Israel and U.S. are close to a deal on the biggest military aid package ever
A senior Israeli official will arrive in Washington next week for a final round of negotiations involving the largest military aid package the United States has ever given any country and that will last more than a decade after President Obama leaves office.
Brig. Gen. Yaakov Nagel, the acting head of Israel’s National Security Council, has been dispatched with instructions to meet with White House officials in hopes of signing an agreement “as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said this week.
That represents a striking about-face for Netanyahu, who angered the Obama administration when he mused during a February meeting with his cabinet that Israel might decide to wait and “reach an agreement with the next administration.”
Nagel’s visit signals that Netanyahu may have concluded that he won’t necessarily get a better deal than the one he can forge with Obama, with whom he has had a visibly testy personal relationship. Both countries are now eager to strike a deal before Obama’s term ends.
The Obama administration has said it is prepared to sign a 10-year “memorandum of understanding” that significantly raises the $3.1 billion a year the United States currently grants Israel under an existing agreement that expires in 2018. In addition, Congress has provided additional money for missile defense.
Over months of secret negotiations that picked up steam late last year, Netanyahu was holding out for as much at $5 billion a year, according to accounts in the Israeli news media. Israelis argued that they need to spend much more on defense in the wake of last year’s Iran nuclear deal, which is freeing up frozen Iranian assets that Israel fears may be used in part to fund Iranian aggression in the region.
One major obstacle to finalizing an agreement, however, is a dispute over where the funds can be spent.
According to U.S. and Israeli analysts familiar with the negotiations, the Obama administration is insisting on phasing out a special arrangement that has allowed Israel to spend 26 percent of U.S. aid on its own defense research, development and procurement. No other country receiving U.S. funds is permitted to do so, but it was carved out in the 1980s to allow Israel to build up its nascent defense infrastructure. With Israel’s defense industry now thriving, the administration wants to pare that back and require that more U.S. aid go to American companies providing goods and services.
The possibility that Israeli defense companies could lose hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts is already causing controversy. Critics say they fear it could impair Israel’s ability to maintain equipment that is the most advanced in the region, known as its qualitative military edge.
“It will be devastating to Israeli military industries,” said Reuven Ben-Shalom, the former head of the North America branch of the Israeli military’s strategic planning division. “It’s not only a matter of business. . . . This money, 26 percent, enables the sustainment of our qualitative military edge.”
Israelis are also said to be displeased with a U.S. position that whatever amount of money they agree on will be final and that Israel will not go to Congress requesting more money, according to reports in the Israeli news media.
As the talks have dragged on, Netanyahu started getting pressured to finalize an agreement soon so that the Israeli military could proceed with its long-term planning. Israel’s finance and defense ministers both complained publicly that the delay was creating uncertainty that made planning difficult, and they urged that the deal be completed and signed quickly.
Some analysts said there was also growing recognition that concluding the agreement with Obama carried strong symbolism.
“Though he has been a strong supporter of Israeli security throughout his term, there’s clearly a difficult relationship between Netanyahu and Obama,” said Ilan Goldenberg, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “For them to agree on this would send a signal to the world that although their personal relationship is not great, here Obama is making a down payment on 10 years of deep U.S.-Israeli security cooperation. That’s a powerful message.”
David Makovsky, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that Israelis are conscious that support for Israel is slipping in some liberal quarters and that a 10-year deal with a liberal president would make it “bulletproof.”
Makovsky also cited the “unpredictability factor” of Donald Trump as a potential successor to Obama.
“He professes his support of Israel,” Makovsky said of Trump. “But he’s also someone saying America’s broke. A bit of bird-in-the-hand would lock that in.”
The U.S. election season also has put a more subtle pressure on Netanyahu, as Israeli diplomats and advisers expressed concern that the bipartisan support Israel could always count on could erode in a super-politicized election.
“The security assistance to Israel should not become a political football, anytime, and especially during an election season,” said Sallai Meridor, who was Israel’s ambassador to the United States when the last memorandum of understanding was signed, in 2007. “It’s a prerequisite that it should be endorsed and supported by both parties. That’s very important.”
