(JGB) wrote in message . com...
(Kevin Brooks) wrote in message . com...
(phil hunt) wrote in message ...

Couldn't Israel have funded construction itself? Another small
country, Sweden, manages to.

No. Israel has grown rather dependent upon the billions annually
provided in US aid (depending upon whose numbers you use, US aid would
be equal to somewhere around between 3 and 6% of their GDP). According
to year 2000 numbers, Israel had a GDP that was just over half that of
Sweden, and a lower per-capita GDP to boot. Go-it-alone is not a
likely avenue for israel; they even required South African capital to
develop their BVRAAM, the Derby.

YEs, but isn't it interesting, Kevin, that in 1970 Israel's GNP was
$3,050 per capita versus Japan's $3,000 at the time (look it up).
Yet today, after perhaps $80 billion in US aid since, Israel's per capita
GNP, is now, as you state, half of Japan's or Sweden's. Mind you, in 1970
Israel had already taken the "territories" before the major stream of
US aid and arms had really begun. Besides the never ending wars the
Arabs have forced on Israel,

Please. 56 was not forced upon them, and if you are honest about it,
neither was 67:

"As Mordecai Bentov, at the time a member of the Israeli government,
said, "The entire story of the danger of extermination was invented in
every detail, and exaggerated a posteriori to justify the annexation
of new Arab territory." " Source:
http://www.wrmea.com/Washington-Repo...91/9107040.htm

(And no, that is not an "Arab" source)

Add in Begin's later similar comments, and your case that the 67 War
was somehow forced on the Israelis starts getting weaker by the
minute....



not to mention the boycotts and the like,
the new arms race, where nearly $6 billion in US arms sold to EGypt,

Not a threat to Israel; if you think it is, then please provide actual
evidence.

Saudi Arabia,

Couldn't even handle Iraq; not a real threat to Israel in the
conventional war sense, and apparently has more than its own share of
internal problems with which to keep it busy anyway.

the UAE and Jordan,

LOL! Have you examined exactly what the strength of the Jordanian Air
Force is recently? And you think it poses a threat to Israel?! A
handful of ex-USAF F-16A's?! And since when has the UAE been on the
Israelis threat scope? Get real.

forces Israel not only to require
the $3 billion in aid annually to keep up, but also requires a massive
internal effort to keep a military reserve and a military-industrial
complex so heavy and so distortive of Israel's economy, and diversive in
forcing so much of its talent into arms production, which overall
is sterile in terms of fostering economic growth, that I honestly wish
the US, and the rest of the world, would simply impose a GLOBAL embargo
on ALL AID AND ARMS SALES into the region completely!

Israel could solve a lot of its own problems by faithfully negotiating
the establishment of a palestinian state in the West Bank and a return
of the Golan to Syria in return for Syrian recognition of Israel's
right to exist and the creation of a security zone under MNF/UN
auspices as has existed in the Sinai since around 78.

If the Egyptians,
Saudis and other Arab and Muslim states had NO access to advanced arms
from the West or East, and had to develop and produce all their own
internally, Israel would be better off even without the aid or arms
sales to it!!! I am totally convinced of it. The Israeli arms industry
is way too big, and way too controlled by the US thanks to the aid,
that overall is a drag on the economy, but nonetheless necessary as long
as the enemy and hostile Muslim states have access to US and other
international sources of modern arms. This is why Israel's growth has
lagged. If the world stops selling the Muslims states $10 billion in
arms annually, Israel would be able to stop taking $3 billion in US
aid AND STILL BE ECONOMICALLY BETTER OFF in the long run.

Face reality--the Israelis don't *want* to see US aid end, it has
become their teat which provides neverending succor. Heck, they even
tried to hold us up over this last conflict:

www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/ 2003-02-24-unwilling-cover_x.htm

"Israel is seeking $12 billion on top of the $3 billion it receives
annually."

That is TWELVE freakin' billion dollars...and you think they want to
give up that kind of loot? Again, get real.

Brooks