PDF: Middle East Policy, October 20, 1996
by Stephen Zunes  [Download as plain text]
The United States aid relationship with Israel is unlike any other in the world, or indeed, like any in history. In sheer volume, the amount of aid is the most generous foreign aid program ever between any two countries, totaling $77.726 billion through fiscal year 1996.Foot note 2_1 No country has ever received as much Congressionally-mandated aid as has Israel, including South Vietnam. Indeed, Israel receives more U.S. aid per capita annually than the total annual GNP per capita of several Arab states, including Egypt, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen and Morocco.Foot note 2_2 What is perhaps even more unusual is that Israel, like its benefactor, is an advanced, industrialized, technologically-sophisticated country, as well as a major arms exporter. This paper examines the nature and extent of U.S. foreign aid to Israel, the strategic roots of such a policy, how the relationship has been affected by the changing world order, the aid policy of the Clinton Administration, its military component, its impact on Israel, the debate within both Israel and the United States, and the impact of aid on the Middle East peace process….