The arrival of Nagel suggests that an agreement is entering the homestretch. Netanyahu has said he hopes talks will be concluded “within a few weeks.”
Ultimately, both Obama and Netanyahu would gain political benefits from a deal, analysts say.
“It’s an exclamation point on the case the Obama administration has been making for years, that he strengthened more than ever the U.S. commitment to Israeli security,” said David Halperin, director of the New York-based Israel Policy Forum. “And it helps Netanyahu rebut criticism in recent years that he has sometimes quietly, sometimes very bluntly, sided with Republican points of views.
“It helps a bit to restore balance,” Halperin said, “to return to the notion of bipartisanship when it comes to Israel’s security.”
Eglash reported from Jerusalem.
Read more:
COMMENTS ON WHAT REAL AMERICANS REALLY THINK
This REAL AMERICAN thinks it's a great investment !
ReplyDeleteWhen is the last time Egypt and Israel went to war ?
I might add that a very solid majority of REAL AMERICANS agree with me.
I should also add that Israel faces some new problems now....Iran, aided and abetted by the idiot O'bozo and his stupid nuclear 'deal'.
DeleteExplain to US why whether or not Israel and Egypt are at war is of consequence to the US, as long as the Suez Canal remains open.
DeleteThe last ones to close it, were the Zionists.
Their aggression towards Egypt is legend.
As is their preference for "False Flag" operations.
... on 30 March 2005, Israel honoured nine Egyptian Jews recruited by its Military Intelligence as spies and terrorists, and Israel’s President Moshe Katsav presented the three surviving members of the bomber ring with certificates of appreciation.
Katsav went as far as calling them “heroes” when he said: “Although it is still a sensitive situation, we decided now to express our respect for these heroes.”
This was Israel’s official admission, after having publicly denied any involvement in the incident for 51 years, of its responsibility in the Lavon Affair, to the point of even celebrating and honouring the Jewish terrorists who had attacked American targets.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2015/04/the-lavon-affair-how-to-make-jews-look-good-and-muslims-look-bad/
Israel 200 nukes :: Iran 0 nukes
DeleteOMG! Israel is under threat! Start the presses: Send more billions. Ask no questions.
Hillary Speaks At DNC: Waives Usual $200,000 Speaking Fee
ReplyDeleteIt's On Me !
(and, she released the transcript)
New York Post nails it.....
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/07/new_york_post_nails_it_on_hillary_convention_speech.html
:)
I've noticed The Old Scow has been trying, and failing, to add a little JFK intonation to her sentences once in while. She tries to raise the pitch on the last couple of words in a sentence.....it's not (yet) as hilarious at her attempts to 'talk black' though....
DeleteI feel so sad about Quirk
ReplyDeleteHe couldn't find, try as he might, anyone here to measure up to his intellectual levels, and was frustrated, and left.
It's sad.
And I don't know what to do to help him.
I take some consolation though that he's probably back at The Barber Shop in Detroit now, listening again to Mafia tales, where all the customers have PhDs.....
Cheers !
You, can’t help him. 😊
DeleteAnd.... H er e’ s... H i l l a r y:
ReplyDeleteHillary Clinton will order a "full review" of the United States' strategy on Syria as a "first key task" of her presidency, resetting the policy to emphasise the "murderous" nature of the Assad regime, foreign policy adviser with her campaign has said.
Jeremy Bash, who served as chief of staff for the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency, said Mrs Clinton would both escalate the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and work to get Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, "out of there".
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Delete“murderous” nature of the Assad regime
DeleteHoly Fuck Batman, or as a wise man recently said, “Do you realize what you have done?”
WASHINGTON — Computer systems used by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were hacked in an attack that appears to have come from Russia’s intelligence services, a federal law enforcement official said on Friday.
ReplyDeleteAaagh yes, The Russian menace. ..WASHINGTON — Computer systems used by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign were hacked in an attack that appears to have come from Russia’s intelligence services, a federal law enforcement official said on Friday.
