There has been wide speculation about the overall cost of Israel’s nearly two-month long war on the Gaza Strip. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon stepped in today to say the direct military cost of the war was $9 billion.
Ya’alon insisted the war would’ve been worth it at three times the price, citing the huge damage done to Hamas. A new poll today showed Hamas is actually more popular in the strip after the war.
$9 billion is a huge chunk of Israel’s annual $14 billion military budget, and over two years worth of US military subsidies. That’s only the direct military costs, a fraction of the overall cost to the Israeli economy, as the war hugely hurt the nation’s important tourism industry.
The Israeli government has struggled to sell the war as a great military victory, but apart from a large civilian death toll there was very little measurable consequence to the war at all, and with Israel already facing a budget crunch over military spending, it wasn’t a great time to dump money on a pointless war.
Another $9 billion for the American taxpayer to pay.
The headline should have been : 'Gaza war cost American taxpayers over $9 billion.
Just wait, the "Vichy government" in Washington, D.C. will find a way to give additional billions to their masters in Tel Aviv. A tried and true method is to "loan" a few billion and when no one is watching on a Friday evening the politicians pass legislation to forgive the loan.
Is it not probable that Netanyahu has nothing in mind beyond the expansion of Israel and that everyone, literally everyone, who does not emphatically agree with this agenda is an enemy?
Nine Billion Dollars. What a waste. These people are amazing.
Suggestion 1: Israel raise taxes and start spending their own money. Suggestion 2: US Congress butt out. American workers' wages are not yours to give.
The official Tel Aviv website pegs the Monthly Income per Household @ 18,776 shekels. At today's exchange rate that is an annual income of $62,955, less than a similar figure across wide swathes of the United States. It should be noted that this figure is low in that the shekel has been depressed c. 5% due to the genocidal actions in Gaza.
No economic argument can justify taxing Americans to subsidize Israeli war crimes. By taking food off the tables of American children Congress pays to kill Arab children
Nothing can promote peace more effectively in Palestine/Israel than forcing the Jews to pay their own way. Money talks while boo-hooing about the mass murder of children walks.
The American taxpayer will (again) pick up the tab for another Bibi (war).
One must remember also, that Israel walked into the US forward stores and took what they wanted…so if Ya’alon is including the munitions taken in his accounting, then he's blowing smoke up someone's buttiski. And rest assured that the Israelis will not be charged to replace the munitions they stole and as pointed out in comments above, the US Congress will most likely write it off, courtesy of the US taxpayer.
Good. Israel needs to pay some real price for its crimes. Of course, the US must not now pick up the tab for Netanyahu's murderous rampage.
You need to keep replying in the NYT. You're preaching to the choir here. Use the so-called newspaper of record as your platform. It should also be emphasized that this business of the American taxpayers paying for it is not really true. It will be financed by government borrowing, at this point from the Federal Reserve itself, which will electronically print fiat money to "pay" for these government "bonds". In turn, the "money" gets recycled on Wall Street and Wall Street East and to the combined military-industrial complex of Empire West and Empire East. Sorry to be so verbose, but you're the man to work in the Comments section of the NYT.
Figures don't lie, but liars do figure. That 9 billion figure is just to extort funds from Uncle Sam, not to reflect the real cost.
Your report states the cost for Israel to be 9 billion dollars. The cost is mis-reported. The Israeli defense minister said the Gaza war cost 9 billion sheckels, or about 2.5 billion dollars.
bragging? complaining? or getting the bill ready for US?
To "defeat" the Hamas resistance requires billions of dollars, thousands of "IDF" soldiers, thousands of tons of bombs, thousands of lies, while Gazans desire only normal human rights. The rampages, house destructions, murders, arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank before the full frontal attacks on Gaza for spurious reasons do not even count in the report of events, only the money costs to israel.
Easy to do when someone else is picking up the tab
So, we, the taxpayers of the "Bend Over" clan, helped to murder more people ? A large portion of the American sheep have no clue what just took place in Gaza. They only care about the "special relationship" with Israel.