Israeli military expects $3.2 billion from US in 2007

Just a short diary.  Haaretz reports today that a committee of the Israeli Knesset has passed a preliminary IDF budget:    

NIS 50.6 bn 2007 defense budget okayed in preliminary vote

Under the budget proposal the state would provide NIS 34.7 billion, while NIS 2.43 would depend on projected defense establishment revenue and the remainder would be obtained from United States foreign aid.

Thus Israel is expecting NIS 13.5 billion from the US, or, at today's exchange rate of 4.21 NIS to the dollar, $3.2 billion.

This amount accounts for 26.7% of the total IDF budget.

It is worth noting that this vote comes just three days after a report by B'Tselem (see Fairleft's diary) documented that Israeli forces killed 660 Palestinians in 2006, including 322 civilians, of whom 141 were minors.  (For comparison, Palestinians killed 23 Israelis is the same period).  

At the same time, of course, Israel fought a war with Hezbollah, in which it is estimated that Israeli killed around 1200 Lebanese (in addition to those who continue to die from cluster bomblets left behind).  

Thus, if we assume a constant percentage of funding over the years, the US was responsible for roughly 26.7% of the deaths, or 176 Palestinians and 320 Lebanese.

As Americans begin the new year, it is worth considering where our money goes and what it is used for.  Perhaps there are better things it could be spent on, and perhaps we should not be supporting this level of bloodshed.