...A FEDERAL OFFICIAL, no less!! The Israelis and the Nattering Nebos of
Neconisim have a full Nelson on the US media and both hands in the cookie jar and “the troops are fighting the 20 year war for anyone with a brain knows for what, and they drag out the Russian bogeyman to burn another few trillion or more.
The Middle East is in ruins, the barbarians have breeched the gate and are wrecking Europe from the inside out and Clintonian Kleptocrats are waving the red flag for freedom and justice and our way of life and colonial security.
Wake up assholes, those are not shoes behind the curtain, The Russians are coming!
Please, let’s shrivel the ruby slippers and show our rulers and masters, we really are not that dumb.
DeletePretty please?
DeleteOff Topic -
ReplyDeleteThere some pro skydiver that is going to jump without a parachute from way the hell up there into what amounts to a huge fishnet !
Not sure when this new feat is to happen but will report if I see it......
In one practice run a 200 pound dummy jumper crashed right through the net to what would have been certain death if this fellow had not had the good fortune to be a dummy.....
Off to The Farmer's Market.....
Cheers !
From 25,000 ft without a 'chute....
Deletehttp://www.khou.com/news/weird/skydiver-plans-to-jump-at-25000-ft-with-no-chute-will-land-in-net/284179828
(by the way, if you want to make some Quick Quirk Buck$, go to Wal-Mart and pick up some dozens of their 25/cent ear wonder corn and sell them at the Farmer's Market for $1.00/ear...."Q" says to label them 'organic' and that it works every time)
Delete
Delete“The sad truth about bigotry is that most bigots either don't realize that they are bigots,
or they convince themselves that their bigotry is perfectly justified.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump and Russia: a web that grows more tangled all the time
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/30/donald-trump-paul-manafort-ukraine-russia-putin-ties
Under Obama 150 BILLION is set to be released to Iran, America also has lifted numerous sanctions of Iran that will allow them to sell their oil (and more) on the open market to the tune of an additional 20-30 billion a year
ReplyDeleteObama has authorized the sale of 60 billion in weapons to Arabia.
Obama has facilitated the entire inventory of Libyan weapons to groups such as Hamas & iSIS
So now, after all that Israel is going to get military aid, with the provision it be spent in America to combat the forces gourd it that America subsidizes..
Real Americans can see that the Palestinians are the same ideology as ISIS and cannot wonder why an American government would support all sorts of jihadists from the Fatah to ISIS and everything in-between.
😊
The money that will be released to Iran is Iranian funds the US has impounded.
DeleteThe money GIVEN to Israel is US funds, either taken from the tax payers or borrowed from the Chinese or other foreign sources.
To compare the two, like comparing Christians to Hindus
Once again, your lack of understanding dwarfs all other posts on the thread.
DeleteI suggest you go back to school and learn about international relations.
May I also suggest you ask Jimmy Carter WHY he started the assets of Iran be frozen since your memory seems to be lacking.
The rest of "O"rdure's rant, not even worth discussing in a point by point manner
DeleteIt has already been done, and he refuses to address any rebuttal with either truth or fact.
As for the 4 billion a year in military aid being suggested?
DeleteThe proposed USA budget offered up by Obama was 4.1 TRILLION dollars or to keep it understandable to the learning disabled like you? 4,100 BILLON dollars. Why do you suggest those dollars are borrowed for the Chinese or other sources. Yes the American taxpayers to pay for it, and they get the jobs that money supplies...
How many American jobs are created by the military aid provided to Israel?
SO Jack, you want to kill American jobs too?
So Sad Jack, could resist slinging slander at me?
DeleteNo self control? Eh?
"Jack HawkinsSat Jul 30, 02:06:00 PM EDT
The rest of "O"rdure's rant, "
The Name's What is "occupation" and if that too much for you WiO
But since you opened the door?
Let us recall your history of lies and shit.
You stalked the WRONG Jew at Chocolate Emporium for 2 years.
I called the AZ FBI for your death threats.
You bragged that you saw the confidential file on me and called me an international arms dealer.
You bragged your source inside the AZ FBI passed you information on an ongoing investigation (a federal crime)
You have bragged that you enjoy smoking pot and buy and selling guns (another crime)
You used to tell us about your association with Ollie North and other hired for action Wet Opps.
