It usually takes a crisis to show who your real friends are. Writer Mitchell Plitnick joins us to talk about how Middle East despots are suddenly jockeying to make sure their own interests are protected if not enhanced in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Even Israel, which gets $3 billion in US taxpayer dollars each year, is threading needles to avoid hurting its own relationship with Moscow. We talk about that as well as Biden's attempt to square his "democracies versus autocracies" campaign with Washington's embrace of the Middle East despots. Dan and Kelley also speculate about Biden's "regime change" declaration last weekend: gaffe or trial balloon?
$3 billion to Israel? Maybe in 1990. Israel contractually gets $4.2 billion per year as a base. Then there’s a contractual supplemental of about $700 million per year in Funding for Iron dome, which US funded but for some reason does not control. So let’s call it a $5 billion/yr military base and then you have to add the 100s of millions in “economic cooperation” aid, etc. at least $6 billion/yr in hard dollar transfers from American taxpayers.
$3 billion to Israel? Maybe in 1990. Israel contractually gets $4.2 billion per year as a base. Then there’s a contractual supplemental of about $700 million per year in Funding for Iron dome, which US funded but for some reason does not control. So let’s call it a $5 billion/yr military base and then you have to add the 100s of millions in “economic cooperation” aid, etc. at least $6 billion/yr in hard dollar transfers from American taxpayers.