Published at Open the Books Substack

Israel has enjoyed generous support from the United States for nearly 75 years. Since 1951, Americans have given $305.4 billion in foreign aid to Israel, adjusted for inflation ($155.6 billion not adjusted for inflation). Aid has averaged around $4 billion a year since 2004.

 

But unlike what some critics would have us believe, our aid to Israel has been a miniscule amount of our outlays to our own defense and other domestic priorities. Since 1951, while the U.S. has spent $305 billion on Israeli aid, $218 billion of that for military and defense, we've spent $47 trillion through our own Department of Defense. In the same timeframe, the U.S. spent $42 trillion on its Social Security program, and $37 trillion between Medicare and Medicaid. (Figures are adjusted for inflation). 

 

Aid to Israel therefore would be 0.6% of the DoD spending, and 0.3% of entitlement spending.

 

Similarly, American defense spending is a fraction of Israeli defense spending. In 2023, for example, Israel spent $27 billion on its military, according to data from SIPRI. American aid to Israel that year was about $3.3 billion, or around 12% of the total.

 

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