Israel's Achilles’ Heel: USA Supplied Fuel

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Saturday January 17, 2009 10:37

by redjade

Israel's Achilles’ heel....

''It's well known that the U.S. supplies the Israelis with much of their military hardware. Over the past few decades, the U.S. has provided about $53 billion in military aid to Israel. What's not well known is that since 2004, U.S. taxpayers have paid to supply over 500 million gallons of refined oil products -- worth about $1.1 billion –- to the Israeli military. While a handful of countries get motor fuel from the U.S., they receive only a fraction of the fuel that Israel does -- fuel now being used by Israeli fighter jets, helicopters and tanks to battle Hamas.

According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, between 2004 and 2007 the U.S. Defense Department gave $818 million worth of fuel to the Israeli military. The total amount was 479 million gallons, the equivalent of about 66 gallons per Israeli citizen. In 2008, an additional $280 million in fuel was given to the Israeli military, again at U.S. taxpayers' expense. The U.S. has even paid the cost of shipping the fuel from U.S. refineries to ports in Israel.

In 2008, the fuel shipped to Israel from U.S. refineries accounted for 2 percent of Israel's $13.3 billion defense budget. Publicly available data shows that about 2 percent of the U.S. Defense Department's budget is also spent on oil. A senior analyst at the Pentagon, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, says the Israel Defense Force's fuel use is most likely similar to that of the U.S. Defense Department. In other words, the Israeli military is spending about the same percentage of its defense budget on oil as the U.S. is. Therefore it's possible that the U.S. is providing most, or perhaps even all, of the Israeli military's fuel needs....

[....]

In short, U.S. taxpayers are paying for U.S. energy companies to buy Arab crude, ship it across the Atlantic to refineries in the U.S., refine it, and then ship it back across the Atlantic so that the Israel Defense Force can use it in its wars.''

• Read the rest at: Gaza invasion: Powered by the U.S. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/01/16/gaza_invas....html

other blogishness here: http://LMV.hu/redjade

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Comments (1 of 1)

And?

by Steve

Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:17

The American taxpayers many of whom are devout Christians are naturally highly supportive of Israel, hostile to Islam in the wake of 9/11 and therefore hostile to Hamas which few Americans would be able to distinguish from al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
The new American President, his White Chief of Staff, his Secretary of Defence and Secretary of State are pro-Israeli to the hilt as are most of the powerful Jewish-Americans who are financial backers of the Democrats who include the many of the elite in business, banking and of course in the Hollywood entertainment establishment.
The fuel that keeps Israeli jets, helicopter and tank engines running is not going to be cut off any time soon.
That is the long and short of it.

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Israel's Achilles’ Heel: USA Supplied Fuel

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