Democratic Palestine : 6 (ص 31)
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- Democratic Palestine : 6 (ص 31)
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Global Role
moved back from the Sinai.2°® Furthermore, Israel normally
only pays 50 to 60 percent of the price of U.S. weapons it
purchases.*°? And Israel is not required to set aside enough aid
to pay for its long-term purchases as are other U.S. military aid
recipients. Israel operates on a cash-flow basis which forces
additional U.S. aid in later years.?®°
More than half this aid is military,2°' though the distinctian
between military and economic aid is artificial since economic
aid generally displaces local money which is then free to divert
for military use. During the period 1976-1980, total U.S. aid,
including grants and credits, was $2.19 billion more than the
total cost of Israel's direct military imports.*®* Between 1950
and 1981,lsrael received more than half, $13.5 billion out of a
total of $24.85 billion, of United States Foreign Military Sales
assistance. Israel also received debt-repayment concessions
totaling $4.95 billion, half the world total.7*? FMS loans and
grants, by law, must be used to purchase supplies from U.S.
arms producers; however, Israel received $3.35 billion in
exemptions from this provision out of a total of 3.4 billion.*© In
1981 Israel officially received $2.2 billion in aid. Not included in
this total was $3.3 billion to pay for military withdrawal from the
Sinai and the construction of much more substantial replace-
ment air bases.*°°
Thus, the United States has set Israel up in arms busi-
‘ness.266 {n 1977 the U.S. permitted $107 million in U.S. military
aid to be used to produce the Israeli heavy tank, the Chariot
(Merkava).?°’ Huge transfusions of cash, weapons, key Ameri-
can parts in Israeli weapons such as airplane engines, and the
recent authorization of U.S. FMS aid to other countries to
purchase I|sraeli-produced arms, an exception no other arms
supplier enjoys, are all parts of U.S. aid.
Foreign aid, 75 to 80 percent from the United States,
accounts for one half of Israel’s gross national product. Israel
must raise $9 billion to $11 billion in new funds in 1983 to cover
its deficit and refinance debts.*°° Thomas R. Stauffer adds that
«Commercial credit is available [to Israel] only by virtue of U.S.
cash aid which permits pro-forma servicing of the debt. Without
U.S. aid, these funds would quickly dry up».*°° Israel has an
outstanding $8 billion debt to the United States, but few expect
this to be paid in anything but future aid. In fact, in 1983 the
Reagan administration requested $785 million in economic aid
for Israel, but California Senator Alan Cranston, a presidential
hopeful, moved to raise this to $910 million, just enough to
cover principal and interest payments on the Israeli debt.?’°
Israel's total foreign debt is $20 billion to $26 billion.2”' Israel’s
population, however, is shielded from crisis. Unemployment
has remained at 5 percent since 1979, and real per-capita con-
Sumption continues to increase.?”2
But the giveaway which most directly affects Israel’s arms
sales, and allows bankrupt countries such as Honduras, El
Salvador and Zaire to purchase Israeli arms, is a little-known
clause in the secret November 1981 Memorandum of Under-
standing on Strategic Cooperation between the United States
and Israel.?’° Dean Fischer, of the U.S. State Department,
explained that Article Ill, Section 2D of that agreement paves
the way for «the possible use by third countries of American
Foreign Military Sales credits to purchase Israeli defense items
and service».*’* U.S. domestic arms producers ought to be
mounting strenuous protests. No other foreign country enjoys
such a privilege.?’5
This agreement was temporarily suspended after the
annexation of the Golan Heights but recent evidence indicates
it has been back in force since the summer of 1982, perhaps a
tacit admission by the United States government of its basic
support for the invasion of Lebanon. In May 1982, the Boston
Globe reported talks to revive the Memorandum of Under-
standing had begun. Later Department of Defense officials
revealed that Israel and the United States had agreed «to
implement economic elements contained in their suspended
strategic cooperation agreement without formally reviving the
accord». The agreement was to be completely reinstated in
June 1982.2” One year later Al Hamishmar cited a story in the
Italian Manifesto revealing that «Israeli combat pilots and milit-
ary instructors are already in Honduras ancleverything is paid
for by the U.S.A.».277
Israel’s Role in U.S. International Strategy
Are the Israelis just good businessmen who found a mar-
ket and filled it? Certainly they are making good profits from
arms. Are the Israelis exemplary and principled warriors
against the spread of communism as they, and their South Afri-
can allies, like to portray themselves??” It is true that they see
themselves in this way. But there is much more involved, and
we do not have to rely on speculation.
Ya’akov Meridor is a minister without portofilo, an
economic adviser , in Begin’s cabinet . Meridor made a pro-
posal, called the Meridor Memorandum,which is part of the
«mutually understood» provisions of the Israeli-U.S. strategic
agreement of 1981. Meridor summed up his ideas in Ha’aretz
(August 1981): «We shall say to the Americans: Don't compete
with us in Taiwan, don't compete with us in South Africa, don’t
compete with us in the Caribbean area, or in other areas in
which we can sell weapons directly and where you can’t oper-
ate in the open. Give us the opportunity to do this and trust us
with sales of ammunition and military hardware. Let Israel act
as your agent.»2”9
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