Israel plans to seek more aid from U.S.

[Menydh]

Israel plans to seek more aid from U.S.

The New York Times
July 12, 2005

Israel, which has traditionally been the largest recipient of U.S. assistance, is seeking an additional $2 billion or more to help pay for its planned withdrawal of soldiers and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip, Israeli officials said Monday.

The aid would go for moving Israeli military bases from Gaza to new locations inside Israel, as well as economic development in two thinly populated parts of Israel, the Negev Desert in the south, and the Galilee in the north, according to a senior Israeli official who requested anonymity.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement plan" is to begin in mid-August and calls for evacuating all of the nearly 9,000 settlers in Gaza and several hundred more in the West Bank. The government is offering bonuses to settlers who agree to move to the Negev or the Galilee.

Asked about the Israeli aid request, Shimon Peres, Israel's deputy prime minister, did not cite any figures, but told reporters: "We have to develop the Negev and the Galilee, which are the only alternatives" to Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Monday that Israel would be seeking $2.2 billion, though the Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity described it as a ballpark figure that still needed to be negotiated.

An Israeli delegation has already arrived in Washington and will be meeting with members of the National Security Council. The Israelis are looking for a package that would be spread over several years, and would include direct monetary grants as well as loan guarantees, said the official.

Israeli officials have estimated the cost of the withdrawal, including moving and compensating the settlers and operations carried out by the security forces, to be about 8 billion shekels, or about $1.7 billion.

Under the government's formula for compensating settlers, many families are expected to receive payments in the range of $200,000 to $300,000, which is intended to replicate their current standard of living in Gaza.

For many years, Israel has received the largest sum of U.S. aid. Washington provided $2.3 billion in military aid and more than $500 million in economic assistance last year, according to the U.S. Embassy in Israel.

The new Israeli request is in addition to the regular annual assistance provided by Washington.

Combined U.S. military and economic assistance to Israel has reached $100 billion since Israel's founding in 1948, according to the U.S. Embassy.

The Palestinians also have been recipients of large sums of international assistance in recent years. The Palestinians, who have suffered an economic meltdown during the past five years of violence, are getting roughly $1 billion a year, mostly for urgent needs such as food and housing for families who lost homes in the fighting.

The Palestinians say they will need much larger sums to help develop the impoverished Gaza Strip following the Israeli withdrawal.

At the Group of 8 summit meeting of industrialized nations last week in Scotland, the participants agreed in principle on the sum of $3 billion annually during each of the next three years for the Palestinians. However, it is not yet clear who will be providing the money.

James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president, is working with the Palestinians to assemble the aid package and coordinate on economic development in Gaza. Wolfensohn is currently in the region and met Peres on Monday.


Fischer to travel to Mideast

Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer of Germany will travel to the Middle East this week for talks with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, his ministry said Monday, according to an Agence France-Presse report in Berlin.

Fischer will embark Wednesday on a two-day visit that will take him to Jerusalem and Ramallah for discussions focused on "current developments in Israeli-Palestinian relations," the ministry said in a statement.

The foreign minister, who is also Germany's vice chancellor, will also meet his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts, Silvan Shalom and Nasser al-Kidwa, as well as Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei.

Fischer is to return to Berlin late Thursday.


[source]

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

Better idea: Give them (Israelis) ten days to leave Gaza, AND STAY OUT, or the USA cuts off 2.2 billion of existing funds.

[Speed fo Horse]

In my opinion every penny spent and every American life lost in this war has been for the security of Israel! What do we ever get in return from Israel? Contempt!

[Tiago]

Originally Posted by Dr. Solar Wolff

Better idea: Give them (Israelis) ten days to leave Gaza, AND STAY OUT, or the USA cuts off 2.2 billion of existing funds.

It would cost less to move the wailing wall, brick-by-brick, and the Jews, to Brooklyn, and then let the Arabs take what's left.

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

Originally Posted by Tiago

It would cost less to move the wailing wall, brick-by-brick, and the Jews, to Brooklyn, and then let the Arabs take what's left.

It took years and US dollars to get them out of Brooklyn. If Israelis are more concentrated in terms of population density, then they might respond better to pressure.

[Agrippa]

Originally Posted by Speed fo Horse

In my opinion every penny spent and every American life lost in this war has been for the security of Israel! What do we ever get in return from Israel? Contempt!

Of course they dont just die because of Israel, but to save the position in the Near East, control the strategic important area and the oil - its a war of both the Anglocalvinist and the Jewish plutocracy which in turn, dont even want peace so fast. Israel is rather an instrument for them, they use it and the common Israeli people for interests too. The Jewish plutocracy of the USA is the main factor - without them and the massive US aid the common people in Israel are ready to give more, just radical Zionistis and religious fanatics want no compromise and they are quite often supported or even paid by American Zionists and plutocrats with political interests which just use Israel as I said.
If the Anglocalvinist plutocracy of the USA wouldnt have strategic and economic interests, they wouldnt have done it, but like things are, they both help each other for the purpose of the other...

[Tiago]

Originally Posted by Agrippa

Of course they dont just die because of Israel, but to save the position in the Near East, control the strategic important area and the oil - its a war of both the Anglocalvinist and the Jewish plutocracy which in turn, dont even want peace so fast. Israel is rather an instrument for them, they use it and the common Israeli people for interests too. The Jewish plutocracy of the USA is the main factor - without them and the massive US aid the common people in Israel are ready to give more, just radical Zionistis and religious fanatics want no compromise and they are quite often supported or even paid by American Zionists and plutocrats with political interests which just use Israel as I said.
If the Anglocalvinist plutocracy of the USA wouldnt have strategic and economic interests, they wouldnt have done it, but like things are, they both help each other for the purpose of the other...

Jews have been very efficient at exploiting US Protestant romantic notins about the "holy land". For as long as this goes on, Israel will, quite literally, get away with murder.