America generously provides military aid to Israel, most of which (75% currently and phasing up to 100% by 2028) must be used to purchase US manufactured weapons. Annually that aid is $3.8 billion signed by Obama through 2028 (although congress did pass a bill for extra funding for this year as well).
That amount ($3.8B) represents approximately 16% of Israel's standard military budget and 2.5% of the overall budget. It definitely doesn't pay for universal healthcare, Israel does that all by itself.
For comparisons sake, in 2022 / 2023:
Afghanistan $1.9B / $1.19B (the US still supports it after the Taliban took back over)
Ethiopia $1.7B / $1.95B
Egypt $1.4B / $1.4B
Yemen $1.3B / $1.05B (the same Yemen shooting at ships)
Jordan $1.1B / $1.65B
Not to mention how much the US chips into NATO vs other member states.
All of this is to say that America is very (too?) generous with money, but Israel is hardly the only recipient of the largesse (the investment in Israel allegedly has returns in terms of intelligence which I can't confirm but probably is a better ROI than the Taliban and the Houthis).
I’d prefer not a single dollar get spent on any of those things, but any praise of what Israel does that doesn’t acknowledge that they’re basically a welfare queen is disingenuous and I have no problem pointing it out.
The fact that you cant read of any praise of Israel without calling her a welfare queen I think speaks more about you then anything else.
That said I actually agree that Israel would be better served tapering off military aid. Just as she stopped taking economic aid in the 90s and only grew from the independence.
An apartheid theocratic nation on stolen land can’t claim a culture. Benefits like universal health care when paid for by those who don’t have it isn’t an admirable feature. An economy based on selling high tech means of oppression and cowardly ways to murder isn’t a system to emulate. An army who shoots children in the head isn’t moral. You’re scraping the scum from the bottom of the barrel here.
Interesting article, but the kibbutzim are not a good example. They operated as cooperative projects in the early years but today on most kibbutzim the original founders’ descendents are basically kingmakers who run Airbnbs on the property while actual labor is done by imported guest workers from Thailand. In most cases, their economic model didn’t work well, and as Israel has become more technologically advanced and suburban, the government has engaged in land reforms that made some of these ‘pioneer’ families, who were politically well connected, quite wealthy. Rather than a successful socialist project, they are a good example of why socialism doesn’t really work, even if in this case they pivoted successfully to a kind of crony land capitalism.
And of course, in most cases they were built on expropriated Palestinian land, whose owners were never compensated. As such, they operate as a kind of land laundering scheme as well, where land is seized from its rightful owners in the name of socialism, then becomes a development project for a well connected capitalist, all operating under a racist system while the natives and rightful owners are confined to a refugee camp.
Another day, another country that knows how to get things done. We're constantly reminded of our incompetence. Not sure why we continue to flounder. Could it be our insularity? The luxury to squabble endlessly without fatal consequences? We still rule the world which is weird considering we can't solve basic problems.
US tax dollars support the Israeli healthcare system. While our tax dollars are providing universal healthcare for a foreign state, we get healthcare for profit. And as an added bonus our tax dollars are financing the genocide. Israel is great at being a welfare state.
1. The trade-off is that with four cooperatives rather than one government system, you still get some duplicative planning, which is to say, more organizational complexity.
2. Ideas 1 and 3 weren’t possible without the then-dominant strain of Zionism, Labor Zionism. It fractured when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, and its public perception was further doomed by a precisely timed string of Hamas attacks, making it look weak. Having a Knesset based on PR did not stop the democratic backsliding that marked Netanyahu’s rule--it would take a matter of cultural change in Israel to stop it, and that might be more instructive for the American people today. (By the way, I’m undecided between who would be the best suited to effect that change--would it be the blunter anti-Zionists, or the labor Zionists who would be more reassuring to normie Israeli Jews?)
3. I like kibbutzim, though my go-to examples of regional collectivist living would be Rojava and Mondragon.
Otoh the advantage of 1 is that it provides some competition, so a health insurer that does a bad job will lose customers (or doctors) and have to do better. There's advantages and disadvantages but overall I think it's beneficial (and in America, where insurance is much more fractured and localized, I think it would be necessary).
For 2 - PR isn't a magic bullet that solves political dysfunction, and there's plenty of problems it does nothing for, but I do think it's better overall. It lets lower-stakes things like the healthcare law or infrastructure bills pass a bit more easily (they still have problems, there still is partisanship, but they both passed eventually despite that).
The Way Israel / IDF murder People, Women, children, babies, old people etc., left and right ... in our eyes here locally, that country Israel is "a guru of genocide"
The Way Israel / IDF murder People, Women, children, babies, old people etc., left and right ... in our eyes here locally, that country Israel is "a guru of genocide"
The Way Israel / IDF murder People, Women, children, babies, old people etc., left and right ... in our eyes here locally, that country Israel is "a guru of genocide"
“The system is funded directly out of Israeli taxes”
Which is to say, American taxes.
America generously provides military aid to Israel, most of which (75% currently and phasing up to 100% by 2028) must be used to purchase US manufactured weapons. Annually that aid is $3.8 billion signed by Obama through 2028 (although congress did pass a bill for extra funding for this year as well).
That amount ($3.8B) represents approximately 16% of Israel's standard military budget and 2.5% of the overall budget. It definitely doesn't pay for universal healthcare, Israel does that all by itself.
