Portland, Oregon's Human Rights Commission Voted to BDS Companies in Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                 

Portland's Willamette Week's headlines were:

Portland’s Human Rights Commission Sparks Anger With Vote to Divest of Companies in Israel

Oh, they are so smart, the HRC Human Rights group in City Hall..

 Human Rights Commissioners are appointed by the Portland City Council.   The Human Rights Commissioners are volunteers who work without pay.   They had 2 people on their committee who voted for BDS against Israel and chatter is they didn't even know what they were voting for.  Since then they have renounced their votes but are not allowed to do so by the Human Righters.  Once you've voted, you've had it!

Portland is going wild.  This Portland government council dumped all their Walmart bonds.  Not appropriate for them.  Politically incorrect company. 

 "The idea, championed by City Commissioner Steve Novick, led to Portland City Hall last December expanding its "do not buy" list of corporations in which it refuses to invest its $940 million portfolio. That list currently includes Wal-Mart and fossil-fuel companies such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

                                                                           

Barzeli Medical Center in Ashkelon, Israel, Portland's sister city.  This city has suffered greatly from rockets, mortars and missiles from Gaza.  They've had to move underground to do surgeries quite often.  They care for Arabs as well as Jews.  

A step further to controlling Israel came their way.  "Earlier this month, the Portland Human Rights Commission, an independent offshoot of the city's Office of Equity and Human Rights, endorsed a proposal that would ask the city to grow its "do not buy" list—to include companies that activists say play a role in the state of Israel's occupation of Palestine."

As a teacher and  student of history and a publisher of 3 blogs defending Israel and her rights to exist, I am appalled!!  Their history of Israel and their knowledge is worse than a 1st grader. 

 Israel is a legitimate state and there NEVER WAS A STATE OF PALESTINE!  And these people are making blind votes pertaining to the existence of Israel!  Evidently we have several left wing anti-Israel groups in town today.  "Bob Horenstein of the Jewish Federation   says the true goal of groups such as Occupation-Free Portland", one of them, " is to undermine Israel. 
 "This has nothing to do with human rights," says Bob Horenstein of the Jewish Federation.. "It is yet another attempt by the boycott/divestment/sanction movement to de-legitimize the state of Israel and demonize the supporters of the state of Israel."  

So all the Jews assembled yesterday afternoon at 4pm were demons, to the Human Rights Commission, including a few rabbis.   Israel has been legitimate in 1922 to the League of Nations and in 1948 to the United Nations, and yet after 67 years it still has to defend itself.  

I was born and raised in Portland, and this is the first time such anti-Semitism has shown itself, to come down on Israel in such a way. 

The BDS Movement stands for Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning somebody you are tying to control and change.  It's an unsuccessful effort to isolate Israel and create new Boycotts against the only democratic state in the Middle East. 

The first reference I've noticed is to BDS G4S, a British security company that provides equipment and services to Israel's 5 prisons.  Political prisoners are held there.  The BDSers claim they are held without trial and are tortured.  By being the supplier of goods and service, the demonstrators against this company claim they are participating in Israel's use of torture and holding them in prisons.  More than 6,000 Palestinians are held this way to discourage them from resisting Israel's apartheid policies.

None of these claims are true, including the accusation that Israel is an apartheid state.  Quite the opposite is true.  1.7 million Arabs are citizens.  Arabs serve in the Knesset.  Everyone votes.  

  This is what happens in Israel:

1. Proper custody and internment resources - improvement in the living conditions with the goal of reaching international standards, through optimal utilization of resources and development of alternatives to imprisonment.

2. Corrections - maximum utilization of the period of imprisonment to efficiently treat the offenders in order to enable them to successfully reintegrate into society.

Security Prisoners

There are some 4,500 security prisoners and detainees incarcerated in the Israel Prison Service, about 50% of whom are considered prisoners “with blood on their hands.” These prisoners include men, women and minors.

Among the security prisoners one finds senior members of Palestinian terrorist organizations, terrorists who were on their way to a suicide mission and were apprehended by the defense forces; dispatchers; attack planners; those responsible for preparing the explosives, etc. As the primary incarceration authority, the Israel Prison Service is responsible for the incarceration of these prisoners, while accommodating their basic needs in accordance with the law.

