The Politics Of Foreign Aid: U.S. Foreign Assistance And Aid To Israel
The argument of this book is that U.S. financial and other aid to Israel has reached proportions way out of line with that to any other country and that Israel has become an economic dependency, while at the same time control over use of the aid is in Israeli hands, often to the detriment of U.S. interests. The statistics cited, mostly from U.S. official sources, support that thesis. However, the overstatements, subjective generalizations and political pleading which mark the accompanying text do detract from the force of the argument.
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The real key to Washington’s pro-Israel policy is long-lasting and broad-based support for the Jewish state among the American public at large.
President Reagan's address to the nation on September 1 deftly reengaged the United States in the Arab-Israeli peace process. At long last Washington broke free from the straitjacket of deadlocked autonomy negotiations to declare its intention of vigorously pursuing resolution of basic political issues. The success of this initiative will be tested by the extent to which subsequent political change in Israel and in the Arab world produces foreign policies gradually more conducive to compromise.
Unlike the Carter Administration (with the Brookings Report), the new Administration has not come into office with any known general policy framework of its own for the settlement of the Palestine problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In addition to the priority accorded by President Reagan to the domestic economy, the fact that the Israeli elections were to be held on June 30 served to purchase additional time. Nonetheless, the emerging indicators of what the new Administration's policy might be give cause for concern to some observers of the Middle East scene.

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