On average, the U.S gave more than $6.8 million* to Israel each day and
gave $0.3 million** to the Palestinians each day during Fiscal Year 2007.

* The source for US aid to Israel during Fiscal Year 2007 is the Congressional Research Service’s “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel,” written by Jeremy M. Sharp, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, updated January 2, 2008. According to this report, the US gave Israel at least $2,500.2 million in 2007. This number does not include the $137.894 million we spent on joint U.S.-Israeli missile defense projects or the $1.4 billion in loan guarantees made available to Israel in 2007.

    U.S. aid to Israel is the lowest it has been since 1981 due to the fact that we have slowly been phasing out economic aid to Israel and gradually replacing it with increased military aid. Within several years, military aid to Israel will have reached $3.1 billion each year (or an average of $8.49 million a day). Thus, U.S. tax dollars are subsidizing one of the most powerful foreign militaries. According to the CRS report, current U.S. military aid, “grants to Israel represent over 20% of the overall Israeli defense budget.”

    Contrary to ordinary U.S. policy, Israel has been and continues to be allowed to use 26% of this military aid to purchase equipment from Israeli manufacturers. According to CRS, “no other recipient of U.S. military assistance has been granted this benefit.” Thanks in part to this indirect U.S. subsidy, Israel’s arms industry has become one of the strongest in the world. “In 2006, it was the 9th leading supplier of arms worldwide.”

    By all accounts the United States has given more money to Israel than to any other country. The Congressional Research Service’s conservative estimate of total cumulative US aid to Israel (not adjusted for inflation) from 1949 through 2007 is $101.1908 billion.

    A November 2008 Washington Report article “A Conservative Estimate of Total Direct U.S. Aid to Israel: $118 Billion,” by Shirl McArthur, puts the cumulative total even higher.

    According to McArthur, “[T]he indirect or consequential costs to the American taxpayer as a result of Washington’s blind support for Israel exceed by many times the amount of direct U.S. aid to Israel. Some of these ‘indirect or consequential’ costs would include the costs to U.S. manufacturers of the Arab boycott, the costs to U.S. companies and consumers of the Arab oil embargo and consequent soaring oil prices as a result of U.S. support for Israel in the 1973 war, and the costs of U.S. unilateral economic sanctions on Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria. (For a discussion of these larger costs, see ‘The Costs to American Taxpayers of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: $3 Trillion,’ by the late Thomas R. Stauffer, June 2003 Washington Report, p. 20.)”

** The source for US aid to the Palestinians during Fiscal Year 2007 is the Congressional Research Service's Report “U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians”, written by Paul Morro, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs, updated October 9, 2007. In 2007, the US provided $50 million for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s West Bank and Gaza program, as well as $77 million directly to the Palestinian Authority. The United States does not provide money to the PLO or Hamas. There are a number of restrictions on how US aid to Palestinians may be spent and it is strictly audited.