The United States offered Israel on Thursday an unprecedented $30 billion military aid package, bolstering its closest Mideast ally.
The aid deal represents a 25 percent rise in U.S. military aid to Israel, from a current $2.4 billion each year to $3 billion a year over 10 years.
Nicholas Burns, the U.S. undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Israeli Foreign Minister Director-General Aharon Abramovitz signed the memorandum of understanding on the assistance at a ceremony in Jerusalem.
The package was meant in part to offset U.S. plans to offer Saudi Arabia advanced weapons and air systems that would greatly improve the Arab country's air force. Israel has said it has no opposition to the U.S. aid to Saudi Arabia.
Burns said regional threats to Israel -- Iran and the Hezbollah and Hamas militant groups -- also threaten the United States.
"We look at this region and we see that a secure and strong Israel is in the interest of the United States," Burns said.
The chief of Israel's central bank, Stanley Fischer, said the U.S. aid is of "critical importance" to Israel, whose defense budget constitutes about 10 percent of its Gross Domestic Product.
The aid package to Israel was finalized in June in Washington between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert has said the increase in military aid to Israel would guarantee its strategic superiority, despite upgrades to Arab countries in the region.
The U.S. has long-standing commitments to Israel and to Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab state to make peace with Israel. Egypt currently gets $1.3 billion a year in military assistance. At the same time, the U.S. is seeking to strengthen other moderate Mideast allies, largely as a counterweight to Iran's growing influence.
The United States and Israel accuse Iran of developing nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies. Iran, whose leader has repeatedly called for Israel to be to wiped off the map, is viewed by Israel as its main enemy. Shiite Muslim Iran also concerns the Saudis and other Sunni-led Arab allies of the United States.
The Bush administration must still receive congressional approval for the aide deals, but Burns said he believed there would be little opposition in the Senate and House.
Just last week they were scaremongering us with America's Imminent Bankruptcy.
Iran, whose leader has repeatedly called for Israel to be to wiped off the map...
Ugh, that again. They won't give up.
"Our plan is working! They will be manipulated again! They are so stupid! Bwahahahaha!"
"Uh, sir, I don't think they are believing it. Someone figured it out and told them the truth."
"I don't care damnit! Keep repeating it on the news, they'll start believing it again eventually!"
"Yes, sir..." "Mr Murdoch? Yes, it's me again, sorry. He wants you to keep doing it. Yes, I told him that already..."
lol
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 8599 Location: Fingerlakes - NY usa
Thanks for catching that! I can't believe they're still using it!
Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:12 am
false flag
Joined: 15 Jul 2006 Posts: 445 Location: melbourne, Australia
madthumbs wrote:
Thanks for catching that! I can't believe they're still using it!
Mate nothing suprises me anymore, 99% of braindead Australians still believe that Bin Laden did 9/11, that the Iraq war is great for democracy, that we went to the moon and that Israel is a loving and caring nation
