The myth of Biden’s $10 billion check to Israel
$800 million would be “used to: improve ammunition plants” in the U.S.
U.S. President Joe Biden decided to not only link military aid to Israel to a giant package of aid, over $60 billion, to Ukraine, but also to a huge package of other priorities, including getting illegal aliens processed faster, spending in the Pacific and “humanitarian aid” to the “Palestinians.”
Meanwhile, the media feels free to run headlines like this one from NPR: “The White House is asking for almost $106 billion for Israel, Ukraine and the border.”
In order of priorities, the money is mostly going to Ukraine.
The White House’s breakdown runs something like this: $61.4 billion for military and economic assistance to Ukraine; $14 billion to hire more border patrol officers, asylum processors and judges; $4 billion for foreign aid in the Pacific; and $14 billion for Israel. The Israel figure however seems to be inflated by rolling in embassy security expenditures.
The military aid for Israel is around $10 billion, with an additional “$3.7 billion for the State Department to strengthen Israel’s military and enhance U.S. Embassy security.” I’m not sure how the State Department is strengthening Israel’s military. Securing U.S. embassies in the region is obviously a vital priority, but it’s not aid to Israel.
Rolling embassy security funding in and pretending it’s part of an aid package to Israel is dishonest, and yet virtually the entire media has quoted a $14 billion aid to Israel figure.
The official budget letter admits “the request will also help the Administration enhance embassy security by sustaining Mission Israel and our embassies in neighboring countries.”
Strengthening security on embassies in Egypt, Jordan and, say, Libya, is a good idea. It’s not foreign aid to Israel.
Even that $10 billion figure creates the impression of a huge check being sent to Israel. What it actually means is allocation of military equipment and ammo from American defense contractors. And in some cases, it just means money sent to defense contractors to improve their functionality.