
Israel to launch one of the most advanced missile defense systems in the world - sergeant3
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-to-launch-one-of-the-most-advanced-missile-defense-systems-in-the-world-with-us-help/2016/03/03/6383cb88-dfd5-11e5-8c00-8aa03741dced_story.html
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breitling
Why is the US giving billions of dollars to a foreign nation while her own
citizens are in dire need of those funds?

I guess the better questions is, how do the people allow this to happen?

~~~
rrggrr
The simple answer to your question is to ask yourself what is likely to happen
if the aid were to end. Let's let history be our guide:

1\. Israel may preemptively strike Iran believing "now or never". Has done so
before in many other situations.

2\. Israel will increase its growing ties with China and Russia. Hillary
Clinton's email dump suggests there is concern about this at State.

3\. Israel'a adversaries (eg. Iran, Hezbollah, etc.) will renew and increase
attacks. There will be instability and loss of life. 1948, 1973, 1982, etc.

4\. Increasing conflict and instability will cause great economic pain
globally. We know this because almost every recession since 1948 has been
proceeded by conflict in the middle east, most of the time Israel.

Any of these outcomes cost much more than $3b USD, and for the expense US
taxpayers get these added benefits:

1\. Jobs, jobs, jobs. US defense contractors are one of America's few
remaining manufacturing hotspots.

2\. Slightly less interest by Saudi Arabia, etc. in pursuing WMD to counter
Iran. And under-the-table deals between some Arab states and Israel, which
have Israel maintaining a tenuous balance of power in the Middle East,
countering Iran.

3\. Democracy. You elected your representatives, senators and president. Don't
like their position on Israel? Organize, donate and vote. Sitting on HN and
complaining unless you're doing the other three things feels good but
accomplishes nothing.

4\. Peace of mind. Organize, donate, vote and win -- and you can credit
yourself among the winners who saved $3b, and plunged an entire region into
further chaos, resulting in the deaths of likely millions. Major dark side
points for you.

Want $3b back? The government can find $3b with ease and allocate it to the
small business administration to create jobs at home. Betcha they won't,
because people love to complain about things like foreign aid, but fail to
complain about the lack of hard dollars to small businesses, entrepreneurs and
small business employees.

EDIT: If you're going to cherry pick individual points to dispute you might
point out that you're unable to dispute the general thesis.

~~~
samstave
This is an amazing comment - yet it really illustrates how fucked up the
situation is.

It's become a catch-22, and there is no longer any way out....

We are now beholden to the situation forever. And to worsen the dynamic,
Israel is an AMAZING producer of tech. And as we all know tech is the
lifeblood of the future.

There is no way to extricate ourself from this situation, however that does
not invalidate the frustration of it.

We need to recognize that Israel is an actual powerful economy, and we need to
find a way to let them stand on their own, and not literally being the big
brother ready to punch out any bully at school.

The fundamental fact is that Israel should have never become a nuke power.
Ever.

That's the hand that has us by the balls.

~~~
dogma1138
US military aid to Israel is less than 10% of Israel's GDP, most of those 3
bln. can only be used to buy US made equipment so cutting 3 bln. $ would mean
that those 3 bln. are gone from the US defense industry not the other way
around.

>The fundamental fact is that Israel should have never become a nuke power.
Ever. That's the hand that has us by the balls.

Israel hasn't even attempted to deploy nukes in 1973 where the situation was
almost dire, It's quite unlikely that it will ever use them under any
circumstance other than retaliation (and even then it's some what doubtful).

You make it sound like Israel is blackmailing the US it doesn't, the US knows
that if it cuts the ties between the defense industries it will have both
another competitor (Israeli arm deals have to be approved by the US congress
since the Chinese Phalcon incident) and it will push Israel to both China and
Russia and the last thing that the US wants is open and unrestricted
technology sharing between those countries.

Israel isn't Pakistan it's not an open nuclear state which parades it's nukes
and is a bad day away from becoming a nuclear armed Taliban.

While I agree that nukes in the middle east aren't the best idea with recent
events vis a vis the Iranian nuclear deal there is no way now for Israel to
officially join the NPT and be on a path for disarmament, and as far as
nuclear arm races in the ME goes Israel is not now and never has been a
factor.

Iraq wanted nukes to nuke Iran, Saudi Arabia now wants nukes to counter Iran,
Iran wants nukes to be a regional super power.

