Israel largest recipient of US aid

Israel, a country of 3 million, is the largest recipient of US aid of any country in the world.

Since 1987, the US Congress has annually been approving a foreign aid bill totaling an average of $3 billion of American taxpayers' money to Israel: $1.2 billion in economical aid, and $1.8 billion in military aid.

After the 1973 war, the US aid to Israel constituted largely of military and economic grants to help strengthen the Israeli defense forces. This included $12-80 million, which was annually granted towards the establishment of Jewish settlements.

Since the gulf war in 1991, the US has additionally been offering Israel $2 billion annually in federal loan guarantees, which brings the total US foreign aid to Israel to about $5 billion, or $13.7 million per day.

Nearly all past loans to Israel have been forgiven – leading Israel to claim that they have never defaulted on repayment of a US loan – with most loans made on the understanding that they would be forgiven before Israel was required to repay them.

Other forms of aid to Israel are a result of "consequential" aid, such as the approximate $1.5 billion in total tax-deductible private donations from numerous Jewish charities and individual donors. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax deductible contributions to a foreign government (Israel) does not exist for any other country.

Including "consequential" aid to Israel this adds up to an approximate $8 billion in total US foreign aid annually to Israel.

All in all, this is the largest amount of foreign aid given to a country, and constitutes over 30% of the total amount of US foreign aid budget.

Israel’s population comprises just .001% of the world’s population and has one the world’s higher per capita incomes.

[Source: The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs]