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The Canadian J€fwish News, tliursday, December 16, 1982 - Page 9
WOLFBUTZER
WASHINGTON —
Compared to what the United States has to spend every year to defend its other allies in Western Europe and the Far East, U.S. economic and military assistance to krael is a real bargain.
That's the view of Re pub 1 i c a n S e n a t or Rudy Bosqhwitz of Minnesota, chairman of the Senate foreign relations subcommittee on the Middle East.
*'It is a metziyeh," he insisted, using the Yiddish word for bargain.
The popular senator, during an interview, recognized that most influential people in Washington do not make this analogy, largely because U.S. assistance to the. other allies is basically included in the massive defence budget of the Pentagon. American economic and military assistance to Israel, on the other hand, is contained in the worldwide foreign aid bill.
To put the grants and loans slated for Israel into their proper perspective, he said, they should be compared to what the United States has to shell out annually to protect Western Europe and Japan.
What he would very much like to do is move the annual U.S. economic Jand military assistance package to Israel from the overall foreign aid legislation to the defence budget "where it /belongs.". (That is most unlikely to happen since the administration knows that without Israel, the aid bill would ' never pass.)
In the pending foreign aid bill, the Reagan administration has recommended that Israel receive $1.7 billion in military assistance. Of ; that sum j the administration proposed that $500 million be in the form of an outright grant : and the rest in the form of interest-free loans. Pro-Iisrael. legislators; in the House and Senate have moved to increase the grant portion of the assistance to $850 milUon or half of the totaJ ''ambuht.;;;..:
:0n the e.cpnomic. side, the admiriistratipn has recommended that Israel receive $785 million — two-thirds as grants, the remaining Orie- third as a loan. In Cohgress, there has been a move; to , iricrease the overall sum to $910 million and to make it all a grant.
That may seem like a lot of money, Boschwitz
said, but compared to the sums allocated for the defence of Western Europe and Japan, it is very little. The senator has had his staff prepare a detailed memorandum outlining exactly how much the U.S. has to spend on its other allies. TheTigures, simply put, are staggering.
Under secretary of state for political affairs Lawrence Eaglebnrger, during questioning by Boschwitz before the foreign relations committee on Nov. 30, estimated that the United States cost for protecting Europe in actual cash outlays comes to between $50 to $80 billion a year.
John Hopkins University political science professor David Calleo, writing in the spring 1981 issue of Foreign Affairs, estimated that $81 billion was spent by the U.S. on NATO defence in 1981.
The Boschwitz memorandum said: ''A precise cost for U.S. NATO forces cannot be provided since most force, elements have more than one purpose and iJi any major confrontation with the Warsaw Pact all U.S. forces would be made available. Nevetheless. a recent U.S. response to the NATO defence planning questionnaire estimates the cost of forces committed to NATO to be approximately $81 billion or around 51 % of the total defence budget for FY (fiscal year) 1981."
That money, of course, is used to maintain some 355.600 U.S.
soldiers in Western Europe.
The same can be said of the American financial commitment to defending Japan and other allies in the Far East, where some 134,763 U.S. soldiers are stationed. It, too, is a very expensive operation, running into the tens of billions of dollars.
What is especially upsetting to Boschwitz is the fact that America's allies have consistently refused to devote as much of their financial resources to basic defence spending as has the United States. Thus, only 0.9% of Japan's Gross National Product is spent on defence.
In Western Europe, the figures are somewhat better but still much lower than in the United States. Italy devotes only 2.4% of its GNP to defence, France 3.9% and West Germany 3.2%. Britain's „ record is more impres-' sive: 5.1%.
Under the Reagan administration, the United States has increased its defence spending to nearly 6 percent of its GNP.
When Boschwitz recently made these figures known to a group of Republican senators, one of therti added pointedly: "What's more, we keep a million people employed in. Western Europe/' He was referring to the jobs created by the large American military presence there.
When compared to those large numbers spent in Western Europe and Japan, the sums
runs a negative trade! balance with the United. States, that money, in the end, usually goes to pay for American exports to Israel.
"From 1973 to 1982,'' the Boschwitz memorandum said, "Israel has received a total of $20.6 billion in economic and military aid; about one-half will be paid back; The same cannot be said for NATO expenditures. In 10 years, the Israelis received about one-fourth of what the U.S. spent on NATO in 1981 alone. And a little over
Senate Mideast committee head says: tt_______-LW
spent in Israel seem tiny. Thus, Boschwitz pointed out that of the approximately $2.5 billion in various forms of assistance slated for Israel this year, only $1.8 billion represents actual cash outlays (and that assumes that the congressional improvements in the aid package for Israel are implemented despite sharp administration opposition). 'The rest of the assistance, of course, is loans, which Israel repays with interest.
This year alone, Boschwitz said, Israel will repay the United States over $900 million in eariier loans which have come due. Over the years, Israel. has never failed to make a payment to the United States. Between 1973 and 1982, Israel repaid the United States $5,072 billion.
Because Israel is repaying the United Staes over $900 million this year alone, he added, the net cash outlay to Israel (assuming the foreign aid package is passed with the improvements for Israel) will be only $900.
Finally, the senator said, all of the military grants will be spent in the United States for Israel defence purchases, thereby assist-ihg U.S. industry and creating jobs for Americans.
. Oyer the years, the U.S. has permitted Israel to spend the economic grants within Israel, but since Israel annually;
one-sixth- of what the U.S. will spend in FY 1983 on NATO."
Boschwitz acknowledges that Israel, at times, can be a "prickly" ally. But, he insists, so are America's other allies — usually much more irritating than the Israelis.
Japan, for example, has an $18-$20 billion positive trade balance with the United States. "The Japanese, when it comes to trade, are an extremely difficult ally to deal with, "he said. That
U.S. trade deficit with Japan alone, Boschwitz pointed out, directly impacts; on America's large-scale unemployment problems.
"Israel is riot putting anyone out of work in the United States," he said. "Israel is not. creating vast trade deficits for the United States."
What's more, he added, Israel is certainly doing its share in providing for the security of the West. Israel devotes nearly 30% of its GNP to defence spending.
National Commander and Col. Senator David A. CroU Q.C.; the National Executive, and the members of all component Posts of the
JEWISH WAR VETERANS OF CANADA
express their deepest sorrow on the untimely passing of
LT. Gm (Ses.) HAIM LASKOV y
in Tel Aviv, Israel December 8, 1982 . Kislev 22, 5743
General Laskov was President of the Israel War Veterans League. He had a distinguished career in the Israeli Defence Forces and was a mentor and an inspiration to Jewish war veterans throughout the world.
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