~~~
samstave
I really appreciate your input!

But I have to ask you; everyone defends the status quo wrt paying this money
to Israel, give me an alternative as to how to not do this???

~~~
dogma1138
Well the money that is paid to Israel is due to the Camp David accords both
Israel and Egypt get the same military aid package.

The US from time to time allocates additional funds to Israel to fund various
R&D programs in most cases they either end up buying into the same equipment
and when they aren't they get the technology.

If you take out the military aid to Israel and Egypt the US will still
continue to fund research out of pure self interests.

The director of the MDA once called Israel the US's most cost effective and
efficient defense contractor he also said:

"The design of Arrow 3 promises to be an extremely capable system, more
advanced than what we have ever attempted in the U.S. with our programs"[0]

The development of the Arrow 3 started in June 2009 at a total buy-in cost of
about 300M, David's Sling was developed in under 5 years for the cost of 250M
$, the costs of the SM-3 program so far are estimated at about 15 bln. $ it's
land based version Aegis Ashore has already cost over 2 bln. without being
fully operational.

If you look at it from a pure financial POV if you want to actually save money
just delegate all of the US R&D at least as far as Missile Defense goes to
Israel, they'll deliver on time and on a budget that most US defense
contractors would claim is too small to develop a new shoe lace.

[0][http://defense-update.com/products/a/arrow3.html](http://defense-
update.com/products/a/arrow3.html)

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eric001
What a sad world

~~~
currysausage
What exactly do you find to be sad?

~~~
fit2rule
I find it sad that so much effort is being made to kill, maim and endanger a
massive civilization which ultimately has the technology to feed, foster and
enlighten everyone .. yet simply chooses not to do so. Makes a simple choice,
to continue the bloodshed with investment into utterly useless devices, which
only tangible product is destruction.

Imagine if those missiles were being used as a medicine-/food-/book- delivery
system, and instead of sitting around in billion-dollar warehouses waiting to
be deployed, was being used to find every poor soul on the planet too thirsty,
too tired, and too beat to want to learn anyone elses' songs, let alone fight
for the survival of their own ..

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upofadown
Not sure this is a good thing. Israel is one of the most militarily
adventuresome states in the Middle East. There is a risk that this new
relative immunity to rocket bombardment is going to encourage further
invasions of Lebanon and Gaza.

~~~
DasIch
When was the last time Israel invaded Lebanon or Gaza without prior
provocation or attack?

Further one might want to keep in mind that Gaza is currently being ruled by
an organization, that has the destruction of Israel as one of it's core goals.

Arguably Israel is surprisingly calm given that they could eliminate this
problem easily should they wish to.

~~~
upofadown
All countries will generate some sort of justification for their military
actions. So the fact that Israel does this as well isn't very interesting.

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ars
This news will make all the antisemites mad.

Make no mistake: The US does this for her own benefit. They gain back more in
technology than they spend.

The security help to Israel is secondary, although important because the US
benefits from a stable middle east and a strong Israel helps with that.

US aid to Egypt is all about stability though, no technological gains there.
Which is why the US sends less money there.

~~~
noobie
>This news will make all the antisemites mad.

Ah yes, disagreeing with Israeli government practices is anti-Semitic now.

You make solid points other than that.

~~~
ars
Yes, having a problem with Israel having a strong defense is antisemetic.

~~~
GFK_of_xmaspast
Under what conditions could there be a legitimate criticism of the government
of Israel.

