{"article":{"id":51115,"heading":"NYC Cuts Workers, While Israel Grows Richer","author":"Liam Hughes","created":"2003-04-18 05:10:34","modified":"2013-11-10 23:52:43","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 06:52:43","article":"<p>Pat Buchanan: Cabal of (JINSA\/PNAC) US Officials Colluding with Israel to Ignite Wars: <br><br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amconmag.com\/03_24_03\/cover.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.amconmag.com\/03_24_03\/cover.html<\/a> <br><br> Published, April 16, 2003, Media Monitors Network, at: <br>  <br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediamonitors.net\/williamhughes43.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.mediamonitors.net\/williamhughes43.html<\/a> <br><br>         NYC Cuts Workers, While Israel Grows Richer <br><br>                   by William Hughes <br><br>     In a &sup3;doomsday&sup2; budget, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to cut 10,000 <br>  <br> city employees, and close 30 to 40 firehouses, unless state lawmakers bail <br>  <br> out the municipal government. His draconian contingency plan calls for $1 <br>  <br> billion in cuts. Hardest hit will be police, fire, and sanitation workers, <br>  <br> after school programs, and even the closing of two of the city&sup1;s fabled <br>  <br> zoos, one located in Queens, and the other in Brooklyn. <br><br>     Meanwhile, the extreme right wing regime of Israel&sup1;s Ariel Sharon is <br>  <br> rolling in greenbacks, thanks to the deep pockets of the heavily duped <br>  <br> American taxpayers. In the &sup3;Omnibus Appropriation Bill,&sup2; passed on Feb. 13, <br>  <br> 2003, the U.S. Congress gave the Likudnik-dominated government $600 million <br>  <br> in economic aid, $2.1 billion in military aid, plus $60 million for <br>  <br> something called, &sup3;refugee resettlement&sup2; (WRMEA, 04\/03). <br><br>     These freebees don&sup1;t include the $10 billion in loan guarantees and $4 <br>  <br> billion in additional military aid, that the Sharonists demanded in January, <br>  <br> 2003. It&sup1;s possible that even more moneys for Israel could be filtered to <br>  <br> it, via the $79 billion Iraqi War budget, in a &sup3;supplemental&sup2; anti-terrorism <br>  <br> appropriation, or some other covert budgetary device. <br><br>     Bloomberg is hoping to squeeze financial aid from the state government <br>  <br> in Albany to avoid the more drastic budget cuts. This could prove extremely <br>  <br> difficult, since New York State is running a $12 billion deficit. In order <br>  <br> for the state to help out, it would itself have to raise even more taxes. <br><br>     U.S. military loans to Israel, according to Congressional researchers <br>  <br> are &sup3;converted to grants,&sup2; and eventually &sup3;forgiven by Congress.&sup2;  This is <br>  <br> why the Israelis can boast that they have never &sup3;defaulted on a U.S. <br>  <br> government loan.&sup2; Aid to Israel is also given in a &sup3;lump sum&sup2; at the start <br>  <br> of the fiscal year, which leaves the U.S. to borrow from future revenues to <br>  <br> pay it off. Other countries, less favored, receive their aid in quarterly <br>  <br> payments. In fact, Associate Professor Stephen Zunes of San Francisco U., <br>  <br> pointed out, that &sup3;Israel even lends some of the money back through U.S. <br>  <br> treasury bills and collect the additional interest&sup2; (WRMEA.com). <br><br>     Despite all the aid to Israel over the years, Zunes said, (01\/26\/01), <br>  <br> &sup3;We are less secure than ever, both in terms of U.S. interests abroad and <br>  <br> for individual Americans. There is a growing and increasing hostility of the <br>  <br> average Arab towards the U.S. In the long term, peace and cooperation with <br>  <br> the vast Arab world is far more important for U.S. interests than this <br>  <br> alliance with Israel. This is not only an issue for those who are working <br>  <br> for Palestinian rights, but it also jeopardizes the entire agenda of those <br>  <br> of us concerned about human rights, concerned about arms control, concerned <br>  <br> about international law&sup2; (WRMEA.com). Keep in mind that Professor Zunes was <br>  <br> writing all of this before 9\/11 and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. <br><br>     Ironies abound here. No one suffered more from the 9\/11 terrorist attack <br>  <br> than New Yorkers, especially its brave police, firemen and rescue workers, <br>  <br> and their families. And, as Professor Zunes correctly predicted, the <br>  <br> increased Arab &sup3;hostility&sup2; to the U.S., as a result of our one-sided <br>  <br> favoritism towards Israel, has made all of us &sup3;less secure.