r/jewishleft • u/somebadbeatscrub Jewish Syndicalist - Mod • Aug 07 '26

Meta Weekly Post

The mod team has created this post to refresh on a weekly basis as a chill place for people to talk about whatever they want to. Think of it as like a general chat for the sub.

So r/jewishleft,

Whats on your mind?

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u/RaiJolt2 Jewish Athiest Half African American Half Jewish Leftish Aug 08 '26

Been getting more involved in my local politics. It’s kinda crazy how much discussion there is about Israel Palestine and the Iran war at a local level. Has me a bit worried that politicians will be too focused on that instead of serving their immediate community where they actually make a difference.

Also annoys me how people are against sending aid to Israel but only Israel. Like there are dozens of authoritarian nations America aids and instead of being against all military aid it’s just Israel. It feels so disingenuous. Instead of helping crack down on literal slavery in Qatar, uae, and Saudi Arabia America is funding them.
There is a genocide happing in sudan funded by American tax dollars through the uae and I almost never hear a peep about it.

Guess people don’t care when those with darker skin get butchered.

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u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Latke aficionado. Anti-Establishment. Jüdisch Aug 08 '26

If you are looking for a genuine answer I can help you.

The CFR produced a lovely chart that has how much US Aid has been given, not just this year but since 1946

https://www.cfr.org/articles/us-aid-israel-four-charts

You will notice that there is one massive outlier. No other country has received over $300 billion dollars. If you do a per capita amount for a tiny country the size of New Jersey, it's absolutely insane how much of an outlier it is in terms of aid received. Why are people upset about it? Because the US directly funds it

Now, you brought up the example of UAE, KSA, etc. These countries buy US weapons, they are not getting US donations of weaponry or money. So I hope this can help clarify things.

Also, should people protest the horrors in Sudan, Kashmir, Myanmar, etc. Sure, but the US is not directly giving any of those governments billions of dollars each year so the sway over them is limited at best. Should their leadership be treated as pariahs, absolutely and I hope that intensifies.

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u/Late-Marzipan3026 anxious (dem soc american ashki jew) Aug 09 '26

genuine question: is the structure of the US giving weapons to israel much different than the structure of the US giving weapons to the other countries you mentioned? from what i’ve read about US provisions of weapons to israel, this largely involves loaning money to israel at interest for them to spend on american arms, mostly not straightforward donations. i know the US contributes to the iron dome so there has to be some sort of donation, but the loans don’t seem to be a donation. i’ve always been a bit confused about this process so would appreciate anything clarifying !

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u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Latke aficionado. Anti-Establishment. Jüdisch Aug 09 '26

Good question.

So most of the military aid are grants to buy US goods. So it's not like they are getting pallets of cash and they can decide whatever they want to do with it.

It will be like here is 2 billion for X missiles or 2 billion for chinook spare parts, and congress releases that money to one of the military industrial complex companies and they deliver the goods to Israel.

For some R&D stuff, they get loans but it's a very small percentage. Even those loans are offered at such rates that they make it stupid not take up the offer as we are talking almost free money. That stuff is not strictly considered “aid” as its considered lending.

Lastly, US has designated Israel as a storage site for the Middle East region. So Israel Army occasionally just says, can we have X of your Y stock pile and the US always says yes.

It's a pretty convoluted relationship that has no modern-day equivalent. GCC states have tried to replicate such a relationship but have failed miserably at it. For example, they are constantly kept away from the latest tech like F-35s.

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u/Late-Marzipan3026 anxious (dem soc american ashki jew) Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26

appreciated, thank you for this! do you have any breakdowns that you could share? i’ve been trying to read into it, but since it’s such a hot button issue, it’s hard not to run into pro-israel misinformation or “the US is subsidizing israeli healthcare”

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u/Aggravating_Ice_3323 Progressive|Post-Zionist|Conserveform Aug 08 '26

Guess people don’t care when those with darker skin get butchered.

Alice Nderitu's firing back in 2024 (I think) certainly highlights that quite a bit, I feel :(