Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

US Offers Israel 2 Squadron of F-35s- For Free

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • US Offers Israel 2 Squadron of F-35s- For Free

    Looks like Israel could be getting a total of 40 F-35s for free (20 already signed for, 20 more now). Link from the Jerusalem Post...

    Second squadron of F-35s is

    "In an effort to convince the Netanyahu government to impose a three-month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, the Obama administration offered Israel last week a long list of security and diplomatic benefits, including 20 F-35s for free."

    Interesting development. I was surprised to hear it.
    No One Kicks A$! Without Tanker Gas

  • #2
    100% true: My first thought upon reading the topic was "Oh God, what are we bribing them not to do?"

    Comment


    • #3
      Maybe he could hold up the first twenty we were giving for free instead...
      To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

      Comment


      • #4
        US refuses to confirm offer of 20 F-35 fighter jets

        Irrelevant now.

        Troung, Israel is buying the first 20-JSF's, not getting them for free. We may be buying them using the US's own money, but that's slightly different than getting them for free. As long as the US is gonna keep giving Israel money, why shouldn't we use it? However, you know my opinions on the matter, I'm all for the US stopping giving the aid money to Israel
        Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

        Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

        Comment


        • #5
          There is nothing "free" in this world. The US supplies Israel with weapons because it is cheaper than sending US troops to do the same job. In return for that favor, the Israelis are expected to take care of certain business that the US is either politically or militarily poorly positioned to handle.

          Quite frankly, the elimination of Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons plant in 1981 was worth far more than a decade's worth of military aid to Israel. Without Israel's intervention in June 1981, there would have been no Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The US would not have risked a nuclear exchange to free Kuwait, and we would probably still be sitting with US troops permanently stationed in Saudi Arabia - being periodically blown up by Saddam-funded terrorists - in a Cold War style stalemate over the oil fields of the Middle East. It was a favor which the Israelis again performed in September of 2007, this time in Syria. The Israelis took all of the risk, with no US troops to back them up. Name one other US ally anywhere in the world who would do that. NATO? They wouldn't even intervene in the Balkans - their own back yard - without US troops to do the bulk of the fighting.

          So Obama is proposing another batch of F-35s for Israel (to be delivered no sooner than 2017 - which is when the last of the first batch was due to arrive), in return for political favors now? Fine. One day those F-35s will take care some of the same duties that Israeli F-15s and F-16s have been performing for three decades - and the US won't have to risk a single soldier to carry out those missions. Sounds like a bargain to me.

          Comment


          • #6
            Except giving those F-35s instead of selling them gives the US the legitimacy to demand things of Israel they wouldn't demand, or demand less strenuously, if they weren't giving Israel $4 billion a year.

            Israel would have attacked Osirak in 1981 regardless of whether they were getting US aid money or not, since it was an existential threat to Israel, same as with Syria in 2007.
            Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

            Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

            Comment


            • #7
              outofshdw,

              The Israelis took all of the risk, with no US troops to back them up. Name one other US ally anywhere in the world who would do that.
              it's not as if the israelis were doing us a favor with no benefit to them; their own lives are on the line, which is a considerably higher interest than what the US has in the region. ie with or without US support they would have nailed syria or iraq, which in this case is a benefit to both US and israel. i fully support that when it's mutually beneficial.

              here, not so much. i refer to you Christopher Hitchens:

              Why America will come to regret the craven deal Obama is offering Netanyahu. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
              There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by astralis View Post
                outofshdw,



                it's not as if the israelis were doing us a favor with no benefit to them; their own lives are on the line, which is a considerably higher interest than what the US has in the region. ie with or without US support they would have nailed syria or iraq, which in this case is a benefit to both US and israel. i fully support that when it's mutually beneficial.

                here, not so much. i refer to you Christopher Hitchens:

                Why America will come to regret the craven deal Obama is offering Netanyahu. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
                *The more I read this, the more I would stress that religion nor the ramblings there of have any place in politics outside of spiritual. It should never direct policy in its coarse but help it steer a clear and just coarse. Perhaps this gentlemen/Rabbi should be told he is starting to sound like other leaders in the area and one thats begining to be a regular PITA.
                Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Phoenix10 View Post
                  "In an effort to convince the Netanyahu government to impose a three-month moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank, the Obama administration offered Israel last week a long list of security and diplomatic benefits, including 20 F-35s for free."

                  Then, international politics really flies over my head I must admit. What has the settlements impase got to do with F-35s is a whole new mystery to me. The world has just gone bonkers if you ask me!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Well...I guess it's better than offering Iran or North Korea 20 F-35s to convince them to give up their nucular weapons.
                    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                      Well...I guess it's better than offering Iran or North Korea 20 F-35s to convince them to give up their nucular weapons.
                      SHHHHH! Don't give Hillary any ideas!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by astralis View Post
                        it's not as if the israelis were doing us a favor with no benefit to them; their own lives are on the line, which is a considerably higher interest than what the US has in the region.
                        All alliances are based on mutual self interest. There is nothing new here. Israel remains an American insurance policy in a very troubled region - where every other US "ally" is forever in danger of going the same way as the Shah of Iran. The US does not supply aid to Israel for "free". The US expects, and receives, Israel's cooperation and services in return.

                        In this particular instance, I find Obama's attempt to tie a broad security package (of which the F-35's are only a part), to Israeli concessions at the negotiating table, to be a truly cheap political trick. It reads more like it's part of some reelection campaign than a well thought out policy choice. Obama is not going to make peace in the Middle East by tossing around campaign promises and flowery speeches. The conditions aren't right, and his fantasy that another 90 days is going to change that borders on the insane. If the White House truly believes that supplying the Israelis with another 20 F-35s in seven years (which is when they'd be delivered) serves America's strategic interests, then they should do it. But it should not be tied to some pie-in-the-sky, "I hope I win a Nobel" peace parley with no chance of success.

                        Comment

                        Working...
                        X