&sup2; <br><br>     On top of that, we now have the mayor of NYC, ready to layoff police and <br>  <br> firemen and to close fire houses in order to balance the municipal budget. <br>  <br> Yet, federal largess to Zionist Israel, in the billions of dollars annually, <br>  <br> continues unabated, without any real consideration of its justification, or <br>  <br> its consequences to our national well-being. <br><br>     Actually, things are worse than they appear. According to Thomas <br>  <br> Stauffer, a consulting economist, aid to Israel has really cost U.S. <br>  <br> taxpayers, from 1956-2002, about $1.7 trillion. This is more than $5,700 per <br>  <br> person. In a brilliant analysis, (&sup3;Middle East Policy,&sup2; Spring, 2003), he <br>  <br> set out, in a comprehensive study, six identifiable areas of relevant and <br>  <br> connected cost: 1. Oil Crisis; 2. Military and economic aid; 3. Special and <br>  <br> ad hoc aid; 4. Lost trade and employment; 5. Energy, and; 6. Defense of the <br>  <br> Gulf, some of which is detailed below. <br><br>     At the center of the $1.7 trillion costs, Stauffer insisted, is the U.S. <br>  <br> backing of &sup3;Israel in its drawn-out, violent dispute with the Palestinians.&sup2; <br>  <br> This conflict has been caused by the refusal of the Israelis to give back <br>  <br> the land that it stole from the Palestinians, in the 1967 War (UN Sec. Res. <br>  <br> 242). So far, Stauffer figures, that &sup3;bill adds up to more than twice the <br>  <br> cost of the Vietnam War&sup2; (See also, Christian Science Monitor, &sup3;Economist <br>  <br> Tallies Swelling Cost of Israel to U.S.,&sup2; David R. Francis, 12\/09\/02). <br><br>     Stauffer&sup1;s report shows that &sup3;U.S. policy and trade sanctions reduce <br>  <br> U.S. exports to the Middle East about $5 billion a year, costing 70,000 or <br>  <br> so American jobs.&sup2; He estimates, &sup3;Not requiring Israel to use its U.S. aid <br>  <br> to buy American goods, as is usual in foreign aid, costs another 125,000 <br>  <br> jobs.&sup2; Israel had also blocked some major U.S. arms sales, such as 15 <br>  <br> fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. Stauffer indicates that <br>  <br> cost at &sup3;$40 billion over 10 years.&sup2; Fear that the Arab nations might use <br>  <br> their oil clout against us has required the U.S. to set up a Strategic <br>  <br> Petroleum Reserve. The economist set that cost, conservatively, at &sup3;$134 <br>  <br> billion.&sup2; <br><br>     Question: How much longer are the American people going to put up with <br>  <br> this gross distortion of priorities that mocks our Republic? <br><br> &copy; William Hughes 2003 <br><br>     William Hughes is the author of &sup3;Andrew Jackson vs. New World Order&sup2; <br>  <br> (Authors Choice Press) and &sup3;Baltimore Iconoclast&sup2; (Writer&sup1;s Showcase), which <br>  <br> are available online. He can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:liamhughes@mindspring.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">liamhughes@mindspring.com<\/a>. <br><br>  <br>  <br> \"The Men from JINSA and CSP\" (this is the article from \"The Nation\" which Robert Fisk mentions in the above referenced article): <br>  <br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&amp;s=vest&amp;c=1\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&amp;s=vest&amp;c=1<\/a> <br><br> Washington's Zionist Extremist hawks to reshape Mid-East for Israel:  <br>  <br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=1047\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=1047<\/a> <br>  <br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/hasen\/objects\/pages\/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=280279\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/hasen\/objects\/pages\/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=280279<\/a> <br><br> JINSA\/PNAC Zionist Extremist Cabal Planned Iraq 'Regime Change' before Bush Presidency: <br>  <br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=1970\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=1970<\/a> <br><br> Warmonger JINSA\/PNAC Zionist Extremist Perle Resigns: <br><br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=5044\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=5044<\/a> <br><br> PNAC\/JINSA Zionist Cabal (in Bush Regime) on ABC's \"Nightline\" Program: <br><br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=4267\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.itszone.co.uk\/zone0\/viewtopic.php?t=4267<\/a> <br><br> Please also visit the \"Israel\" and \"UK Involvement in War\" message boards via clicking on \"War against Terror\" after arriving at the following URL:  <br><br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.warwithoutend.co.uk\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.warwithoutend.co.uk<\/a> <br><br> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whatreallyhappened.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.whatreallyhappened.com<\/a><\/p>\n","contact":"morris434@aol.com","link":"http:\/\/www.amconmag.com\/03_24_03\/cover.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Article about How Vast Financial Aid to Israel has Contributed to US Terror Risk","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/04\/51115.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}