Beacause We're PayingResponding to calls that President Bush put pressure on Israel to step down its campaign in Lebanon, Philip Klein asks a clear and honest question in the American Spectator.

Simply put, why should a sovereign nation have to face any timeline to defend itself against aggression by an enemy? - Philip Klein

 There is a relatively simple answer. Israel may be in some sense a sovereign nation, but it is a ward of the United States.

Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one‐fifth of America’s foreign aid budget. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year.3 This largesse is especially striking when one realizes that Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to South Korea or Spain.

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Moreover, the United States has provided Israel with nearly $3 billion to develop weapons systems like the Lavi aircraft that the Pentagon did not want or need, while giving Israel access to top‐drawer U.S. weaponry like Blackhawk helicopters and F‐16 jets. Finally, the United States gives Israel access to intelligence that it denies its NATO allies and has turned a blind eye towards Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. - Walt and Mersheimer

Because of the scale of aid the United States gives Israel, whatever actions Israel takes, the United States is correctly recognized as Israel's sponsor and patron. Israel's actions have a dramatic effect on American prestige. (Is there any left?) The United States is therefore in a position to make uncomfortable demands of Israel. I'm against almost all foreign aid precisely because it involves us in historical conflicts that have no just, pleasant or immediate solution. But if we are giving foreign aid - we ought, like WASP parents over their ivy league matriculaters, to check in every once and a while and see what is happening to our reputation and our money.