Israel to ask U.S. for $2.2 billion in pullout aid

[Scurrilous]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/598223.html

<snip>

"A delegation of senior Israeli officials that left for Washington over the weekend will ask the American government Monday evening for some $2.2 billion in special aid for the disengagement plan.

The U.S. has already assured Israel in principle that it will provide funding for the military outlays related to the disengagement plan and for developing the Negev and the Galilee, and this week's talks will focus on the details of the aid package, government sources in Jerusalem said Sunday.

About a third of the money would go toward relocating Israel Defense Forces bases from the Gaza Strip to areas within the Green Line, and the rest would go toward developing the Negev and the Galilee. Israel is asking for payments to be spread out over a few years."

<snip>

"The financial aid requires approval by Congress and the Bush administration will have to submit the aid as a supplemental budget in the next few months."

[Roland99]

1. Screw them. We've given them enough of our taxpayer money

[kenny blankenship]

5. No no no. They have a point!

Look they couldn't have stolen the land and kept it so long without billions and billions of dollar's worth of direct assistance and encouragement from our government, with military and diplomatic cover standing in back of it all.

Really it's OUR fault, and we should pony up.

[Roland99]

6. It's the fault of gutless politicians that bent to Israel's will.

They have enough money already. They can sell some warplanes or something.

I bet Chavez would be willing to take a couple off their hands.

[kenny blankenship]

7. They have to be compensated for the full value

of what they stole. It's only fair.

I keep coming back to this too: without our nuclear shield they would have been forced by world opinion to give it up, until they developed their own huge nuclear/WMD arsenals that is. Would they be in this fix if we had not allowed them to hijack our government's foreign policy? Of course not. So we cannot pretend that the blame isn't mostly our own.

It's just like London. Now that we have globalized the terrorism taking place in Baghdad in response to our illegal invasion, we HAVE to continue to occupy Iraq and kill people there, so that the globalization of retaliatory terrorism, as we saw happen in London and Madrid, won't happen.

[Roland99]

8. I truly don't get your last paragraph. Was that suppsed to be sarcasm?

And I still disagree with us paying Israel to pull out.

[kenny blankenship]

10. declaring things to be sarcasm

kind of takes the fun out of it.

[Badger1]

2. Fuck them

they have misappropiated billions of our dollars. I have seen reports that say 3 cents of every dollat the feds collect from us go to Isreal. Shut off the faucet, I'm sorry.

[DELUSIONAL]

11. I agree -- and I'm not sorry for agreeing

Not when millions of Americans don't have health care and we have homeless people in our own country.

[raysr]

3. What gives

Isreal the balls to hit the US up for money whenever they have to do something they should have done anyway? (Stay out of Gulf War I, that cost us a couple billion, and they even had the balls to dun us for it when they didn't get it fast enough)

[Behind the Aegis]

9. What does your post mean?

This part specifcally...Stay out of Gulf War I, that cost us a couple billion, and they even had the balls to dun us for it when they didn't get it fast enough? What is that even supposed to mean?

[bonito]

4. If we can help stop the killing with money

I think it's a good idea, But giving aid to one side only? I question that wisdom.

[Behind the Aegis]

12. Palestinians are also getting a check! n/t

[Coastie for Truth]

15. Substantial public and private aid and investment to both sides.

Some of the "Green Funds" and Prince Talal's Kingdom Holdings, and some investment companies are already looking at investments in a PALESTINIAN Gaza and A PALESTINIAN West Bank.

The price of failure AGAIN is too high.

[Scurrilous]

13. U.S 'positive' about aid request

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3111577,00.html

U.S., Israeli officials meet in White House to discuss American aid for Gaza pullout; talks described as 'constructive,' but U.S. won't commit to package

<snip>

"U.S. officials said Monday's meeting with representatives of Israel's finance ministry and the prime minister's office Monday was "constructive," and reiterated President George W. Bush's general support for the Gaza disengagement program, but would not comment on details of a request for American aid for the plan."

<snip>

"Israel is requesting more than USD 2.2 billion (NIS 9.95 billion) to help offset the cost of the disengagement program, which is expected to be between NIS 8 - 10 billion, according to Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."

<snip>

"U.S. officials were reportedly angry about a press leak Friday revealing details of Monday's meeting, and there are signs that the leak could cost Israel a lot of money.

Several major U.S. media outlets blasted the request following the leak."

[Coastie for Truth]

14. Gaza and West Bank Private Investment - in PALESTINE

The capital markets, the "Green Funds" industry, and the Church and University investment managers will soon be challenged by a demand for private investment capital from PALESTINIAN entrepreneurs.

It will be important - critical - from a political perspective and a humanitarian perspective to get investment capital into an independent PALESTINE quickly -- and to get public investment into PALESTINE quickly to build an infrastructure.

Some guidelines-
1) Not mineral extraction investment by the traditional mineral extraction players -- that's ExxonMobil and United Fruit (and European and American colonialism) all over again.

2) Don't count on the locals - on either side of the Green Line or the Fence or whatever. Their economies have been wrecked by conflict -- and exploitation (by the mineral exploitation industries - you betcher sweet bippie I am biased as heck on mineral exploiters - "I growed up in the coal patch of Northern Appalachia" -- and I have seen how Big Oil plays the game).

This will be as exciting as rebuilding Europe and Japan after WW2 - and the penalties of failure will be just as great.

3) Don't count on a "quick return" - might take as long as a generation -- but remember, the Arabs invented modern "Arabic" numbers (ever try multiplying Roman numerals), modern metallurgy/materials science, and kept medicine and pharmacy alive during Europe's "Dark Ages."

4) The penalties for either (a) not trying, or (b) trying, doing a half fast job and failing -- are not worth contemplating.

5) And don't blame the magnitude of the challenge on Israel or Zionism or Jews -- that is a friggin cop-out by those who know nothing about the area (including North Africa, and the Persian Gulf).

The $2 Billion for evacuating the OT's is chump change. There is a new civilization to be built on the foundations of the Ottoman civilization -- and it won't be cheap --- BUT FAILURE WILL BE TOO EXPENSIVE TO CONTEMPLATE.