War's Economic Toll: For Whom, Exactly?
The piece focuses on Israel's struggle, but skips over the '$14.3 billion for Israel' in supplemental aid passed by the US Senate just last fall (H.R. 815). This funding arrives amidst Israel's self-imposed economic ‘headwinds,’ providing a rather robust tailwind from abroad. While French viewers are asked to commiserate, they might miss that US Representative Greg Stanton, who received $10,000
from AIPAC in 2022, voted for this aid package, ensuring the 'headwinds' don't become a storm. It seems some nations can afford a prolonged 'two years of war' when another nation is footing the bill. One might wonder if these 'economic headwinds' would be quite so manageable without a constant infusion of foreign capital. Perhaps the real fiscal struggle belongs to the American taxpayers, whose
dollars are exported to fund a conflict rather than address their own domestic 'headwinds.' How many decades of 'war' can be sustained when the bill goes to someone else?