 B'Tselem - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, tells a more accurate report than the Portland council.  Their report is on Gaza of which holds Palestinian terrorists who have been shelling Southern Israel for years, through the past 2 Intifada at least since 2001.  Far from being tortured, the criminals; terrorists and all, are paid by the PA for being in prison. 

Hamas from Gaza, terrorist

According to the PA  more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners (as of December 2012) serving time for terror-related offenses are recipients of PA salaries. This means that Palestinians convicted of crimes such as theft do not receive a salary, but Hamas and Fatah terrorist murderers do. 

 The Israeli Police noted that since 13 April 2008 the police is no longer responsible for any prison facilities(thereafter, the responsibility of the Prisons Service). The police no longer hold Palestinian detainees, other than for interrogation purposes." They are questioned.  That's it.  The police are not like those in Syria or any other Middle East country.  
                                                                 

"Updated: 

  14 Oct 2015

At the end of August 2015, 5,373 Palestinian security detainees and prisoners were held in Israeli prisons, 341 of them from the Gaza Strip.* An additional 977 Palestinians were held in Israel Prison Service facilities for being in Israel illegally, 13 of them from the Gaza Strip. The IPS considers these Palestinians – both detainees and prisoners – criminal offenders. A few dozen other Palestinians (we do not have precise figures) are held in IDF facilities for short periods of time. The following data were provided by the military and by the IPS."

" In January 2015, the PA Ministry of Finance announced that the PA budget includes ‎transfer of salaries to prisoners in Israeli jails who were from Gaza. [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, ‎Jan. 6, 2015] This openly contradicts the PA claim that the PA no longer pays salaries ‎to prisoners.‎"  When they are released, the PA pays them anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000.  

Students who protested and were for BDS in London were made up of many Arabs, I noticed.  All the women pictured were wearing scarves.  Politics against Israel are showing.  

There have been a lot of terrorists trying to kill Jews, and many of these have been a slaughter, horrible murders against Israelis.  

Portland invests with the farming company of Caterpillar. That's one company out of 4 they are divesting from.   "The city isn't currently invested in Motorola, Hewlett-Packard or G4S. It is invested in Caterpillar, and does buy products from the companies, including fire equipment from Motorola paid for with money fromPortland's $72.4 million fire bond issue, which voters approved in 2010.  

"The Human Rights Commission didn't do their homework," says the federation's Horenstein. "The fact that they could consider a controversial issue like this without reaching out to the mainstream Jewish community is mystifying."  Evidently the meeting yesterday went pretty badly.  All the board wanted was reasons WHY they should not invest and they felt they didn't hear them.  It didn't make any difference, since it seems they already had made up their vote before the meeting had started. 

 The meeting was called for one building, and then changed a couple of hours before they were to start in another building about 8 blocks away.  It's amazing at least about 50 people made it there and wanted to have a chance to speak. 

 Human Rights?  Where are the rights of Israelis against a mob of uneducated and highly biased people  bent on doing BDS to fracture the  economy  of Israel  ?  

" The Jewish Federation of Greater Portland has accused the volunteer group of legitimizing a campaign that could foster anti-Semitism, and Mayor Charlie Hales has said he would block the effort to divest from the four companies."  I certainly hope he succeeds.  

I see from the article by the Human Rights Commission that the Sabeel Movement is mentioned.  This is a religious movement. "The  Sabeel Movement,  connected to the Presbyterians who is working hard to delegitimatize Israel and refuses to see that its goals amount to anti-Semitism.  Their creed and teachings have also reached the Methodists, I'm afraid.  They both are groups that believe in the replacement theory of Christianity in that Israel is no longer important and has been replaced by them.  This is the motivation behind their being against Israel so much.  Some peace movement they are.  They are nothing but a strictly anti-Semitic group.  

"For those of you who may want to “relive” the Portland Human Rights Commission meeting or see it for the first time, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9ybZ3UuTv8 . Our effort to persuade the HRC to reconsider their misguided endorsement of a BDS proposal to boycott or divest from four companies doing business in Israel failed by a vote of 6 to 5. We are awaiting word from the mayor’s office on next steps to ensure that this goes no further." from Michael and Bob H. 

