The Gift Card Israel Uses To Buy US Weapons

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Consider the four most recent notified arms sales to Israel published in the Federal Register: $740 million for armored personnel carriers, $1.98 billion for tactical vehicles and accessories, $3.8 billion for attack helicopters and related weaponry, and $150 million for utility helicopters and parts.

After“Prospective Purchaser,” all these notifications list Government of Israel. After“Funding Source,” all list Foreign Military Financing-or FMF, the US military aid program through which Israel receives at least $3.3 billion a year.

In practice, FMF functions as a gift card for Israel to spend on weapons. US taxpayers are stuck paying for the gift card. The only trace of Israeli funding in those $6.7 billion in arms sales is in the tactical vehicle deal, where National Funds follows FMF on the funding source line.

What about the pair of sales including 22,000 bombs, objected to by Sanders, et al.? Both deals are funded by FMF, or in other words, US taxpayers.

This is, of course, a small sample size. But four years of arms sales data tell the same story: Israel doesn't pay for most of the weapons the US sells it-US taxpayers do.

This fact undermines the economic justification for these arms sales. By foreclosing any claims that they bring significant foreign investment into the US, the case for these sales collapses into the same flawed job creations argument that many hawks use to defend lavish government spending on the military.

The jobs argument is itself a tacit admission of a weak national security justification. A policy that truly concerned the nation's very existence wouldn't have to be sold in terms as banal as job creation. The security justification alone would be convincing enough.

Military spending is the least efficient way a government can create jobs. Using military aid to boost employment is like buying a plane ticket to watch a film: Yes, there's an in-flight movie; no, that doesn't justify the expense.

Even that analogy is generous. The relationship between military spending and jobs is not self-evident. In 1985, the US military budget was $295 billion-$746 billion in today's dollars-and there were 3 million workers in the US arms industry.

By 2021, the US military budget had increased by $132 billion in real terms-to $879 billion-while the number of arms industry workers had dropped to 1.1 million. Despite military spending increasing 18% above inflation, there was a 63% drop in arms industry employment.

Under Biden, US Taxpayers Funded $18 Billion in Arms“Sales” to Israel

American arms sales are either US government brokered (“Foreign Military Sales”) or commercial (“Direct Commercial Sales”).