For comparisons sake, in 2022 / 2023:
Afghanistan $1.9B / $1.19B (the US still supports it after the Taliban took back over)
Ethiopia $1.7B / $1.95B
Egypt $1.4B / $1.4B
Yemen $1.3B / $1.05B (the same Yemen shooting at ships)
Jordan $1.1B / $1.65B
Not to mention how much the US chips into NATO vs other member states.
All of this is to say that America is very (too?) generous with money, but Israel is hardly the only recipient of the largesse (the investment in Israel allegedly has returns in terms of intelligence which I can't confirm but probably is a better ROI than the Taliban and the Houthis).
Money is fungible. Whatever money we give the Israelis to mince Gazans frees up shekels for healthcare.
Go whine to Sinwar about the Gazans.
Why? It’s not his fault my government wastes my money by giving it to Israel.
Because of his concept about what’s happening to the Gazans. That’s on Sinwar.
That's true. It's fungible. You can either take credit for funding Gazan mincing or healthcare. You can't spend the same dollar twice.
How much money do we spend on blowing up commercial ships? How about Marines?
I’d prefer not a single dollar get spent on any of those things, but any praise of what Israel does that doesn’t acknowledge that they’re basically a welfare queen is disingenuous and I have no problem pointing it out.
The fact that you cant read of any praise of Israel without calling her a welfare queen I think speaks more about you then anything else.
That said I actually agree that Israel would be better served tapering off military aid. Just as she stopped taking economic aid in the 90s and only grew from the independence.
🎯
An apartheid theocratic nation on stolen land can’t claim a culture. Benefits like universal health care when paid for by those who don’t have it isn’t an admirable feature. An economy based on selling high tech means of oppression and cowardly ways to murder isn’t a system to emulate. An army who shoots children in the head isn’t moral. You’re scraping the scum from the bottom of the barrel here.
‘Can’t claim a culture’. Well it’s a country with a rich culture. You can’t claim a brain you are so steeped in idiocy.
An irrational, nonsensical response.
Interesting article, but the kibbutzim are not a good example. They operated as cooperative projects in the early years but today on most kibbutzim the original founders’ descendents are basically kingmakers who run Airbnbs on the property while actual labor is done by imported guest workers from Thailand. In most cases, their economic model didn’t work well, and as Israel has become more technologically advanced and suburban, the government has engaged in land reforms that made some of these ‘pioneer’ families, who were politically well connected, quite wealthy. Rather than a successful socialist project, they are a good example of why socialism doesn’t really work, even if in this case they pivoted successfully to a kind of crony land capitalism.
And of course, in most cases they were built on expropriated Palestinian land, whose owners were never compensated. As such, they operate as a kind of land laundering scheme as well, where land is seized from its rightful owners in the name of socialism, then becomes a development project for a well connected capitalist, all operating under a racist system while the natives and rightful owners are confined to a refugee camp.
Another day, another country that knows how to get things done. We're constantly reminded of our incompetence. Not sure why we continue to flounder. Could it be our insularity? The luxury to squabble endlessly without fatal consequences? We still rule the world which is weird considering we can't solve basic problems.
Thanks for pointing out the bright side of genocide and apartheid. You will need to keep trying, however, because some of us will just never get it.
Thanks for perpetuating bullshit as there is no genocide and no apartheid.
US tax dollars support the Israeli healthcare system. While our tax dollars are providing universal healthcare for a foreign state, we get healthcare for profit. And as an added bonus our tax dollars are financing the genocide. Israel is great at being a welfare state.
1. The trade-off is that with four cooperatives rather than one government system, you still get some duplicative planning, which is to say, more organizational complexity.
2. Ideas 1 and 3 weren’t possible without the then-dominant strain of Zionism, Labor Zionism. It fractured when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, and its public perception was further doomed by a precisely timed string of Hamas attacks, making it look weak. Having a Knesset based on PR did not stop the democratic backsliding that marked Netanyahu’s rule--it would take a matter of cultural change in Israel to stop it, and that might be more instructive for the American people today. (By the way, I’m undecided between who would be the best suited to effect that change--would it be the blunter anti-Zionists, or the labor Zionists who would be more reassuring to normie Israeli Jews?)
3. I like kibbutzim, though my go-to examples of regional collectivist living would be Rojava and Mondragon.
Otoh the advantage of 1 is that it provides some competition, so a health insurer that does a bad job will lose customers (or doctors) and have to do better. There's advantages and disadvantages but overall I think it's beneficial (and in America, where insurance is much more fractured and localized, I think it would be necessary).
For 2 - PR isn't a magic bullet that solves political dysfunction, and there's plenty of problems it does nothing for, but I do think it's better overall. It lets lower-stakes things like the healthcare law or infrastructure bills pass a bit more easily (they still have problems, there still is partisanship, but they both passed eventually despite that).
The Way Israel / IDF murder People, Women, children, babies, old people etc., left and right ... in our eyes here locally, that country Israel is "a guru of genocide"
The Way Israel / IDF murder People, Women, children, babies, old people etc., left and right ... in our eyes here locally, that country Israel is "a guru of genocide"
The Way Israel / IDF murder People, Women, children, babies, old people etc., left and right ... in our eyes here locally, that country Israel is "a guru of genocide"
Really lovely article. Sorry to see all these hateful comments unmoored from reality; I appreciate your sticking to the truth.
Thank you for these unbiased insights
Very interesting!