Update: 11/11/15,  from the commission, advertizing Sabeel (anti-Semitic religious group) . 

http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/attacks-on-israel-with-and-without.html

http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-sabeel-movement-is-harming-israel.html

11/11/15  http://fosna.org/occupation-free-portland-  

The mayor of London thinks BDS people are fools.  http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-mayor-of-london-just-proved-that-bds-supporters-are-fools/?omhide=true&utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Allen+West%27s+Message+to+all+Those+Still+Willing+to+Stand+up+for+Freedom&utm_campaign=20151110_m128177901_11%2F10+Today%27s+Israel+Connection%3A+Allen+West%27s+Message+to+all+Those+Still+Willing+to+Stand+up+for+Freedom&utm_term=mayor-of-london_png_3F1447136493

update-1 Update: Does the commission want to also boycott this?  It's something to help people with eye problems.    It's made in Israel.  https://www.facebook.com/israelmakingtheworldabetterplace/videos/477540789084466/?fref=nf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6K08RFRQs facts about Israel

Additional note: > 

> Jewish Boycott - Very informative (Read to the end)

>

> A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khomenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people.

>

> In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

>

> "Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.

>

> "A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.

> Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.

>

> If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew. If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege.

>

> Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.

>

> Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.

> Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the "Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.

>

> "Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Jewish Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.

>

> They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.

>

> "Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.

>

> Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

>

> "In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott."

>

> Oh, and by the way, don't call for a doctor on your cell phone because the cell phone was invented in Israel by a Jewish engineer.  

This is also posted on my Jewish Bubba blog.  

Reference:  http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/g4s
https://www.portlandoregon.gov/oehr/62221?
http://www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners
http://mops.gov.il/ENGLISH/CORRECTIONSENG/Pages/IPS.aspx
http://ips.gov.il/Web/En/Default.aspx
http://www.wweek.com/2015/10/28/portlands-obscure-human-rights-commission-sparks-anger-with-israel-palestine-vote/
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/1.611971
https://t.e2ma.net/message/gepgq/kxahhk HRC's endorcement of BDS
http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=1005 Palestinian prisoners being paid by PA
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4454760,00.html PA pays upon release huge sum
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.634334 how other countries keep terrorists
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2015/06/palestinian-backed-bds-movement-abetted.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/attacks-on-israel-with-and-without.html  (Sabeel) 

Ukraine's Massacre of Jews-Worse Than Nazis

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                 

The Chmielnicki Massacre in Ukraine from 1648 to 1649 beats anything I've ever read about massacres.  The behavior of the Cossacks, led by Bohdan or Bogdan Chmielicki/ Khmelnitsky was to begin a series of campaigns by instigating the uprising of the Cossacks against the Jews.

 Chmielicki told people that the Polish had sold them as slaves "into the hands of the accursed Jews."  The Cossacks, a military class of Ukranian-southern Russians were so angry when they heard this that they massacred tens of thousands of Jews during 1648-49 in a war that would later be known as among the worst of that time period.  To me, it's the worst of any time on earth.  Barring the recent reports out of Syria of a Syrian eating the heart of another Syrian enemy, this description of what happened in Ukraine is the most  barbaric that I have ever heard.    This leader, Bogdan, was against Polish landowners, the Catholic clergy and the Jews.  Hundreds of Jewish communities were annihilated and hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed brutally.
                                                                         

                                                       Where Chmielnicki Massacres Took Place

One result was that the horror of this massacre sent a shock wave throughout Jewry and the consequent messianic impulse served to gather support for Shabbetai Tzevi, considered a false messiah.  One was certainly needed after this experience.  The gentile Ukrainians regarded Chmielnicki as a national hero.

At the close of the 16th century there were about 45,000 Jews out of the 100,000 Jews were lived in Poland living in the eastern region where Ukrainian Catholics lived.  Before the massacre, they had increased to about 150,000.  In the census of 1764, 258,000 Jews were listed, but it is known that their number was over 300,000.

