in the middle east, No country has it's economy is under written by America to the tune of Billions of dollars every year for the last 60 years then Israel.

in the middle east, No country is so well protected by America then Israel.

we may sound like the AP class nerds to you but you still sound like the jack booted bully we have all grown to love and admire

Israel has the 14th largest economy IN THE WORLD, and they have kicked the living [censored] out of the arabs everytime the rags have gotten stupid enough to get froggy for the last 50 years

No bubbles, Isreal is where it is because of its industriousness of its people,not just because it recieves aid from the US.Not only that it is the only democracy in the middle east.

Maybe if Isreal's arab nieghbours spent less time focusing thier energy and resources on arming themselves to the teeth against Isreal and remaining in thier hatred and envy of thier jewish nieghbour, they would likely be better off economically
and politically.

"Rags"?!

The point you are making does not help your argument. Israel does have a booming economy and powerful army. But this simply means that it really does not need US financial help in billions of dollars every year, not to mention the constant flow of arms. Israel is getting paid for its strategic location to US, not because it needs it. Given the hostility between Jews in Israel and the Arabs in neighboring countries and Palestine, Israel is more like a liability than an asset.

I'm sorry, we aren't allowed to call people unpleasant names based on their nationality in here.

Oh wait a minute, yes we are. False alarm. Carry on making us proud to be Americans.

When I read hateful trash like that I wonder if you even finished high school.




That's blatantly wrong. How did you even arrive at that figure? Perhaps you meant 41st?

Stable government and possibly democracy are very important in Israel's success, yes. But let's drop this 'industriousness of the people' stuff that seems to imply non-Israelis are somehow lazy.

For the record Israel has received over $100bn in direct US aid since it was created in 1948, although at the same time the US has given aid to other countries in the region, and continues to do so. Israel has been the largest single recipient.



Intriguingly Israel is actually entitled to spend a proportion of its US aid on buying military equipment, much of which it buys from the US. Israel has spent billions of dollars buying US military equipment and technology.

Acccording to US statistics Israel has the 6th highest defence spending in the world as a proportion of GDP. By comparison, Iran is 67th and Lebanon, which Israel invaded in 2006, is 45st. Even when factoring in Iran's larger economy, Israel still spends significantly more. There are no true spending figures for the Palestine authority as Palestine is not granted status as a separate state. Israel controls much of Palestine's taxation policy and currently refuses to pay millions of dollars of Palestinian tax revenues generated since 2006. So much for the industriousness of the people.

Here's something to read for you all:

http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/10871.pdf

And I quote the first sentence out of it:

"Israel is not economically self-sufficient,
and relies on foreign assistance and borrowing
to maintain its economy. Since 1985, the
United States has provided $3 billion in grants
annually to Israel. Since 1976, Israel has been
the largest annual recipient of U.S. foreign
assistance, and is the largest cumulative recipient
since World War II. In addition to U.S.
assistance, it is estimated that Israel receives
about $1 billion annually through philanthropy,
an equal amount through short- and
long- term commercial loans, and around $1
billion in Israel Bonds proceeds."

So yes, Israel's wealth is ONLY to US funding. What industry does Israel have? They don't even have enough room to supply enough food for all their citizens, they're LOCKED into this small country, surrounded by unfriendly neighbors. How could they be self-sufficient and so militarily strong as they are today?

Israel is only still present because the US heavily supplies it with weapons and other Military equipment that are FAR superior to the neighboring Arab countries' Military equipment.

Next time you see a video of Israeli Military action, pay attention that the things they use/drive/fly, I guarantee you that they're American made.

That's because we don't have a moderator in here.

He got you there, Grubber.

This from Bank of Korea...


And Wikipedia has Israel at 49 or 50... depending on which category you look at.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)