Congress, International, Politics, Society

Senate Approves Transfer Of Additional $351 Million To Israel To Fund Its Iron Dome Missile Defense System

225px-Richard_Durbin_offici300px-Flickr_-_Israel_Defense_Forces_-_Iron_Dome_Intercepts_Rockets_from_the_Gaza_StripThe US Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee just approved the transfer of $351 million to Israel for the Iron Dome missile defense system — that will bring the appropriations this week for Israel to $621 million. There has been virtually no debate about such huge payments to another nation’s defense budget when cities and schools continue to cut back on programs for lack of fund. In Fairfax county, our kids are being placed in classes of over 30 kids with a single teacher because there is no money to hire more staff. Congress has cut historic programs and environmental projects for lack of a few million dollars but approves these transfers with little debate. It is not just Israel, as we have previously discussed, but the continuation of huge expenditures abroad in various countries from Pakistan to Iraq to Afghanistan to Egypt. It is not necessarily the ultimate appropriation decision as much as the lack of any discussion on such budgetary priorities and policies that is so striking.


Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the subcommittee, pushed through the increase which will include funding Israel’s R & D work on a new generation of rocket.

In a relative blink, the move doubled the money going to the missile defense system protecting Israel. We previously discussed the lack of debate on the spending of billions to various countries given our worsening educational, environmental, and scientific programs. In one past case, Congress spent $100 million to build a new office facility for Israel and has continued to send billions to Iraq and Afghanistan even in the face of massive corruption and the disappearance of billions in aid.

64 thoughts on “Senate Approves Transfer Of Additional $351 Million To Israel To Fund Its Iron Dome Missile Defense System”

  1. Guess what fellas and gals. Jews are not the only people who are rightfully classified as semites. Go look the term up. You will be surprised!

  2. 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB!
    1700 Architects and Engineers are telling us the U.S. Government is Lying about 9/11. The U.S. Government is complicit in the murders of 9/11

  6. This sounds like a long term appropriation with long term ramifications. R & D on missile defense systems. Seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the urgent $3.8 Billion needed for illegal immigrant “processing.”

  10. $350 million sounds like a bargain compared to the cost of involving US forces in a major battle in the middle east again.

  11. We cannot afford to shower any country with millions or billions. Did you know that we give SAUDI ARABIA 1.5 billion to reform a justice system that its justice minister has said is perfect and was given to them by god!?

    The US has truly lost its way.

  12. Memo to Congress: Questioning blind support for Israel does not make one an anti-Semite.

  15. All of us, including those so struggling, simply need to become entertainers and the American people will happily bury us in wealth….

  16. It seems to me our government now operates on a mindless set of principles and allocates our monies,as such. The lack of discourse , public or otherwise, indicates this. We are already in the rabbit hole and unless the American people wake up, we will get lost down there. Perhaps we already are since we keep electing the same people or types of people time after time.

  20. Remember when Bush II refereed to Americans in dire straits as “those people.”

    Freudian slips are sometimes quite honest.

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