From the Jewish Virtual Library are excerpts describing eyewitness accounts of the atrocities that took place in regions of Mogila, Zaslav and Nemirov from 1648 to 1651; 3 years of hell.
                                                                         

The Cossacks wanted to free Ukraine from Polish domination and to be the rulers themselves.  In Mogila 700 Jews with their wives and children were slaughtered.  Some were cut into pieces.  Others were ordered to dig graves where Jewish women and children were thrown in and buried alive.  Jews were given rifles and ordered to kill each other.  Cossacks surrounded young women and cut their clothes off their bodies and then performed abominations on them until they died screaming.  It was probably gang rape.  Cossacks came dressed as Poles to get in through the gates of the fortress and massacred about 6,000 townspeople.  They drowned several hundreds in water.  In the synagogue before the Holy Ark they slaughtered people with butcher knives.  Afterwards they destroyed the synagogue and took out all the Torahs and books and tore them up then laid them out for men and animals to trample.  They also made sandals out of them and several other garments.

Some were skinned alive and the flesh was thrown to the dogs to eat.  Some had their hands and limbs chopped off and their bodies thrown on the highway to be trampled on by wagons and crushed by the horsses.  some had wounds inflicted and were then thrown on the street to die a slow death.  They tore open women and whipped them, forcing them to crawl to their deaths while others were buried alive.  The cossacks slaughtered infants in their mothers' laps.  They were sliced into pieces like fish.  The infants were hung on the breasts of their mothers.  some children were pierced with spears.

Jews had moved to Ukraine from Poland's western provinces.  This was due to the economic opportunities because Poland was expanding with the consolidation of Poland-Lithuania.  By the end of the 15th century, between 20,000 and 30,000 Jews were living in 60 communities throughout Poland-Lithuania, mostly in cities.  Ukraine became the center of Jewish life in the area of Poland-Lithuania.  Ukraine was part of it.

Life in Poland-Lithuania wasn't easy for Jews.  The Catholic  church continued  to pressure nobles to punish and limit Jewish influence.  The nobles were on the spot as they saw the economic contribution made by Jews in society.  Jews became prominent in the trade business of Ukraine.  They sold dye, cloth, horses, cattle and estates.  They were ones who had connections with other Jewish communities in the Ottoman Empire and served as liasons between the east and the west in economic trade.  What Jews were known for was the job they had with the Polish government:  collectors of customs, duties and taxes for the Polish landlords, bankers and physicians.  There were so many things they were not allowed to do, and this was one bestowed up them because the Christians didn't want the job.

The Jews prospered as they didn't throw their money away on drinking or gambling, and thus anti-Semitism grew.  The lower classes of Ukrainian Cossacks saw Jews as workmen for the nation's wealthy landowners and accused Jews of robbing the wealth of poor people to better enrich themselves.  By the end of the 16th century, Poland tried to get more control over the Ukrainian Cossacks by rising up against them along with the Jews in the Chmielnicki Massacre.

Such hated!  Such violence for a people.  Where did it come from?

In 965 CE, the Khazar Empire, which had experienced a shift of the royal family to convert to Judaism, had become a haven for Jews escaping persecution.  The Russians ransacked its capital.  By 1241 the Khazars were defeated by the Mongol invasion which also devastated all of Poland.  Poland recruited immigrants from Germany and promised to help them settle in villages and towns.  German Jews who had ancestors who suffered from the Crusaders in 1200 and then the Black Death in 1300, immigrated to Poland.  There were Jews already living in Poland, and they shared a heritage with the new immigrants.  This is when Yiddish was developed which was a mixture of Middle German, Hebrew, Polish and German-Hebrew and beame the Ashkenazi national Jewish language.

Resource: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/ukraine.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0020_0_20168.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9IRn5b0aik&feature=youtu.be Syrian atrocity
Update 3/7/14:  http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/100-ukrainian-jews-want-to-make-aliyah-settle-in-judea-and-samaria/2014/03/07/

Financial Connection Between Israel and the USA

Nadene Goldfoot

The United States just had a close call with their finances and are still working on improving their budget plans.  It has had to borrow money from China.  Whether or not to tax the richer population more is argued about constantly, and so far it hasn't had to happen.

