per capita of several Arab states." Approximately a third
of the entire U.S. foreign aid budget goes to Israel, "even
though Israel comprises just . . . one-thousandth of the world's
total population, and already has one of the world's higher per
capita incomes."
U.S. government officials argue that this money is necessary
for "moral" reasons-some even say that Israel is a "democracy
battling for its very survival." If that were the real reason,
however, aid should have been highest during Israel's early years,
and would have declined as Israel grew stronger. Yet "the
pattern . . . has been just the opposite." According to Zunes,
"99 percent of all U.S. aid to Israel took place after the
June 1967 war, when Israel found itself more powerful than any
combination of Arab armies . . ."
The U.S. supports Israel's dominance so it can serve as "a
surrogate for American interests in this vital strategic region."
"Israel has helped defeat radical nationalist movements"
and has been a "testing ground for U.S. made weaponry."
Moreover, the intelligence agencies of both countries have "collaborated,"
and "Israel has funneled U.S. arms to third countries that
the U.S. [could] not send arms to directly, . . . Iike South Africa,
like the Contras, Guatemala under the military junta, [and] Iran."
Zunes cited an Israeli analyst who said: "'It's like Israel
has just become another federal agency when it's convenient to
use and you want something done quietly."' Although the strategic
relationship between the United States and the Gulf Arab states
in the region has been strengthening in recent years, these states
"do not have the political stability, the technological sophistication,
[or] the number of higher-trained armed forces personnel"
as does Israel.
Matti Peled, former Israeli major general and Knesset member,
told Zunes that he and most Israeli generals believe this aid
is "little more than an American subsidy to U.S. arms manufacturers,"
considering that the majority of military aid to Israel is used
to buy weapons from the U.S. Moreover, arms to Israel create more
demand for weaponry in Arab states. According to Zunes, "the
Israelis announced back in 1991 that they supported the idea of
a freeze in Middle East arms transfers, yet it was the United
States that rejected it."
In the fall of 1993-when many had high hopes for peace-78
senators wrote to former President Bill Clinton insisting that
aid to Israel remain "at current levels." Their "only
reason" was the "massive procurement of sophisticated
arms by Arab states." The letter neglected to mention that
80 percent of those arms to Arab countries came from the U.S.
"I'm not denying for a moment the power of AIPAC [the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee], the pro-Israel lobby,"
and other similar groups, Zunes said. Yet the "Aerospace
Industry Association which promotes these massive arms shipments
. . . is even more influential." This association has given
two times more money to campaigns than all of the pro-Israel groups
combined. Its "force on Capitol Hill, in terms of lobbying,
surpasses that of even AIPAC." Zunes asserted that the "general
thrust of U.S. policy would be pretty much the same even if AIPAC
didn't exist. We didn't need a pro-Indonesia lobby to support
Indonesia in its savage repression of East Timor all these years."
This is a complex issue, and Zunes said that he did not want to
be "conspiratorial," but he asked the audience to imagine
what "Palestinian industriousness, Israeli technology, and
Arabian oil money . . . would do to transform the Middle East.
. . . [W]hat would that mean to American arms manufacturers? Oil
companies? Pentagon planners?"
"An increasing number of Israelis are pointing out"
that these funds are not in Israel's best interest. Quoting Peled,
Zunes said, "this aid pushes Israel 'toward a posture of
callous intransigence' in terms of the peace process." Moreover,
for every dollar the U.S. sends in arms aid, Israel must spend
two to three dollars to train people to use the weaponry, to buy
parts, and in other ways make use of the aid. Even "main-stream
Israeli economists are saying [it] is very harmful to the country's
future."
The Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot described Israel as "'the
godfather's messenger' since [Israel] undertake[s] the 'dirty
work' of a godfather who 'always tries to appear to be the owner
of some large, respectable business."' Israeli satirist B.
Michael refers to U.S. aid this way: "'My master gives me
food to eat and I bite those whom he tells me to bite. It's called
strategic cooperation." 'To challenge this strategic relationship,
one cannot focus solely on the Israeli lobby but must also examine
these "broader forces as well." "Until we tackle
this issue head-on," it will be "very difficult to win"
in other areas relating to Palestine.
"The results" of the short-term thinking behind
U.S. policy "are tragic," not just for the "immediate
victims" but "eventually [for] Israel itself" and
"American interests in the region." The U.S. is sending
enormous amounts of aid to the Middle East, and yet "we are
less secure than ever"-both in terms of U.S. interests abroad
and for individual Americans. Zunes referred to a "growing
and increasing hostility [of] the average Arab toward the United
States." In the long term, said Zunes, "peace and stability
and cooperation with the vast Arab world is far more important
for U.S. interests than this alliance with Israel."
This is not only an issue for those who are working for Palestinian
rights, but it also "jeopardizes the entire agenda of those
of us concerned about human rights, concerned about arms control,
concerned about international law." Zunes sees significant
potential in "building a broad-based movement around it."
The above text is based on remarks, delivered on. 26 January,
2001 by Stephen . Zunes - Associate Professor of Politics and
Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at San Francisco
University.
The Palestine Center - http://www.palestinecenter.org/news/20010201ffr.html
Middle
East Watch
Index
of Website
Home
Page