Israel-US Connect the Dots: Iran, Palestine, & Billions in Military Aid

On Sunday, Israel's Defense Ministry announced that Israel and the United States signed an agreement over the  Arrow III ballistic mssile shield, "The Arrow III will allow Israel to deal with the threat of ballistic missiles with long range and will give it the ability to shoot down weapons of mass destruction outside the atmosphere."

The step is a further consolidation of Israel's security institutions against the "existential threat" from Iran's long-range missiles.

However, this is not the end of the story. Two weeks ago US Assistant Secretary of State Andrew J. Shapiro said Washington intended to expand imilitary aid to Israel in the hope that West Jerusalem could reach tough decisions in its peace talks with the Palestinians. Speaking at the Brookings Saban Center for Middle East Policy in Washington D.C., Shapiro said, " In 2010, the administration requested [from Congress] $2.775 billion in security assistance funding specifically for Israel, the largest such request in U.S. history."

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Israel receives approximately $3 billion annually in foreign aid from Washington, equivalent to 2 percent of Israel's GDP and an extra $500 to every Israeli citizen. The second-largest recipient in the region, Egypt gets $20 per its citizen.

Before the 1998 Wye River Treaty, Israel received $1.2 billion for a partial withdrawal from the West Bank. Israel also received $1 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to prepare for a possible Iraqi missile bombardment in 2003 (and to be silent about that possibility).

Now, thanks to the "existential threat" of Iran, Washington is handing out billions more "incentives" for the Netanyahu government to show "real" gestures towards Palestinians, especially on the borders of a future Palestinian state, before direct negotiations.