Israelis are among the most highly taxed people in the world.  They pay up to 48% of their income in taxes.  This country's average gross annual income for a family of four was about $16,800 between 1984 and 1992.  I was a teacher with 22 years of experience and after retraining for 10 months in Israel obtained a teaching position in 1981 with a take-home paycheck of about $300 per month.  I opted to live in a government apartment and paid $8 per month rent.  It was a shell and had absolutely nothing in it.  I was able to get my 13 year old neighbor to build me a counter for my teeny kitchen out of the crate our belongings arrived in as wood was so scarce.  I used oil cloth to cover it.  Thinking of the $20,000 per year income I had left behind in the USA made me wonder about my sanity at times.  That had been much better than what I would have made in Idaho or Texas, but nothing like what teachers were making in New York or Alaska.  I had given it all up to live as a modern pioneeer in order to spread the English language so that people could understand each other.  Besides that, Israel was born in my life time and I felt the responsibility to do all I could to help it along. 

Jews from all over the world have moved to Israel to join Jews  who had never left there.  This is the in-gathering spoken of as something miraculous that would happen. Jews  have made many sacrifices in order to see Israel continue to live. 

The USA has been its big brother and has helped immensely.  Being the USA is the 3rd largest country in the world made of from 3,717,813 square miles to 3,794,100 square miles, depending on the source, it is monsterous compared to the  7,992 square miles making up Israel.  Portland, Oregon consists of 2,000 square miles.  Teeny Israel is only 263 miles long and from 9.3 miles to all of 71 miles wide in places.  Judea and Samaria together are 2,270 square miles.  East Jerusalem is 27 square miles and the Golan Heights is 444 square miles.  On top of this, over half of Israel is the Negev Desert which takes up 4,633 square miles of Israel's land, not mentioning the Judean Desert as well that touches on Jordan.  Israel is slightly smaller than New Jersey, which is America's 47th smallest state of 8,721 square miles.   

Israel has had a huge defense burden since its inception making about 20% of their budget expenses.  Israelis saw their standard of living slowly decline when they experienced Russians arriving by the thousands from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia.  They hadn't been allowed to practice their religion.  People could be jailed for studying Hebrew.  I lived in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985.  My Ulpan was made up of many Russian immigrants.  During that time Ethiopians also arrived in 3 airlifts. From 1977 to 1985 16,000 Ethiopians immigrated.  These Falashas or Beta Israelis  also were being persecuted for being Jewish.   Up to 1989 400,000 Jews entered Israel from Russia.  This was the reason for its creation;  to give Jews a haven of safety from hatred of the world.  The Israeli citizens accepted great sacrifices to facilitate these immigrants to be integrated into their society. 

Oil fields in the Sinai were given up for the sake of peace with Egypt, forgoing the chance to become energy independent.  As the oil prices vary, so does their economy.  Today  gas and oil has been found off shore, discovered by Noble out of Texas among others.  Measures are being taken to be able to make use of this one day.

In 1985 Israel created a stabilization program which meant:

1. A large cut in subsidies on basic products and services

2. Devaluation of the shekel followed by a stable exchange rate against the dollar.

3. Wage and price controls and the ending of direct indexing of wages and savings to inflation

4. Policy controlling the growth of credit which drove interest rates up. 

The New York Times described Israel's sacrifices and the stabilization program as "Everybody takes a step backward--together.  Up till then the shekel's value varied by the minute.  People were obsessed in knowing the value before they did a thing.  This is one thing that Americans haven't ever had to contend with; value of their money compared to the dollar. 

The stabilization program worked!  Inflation fell from triple digits to about 20% annually.  The shekel stabilized and foreign currency reserves recovered.  Exports increased and the budget deficit shrunk.  The government continued to slash subsidies on food and public services like health care and education.  They removed price controls and reformed the tax structure.  This was painful and did create inflationary pressure, but everyone saw the need. 

By 1990 a new economic program began to pay for the absorption of Soviet Jews which raised taxes and  freed capital and foreign-currency markets  in order to stimulate private investment and to create jobs.

Israel is one of the few USA foreign aid recipients that has taken the USA advice to make major reforms in its economy.  It's one of the most open markets for USA goods.  In 1985 the Free Trade Agreement allowed USA goods to compete equally with Europe's goods.  Canada and Mexico have now joined the group.  Exports to Israel have doubled and trade between USA-Israel has gone up 44% to over $5 billion.  It means more sales and profits for American exporters.  Israel is 2nd only to Canada in per-capita imports of USA products.  

