A story popped-up in various feeds yesterday highlighting the push to authorize the $18 Billion sale of F-15 fighters to Israel.
The Biden administration is close to approving the sale of as many as 50 American-made F-15 fighter jets to Israel, in a deal expected to be worth more than $18 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The transaction, which would amount to the largest US foreign military sale to Israel since the country went to war with Hamas on October 7, comes as the administration is also expected to notify Congress soon of a large new sale of precision-guided munitions kits to Israel, the people said.
Since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October, which killed over 1,200 Israelis, the US has made more than 100 foreign military sales to Israel. Most of those have fallen under the specific dollar amount that requires a notification to Congress, an official familiar with the matter previously told CNN.
At first I was upset we were giving fighter jets to Israel.
Then I read the headline again and noted we were selling the jets to them. Okay. Cool. We make some money.
But then I remembered a bullet-point from my previous post on the recent spending bill:
Of the funds appropriated by this Act under the heading ‘‘Foreign Military Financing Program’’, not less than $3,300,000,000 shall be available for grants only for Israel which shall be disbursed within 30 days of enactment of this Act…of which not less than $725,300,000 shall be available for the procurement in Israel of defense articles and defense services, including research and development.
So… basically we’re giving them money (that’s $3.3 billion PER YEAR by the way) to turn around and give it back to us, and in return they get fighter jets. Wouldn’t it be easier to just give them the jets?
Certainly.
But of course, that would be too obvious and the opportunity to make money would be lost. Doing it this way allows bureaucratic departments to skim a few funds here, route a few funds there, and of course, every time money changes hands, someone makes money.
Eventually the sale goes through and Boeing (who makes the plane), Raytheon (who makes the avionics and all of the missiles), Northrop Grumman (who makes the countermeasures package), and Lockheed-Martin (other countermeasures) get to add the profit to their bottom-line.
And who owns these companies? The top 3 institutional owners for ALL of them are BlackRock (Jewish), State Street (Jewish), and Vanguard Group (seriously opaque).
In other words: US taxpayer money flows to Israel, and is then sent back to the US to be routed through large defense contractors and into the pockets of the largest and wealthiest financial institutions in the world.
As a token of appreciation for helping to funnel taxpayer money into their pockets, the Big Three donate fighter jets to Israel.
Interestingly, CNN also reports: “Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. James Risch, has already given his approval on the sale…”
Top donors to Mr. Risch include Jewish run investment firm Apollo Capital Management and ranked number three in contributors to his campaign committee is the “Pro Israel” lobby. This includes: American Israel Public Affairs Committee, J Street, Democratic Majority for Israel, NorPAC, and the Republican Jewish Coalition among others.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul has also approved the transaction to proceed. Mr. McCaul’s top donor is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
According to OpenSecrets, the Pro Israel lobby spent $10,612,059 last year promoting Israel in Washington. In return, they get 50 jets, costing $360,000,000, EACH, paid for with US taxpayer dollars. That, my friends, is one serious return on the lobbying dollar (or shekle, as the case may be).
There is a resolution to deny the sale, but as CNN also points out: “Congress has never successfully blocked a proposed arms sale through such a resolution, which has to be passed by both chambers, according to the Congressional Research Service.”
Amerika Erwache!
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