So may lies you have told us. So many distortions.
You blamed Israel on the kidnapping and murder of 3 israeli teenagers bragging it was a false flag, even after Hamas admitted it's role.
Jack, you are such a sad case narcissistic personality defect.
Jack, did you not also brag that you knocked up a chick in Central America, dragged her back to the state and within one month she fled for safety for her and her child and that you never, ever have paid a dime in the support of your daughter?
Jack, you are sick person, seek medical help, or better yet?
Throw yourself off a cliff and do the world a favor.
"Ordure, tell someone who cares ...
DeleteBut then, from the numbers at your site, no one cares.
While at mine, over 525,000 have come to visit, read and learn.
So sorry for you, not for me.
I don't measure my success in my fabricated views on a blog site.
DeleteI have kids, I have a wife, I support my family, you cannot say any of that.
So sorry you are a lonely old bitter man, no son, no daughter that loves you.
no wife...
LOL
So sorry for you, not for me.
Judging from your own words and deeds?
You support Hamas and Jihadist murderers in America and Europe.
You hate Israel, Zionism, Judaism and Jews.
So sorry for you, not for me.
So I suggest you go and buy your self some drugs and self medicate your pain away...
Your life has no meaning, you are worthless
DeleteNope, worth is measured in many ways, "O"rdure.
And my progeny are doing well, secure financially and emotionally.
While you, "O"rdure, spend your time posting things no one reads, as measured by Google, the host of your blog site.
That's the truth of whose time is wasted, folks actually READ what I write ...
You, not at all, no one is interested in the question of "Occupation, they all know the answer, which is "O"rdure.
DeleteRant on about calling the FBI.
It is comical that you think anyone cares about what you said you did, ten years ago.
That nothing ever came of it, proof positive there was no case then, no case now.
Your lies have outlifed their life cycle, "O"rdure.
While my truths gain public acceptance, even in Israel
DeleteYour lies have outlived their life cycle, "O"rdure.
How would you know if there are not watching you?
DeleteWhat is comical is that you measure your life success from worthless stats on a worthless blog.
DeleteI dont post for shit on my blog, and yet you use that to measure yourself.
LOL
The Israeli army's deputy chief of staff, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan in bombshell speech: Israel today shows signs of 1930s Germany
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/IDF-general-in-bombshell-speech-Israel-today-shows-signs-of-1930s-Germany-453142
“It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is ill – and it is our duty to treat this disease,”
- Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel
Ehud Barak accuses the Netanyahu government of establishing apartheid
http://www.voltairenet.org/article192401.html
Nicely out of context..
DeleteTypical of a Hamas supporter
DeleteNo, references to the typical conclusions come to by free thinking Jews about of fascist Zionism.
Bill would prevent LGBT discrimination at religious schools
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yahoo.com/news/bill-prevent-lgbt-discrimination-religious-schools-151603822.html
It's LGBTQ, Doug. They add another letter every few years. Next is S, then P, and maybe B or N.
ReplyDeleteI predict an “F”
Delete...in close competition with “D”
DeleteWe will soon need a rhyme to remember what they mean.
DeleteYou just jousted my brain at what they taught us at AFTC at Keesler AFB in the days of discreet electronic components. Keep in mind no one had ever heard of politically correct.
BBROYGBVGW for resistor values: The GI solution to the memory problem:
“Bad boys rape our young girls but violet gives willingly.”
Translation: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, gold, white - they relate to the number 0 through 9 and were also used for other simple code talk.
I doubt I thought about this in 40 years.
Thanks. I think.
Should have an uncircumcised "Resistor" with the appropriate LGBT color code tattooed in.
DeleteJack, who never has paid child support now claims:
ReplyDeleteJack HawkinsSat Jul 30, 03:18:00 PM EDT
Nope, worth is measured in many ways, "O"rdure.
And my progeny are doing well, secure financially and emotionally.
But notice how he CHANGES what I said to a new word...
What is "Occupation"Sat Jul 30, 02:43:00 PM EDT
I don't measure my success in my fabricated views on a blog site.