Israel received $1.8 billion in foreign Military Financing.  More than 80% of this money was spent in the USA which generates profits and jobs.  Hundreds of contracts go on between the two countries of USA and Israel.  1,000 companies in 47 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico had signed contracts worth more than $4.2 billion.  Among the states were:

New York:  $901,257,199

California:     405,193, 420

Florida:        249,177, 540

Maryland      89, 957, 587

Wisconsin     41,429,  003

Oregon           6,119,  409 

USA grants to Israel ended way back in 1959, 11 years after its birth.  From then on until 1985, financial aid was largely in the form of loans which Israel repaid.  Israel also bought surplus commodities.  Israel began buying arms in 1962 from the USA.  It did not receive any grant military assistance until after the 1973 Yom Kippur War.  Then Israel went into great debt to finance its economic development and to be able to buy arms.  In 1972 Israel received a $50 million dollar grant for economic assistance.  All aid became grants in 1985 which amounted to the same amount of money Israel must repay on the interest on loans from earlier years which was more than $1 billion annually.  Military aid was converted to grants  because the prevailing view in Congress was that without a strong Israel, war in the Middle East was more likely and that would cause the USA to face higher financial problems.  In 1990 USA gave $400 million in loan guarantees to help Israel house newcomers.  Guarantees are not grants.  No money was transferred to Israel.  This meant that the USA cosigned loans for Israel that allowed it to get more favorable financing from private American banks.  Israel never defaulted on its loans, so it had no impact on American taxpayers.   No USA foreign assistance can be used beyond Israel's pre-1967 borders.  Israel has had to give a full detailed report on the money spent from all USA assistance.  It also gave the USA written assurances that it would not settle Soviet Jews in Gaza, Judea or Samaria.  This was no problem  at all for Israel as most all Russian Jews preferred to settle in the Tel Aviv areas anyway.  According to a 1991 State Department report, only 1.2% of Russians chose to live there. 

Why bother with this teeny state of Israel?  Why care about the birth of the world's only Jewish state?  General Omar Bradley saw reason besides President Harry S. Truman.  In 1952 Bradley foresaw the West needing 19 divisions to defend the Middle East and Israel could supply 2 of them.  The West would need   air power and could then depend on only Great Britain, Turkey and Israel.  The USA didn't take his advice, opting to work with Egypt and then Iraq instead.  They feared that Israel's presence would alienate the Arabs.  In 1967 after Israel won the 6 Day War, they revised their thoughts.  Then the Phantom jets were sold to Israel.  Instead of just trying to keep a balance, they finally thought to give Israel an edge over its enemies. In 1970 Israel helped in bolstering Jordan's King Husseins's regime, an Arab country.  Israel aided Amman, Jordan  and this persuaded Syria to withdraw their tanks which were there to support the PLO (Fatah Palestinians).  Besides this, a message was sent to the Soviets that USA squadron leaders from the 6th Fleet could land in Israel.  Now the USA realized that the Arabs would not help them.  We have had cooperation and joint ventures in research and development of many weapons systems.  Joint exercises and exchanges of information continues.  America's Gulf War involved using Israel-produced weapons and intelligence.  Today cooperation includes Israel intelligence on fighting terrorism as well. 

Reference: Myths and Facts, a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by Dr. Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb 1992

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ejhist.html  on Ethiopia

http://www.investingdaily.com/id/18232/israels-huge-natural-gas-discovery.html
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/obameter/promise/133/provide-30-billion-over-10-years-to-israel/

Palestinians Dependant on the Dole- Rug Now Pulled Out

Nadene Goldfoot
For the Past 63 years the Palestinian people have lived in a state of being on the dole-dependent on money given to them from various sources like the UN, USA, and even Israel.

70% of Fatah's money comes from Israel who warned them last week that they can't keep giving them money if it's going to be used by Hamas and therefore against Israel.  Because Fatah and Hamas have unified themselves once again, Israel's $88 million dollars collected from customs and levee taxes will not be going to them. 

The result is that both Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank) cannot pay their 150,000 employees.  They're going to try to force Israel to pay it. 

What country in their right mind would hand over money to be used for weaponry against them?  None that I know of.  Abbas should have considered this a week ago. 

Resource:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110501/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_taxes