Zionuts

[Loki]

No ones ever explained why we need a fortress there in the first place. You put a fortress in a place where there is something that needs defending, at least last time I checked. Like, if Israel is where Turkey was then, yeah, let's fund those guys - they'd be like a barbican for the Lands of civilization. But what the fuck good does Israel do down there, with it's back to the sea and surrounded by enemies? It's shit. We can't use it as a base to bomb arabs because it that would just infuriate the other arabs even further. It doesn't spread civilization to arab lands, because they just piss off the arabs so much they're probably a negative net contributor to the general civilization level in the area. Like, we say to the arabs "Hey, why do you have to be such massive douche bags all the time? Why do you stone women to death for having breasts? Why are all your regimes autocratic? What's with the death threats against writers and artists? Why do you think we'll find it a big deal when you burn our flag, and why is that your response to basically fucking everything?" they're just like HURGH BURGH HURGH ISRAEL ISRAEL ISRAEL WE'RE OPPRESSED OK instead of shuffling their feet and looking embarrassed like they should.

The original funding (at current levels) came as a result of Israel deterring Syria from invading pro-American Jordan, as well as the decreasing French support (why support Israel if the French are already doing it?). The Cold War is over, so some of the original rationale for being generous to Israel changed, but some new ones have risen. Namely A) we want Israel to play nice with their neighbors, and giving them military assistance makes them less likely to feel cornered and lash out, and B) Israel plays a role in keeping the kind of people we really don't want in power from coming to power in their immediate vicinity. Might not be the best reasons for giving Israel a few billion a year, but it's not like we have a much better rationale for throwing billions at Colombia and Egypt.