I used the term success.
He now uses the word "worth"
Jack, you are one distorting, misleading liar....
alone, as you should be...
again, please go toss your sorry ass off a cliff...
I see Jack Shit is back.
ReplyDeleteThe best most thorough mental analysis of Jack done by those of us here was written by Quirk.
A comprehensive and exhaustive analysis, the upshot was Jack desperately needs mental health interventions and help.
He needs institutionalization, at least in the medium term.
*********
Bought some really good honey at the Farmer's Market....had a huckleberry taste.....
Corn ?
$1/ear, just as I suspected it would be.....my advice ?....buy from Wal-Mart at 25-30 cents an ear....
Cheers !
out for now....
(some here have wondered whether Jack might be a danger to himself, or others. His girlfriend/wife that 'dropped the kid' in USA and then immediately fled from Jack back to the safety of her village in Central America certainly seemed to think he was....)
Delete(that woman showed some real 'grace under pressure'.....an old phrase from Hemingway....not only by securing her child USA citizenship by 'dropping the kid' here, but then in immediately fleeing to her village in Central America, thus securing the safety of both mother and child....)
Delete
Deletebobal Thu Nov 13, 01:29:00 AM EST
... the best thing to do is let the niggers abort, abort, abort themselves.
They do a good job of that.
July 29
ReplyDeleteStrikes in Syria
Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 22 strikes in Syria:
-- Near Shadaddi, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle bomb storage area.
-- Near Manbij, 19 strikes struck 19 separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 17 ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun and two ISIL vehicles.
-- Near Mar’a, two strikes struck two ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, one ISIL rocket rail and an ISIL vehicle.
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:
-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Haditha, a strike destroyed an ISIL bunker.
-- Near Hit, two strikes destroyed an ISIL supply cache.
-- Near Mosul, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed six ISIL assembly areas, six ISIL weapons caches, four ISIL vehicles, three ISIL-used roads and two ISIL command-and-control nodes.
-- Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed five ISIL rocket rails, five ISIL boats, three ISIL mortar systems and an ISIL rocket system.
July 30
DeleteStrikes in Syria
Bomber, attack, ground-attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft 12 strikes in Syria:
-- Near Manbij, 11 strikes struck 10 separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 12 ISIL fighting positions.
-- Near Mar’a, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed and ISIL vehicle.
Strikes in Iraq
Attack, bomber, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted nine strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:
-- Near Baghdadi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed five ISIL rocket rails, an ISIL bunker, and an ISIL storage facility.
-- Near Rutbah, a strike destroyed an ISIL bulldozer.
-- Near Haditha, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.
-- Near Hit, a strike produced inconclusive results.
-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck and ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL headquarters and destroyed an ISIL supply cache, an ISIL assembly area, and an ISIL mortar system.
-- Near Qayyarah, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit, suppressed ISIL mortar position and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.
-- Near Sinjar, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL mortar system and suppressed an ISIL sniper position.
ReplyDelete“It is alarming to see the American political and media establishments across the political spectrum painting Russia as the ultimate boogeyman, referring to it exclusively as a menace, a thug, or a dictatorship.”
“The same talking heads never mention the rampant crackdowns by the absolute monarchies, theocracies and ruthless strongmen allied with the U.S.,” Ms. Simonyan added.
...
“There are 10 times as many articles about Russia’s supposed involvement with the DNC emails than there are about what’s actually in the emails,” Ms. Simonyan wrote.
“Hypothetical Russia connections are being used by other Americans to discredit a major party’s nominee, and yet Russia’s the one sabotaging the process?”
...
In an interview, Mr. King, the former CNN star who now anchors a prime-time interview show on RT, said that he had never received directions on coverage from the network. He said he was surprised that Russia was now such a dominant focus of the American political conversation.
“I’m almost expecting Putin to come to America to make a speech,” Mr. King said by telephone from Los Angeles. “Obviously, Putin wants Trump to be the president. I’ve never heard that before from a Russian president.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/us/politics/russia-media-rt-dnc.html?_r=0