Who will finance Israel's heroism?

[DogPoundPup]

excerpt~
The war in the south was very expensive. The Israel Defense Forces did not hesitate to drop bombs and fire shells, but now it is demanding a huge budget increase to replenish its stocks and compensate for the call-up of reservists. In the Second Lebanon War the army received an additional NIS 8.2 billion to renew the stocks, and it wants to repeat the precedent. But in the interim the economic situation has worsened, and the IDF received a huge budget increase as recommended by the Brodet Report.
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Although the Winograd Committee clearly stated that the failure in the Second Lebanon War did not stem from a budget deficit, but from an unprofessional command and an untrained army, the kindly and beneficent Brodet Committee ruled that the cure is increasing the budget. That was a fundamental administrative mistake, because a body as large and fat as the IDF needs streamlining, not more fat.

In any case, it was decided that the army would receive an additional NIS 70 billion over 10 years (2008-2017), with NIS 46 billion of that to come from the state budget and NIS 24 billion from the Americans. As a result, the defense budget soared to a record high: NIS 50.1 billion in 2009.

entire article...http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057977.html

[Idealism]

1. Ike warned us about a country like this

He warned us about the military-industrial complex, how it was an enemy to peace, how the system pervaded democracy, and how it ensnares the population to a belief that they always need an enemy. Israel has not heeded Mr. Eisenhower's words.

[oberliner]

5. Wasn't he talking about the US?

Haven't we got our own military-industrial complex to worry about?

[elleng]

2. What 'heroism' would that be?

.

[DogPoundPup]

3. Israel's Barak To Visit US To Discuss U.S. Arms Sales to Israel

JERUSALEM (AFP)--Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to travel to Washington next week to discuss the implementation of a bilateral agreement to halt arms smuggling into Gaza, a senior official said on Saturday.

He will be the first top Israeli official to travel to Washington since the end of Israel's deadly 22-day offensive against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Jan. 18 and since President Barack Obama took office.

Barak, who will leave on Tuesday, is to meet Secretary of Defense Robert Gates "to discuss the implementation of the Israeli-U.S. memorandum of understanding" signed on Jan. 16 aimed at halting arms smuggling between Egypt and Gaza, the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The two would also discuss U.S. arms sales to Israel, the official said, refusing to elaborate.

Israel tied its unilateral halt of the Gaza offensive to agreements reached with the U.S. and Egypt on stemming the arms smuggling into the Islamist-ruled enclave, where medics say more than 1,300 people died during its Operation Cast.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2009/January/middleeast_January460.xml§ion=middleeast&col=headlinereturnpage=http://www.international.na

[bemildred]

4. Gates? nt

[IndianaGreen]

6. Israeli taxpayers should bear the full burden

while American taxpayers should stop subsidizing Israel.