Qana and New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward

[question everything]

In both cases we heard the survivors who were told to evacuate but did not, that they could not or would not. Even though Israel threw leaflets warning the civilians to leave the ares they were either too poor, too sick, did not know how to leave their homes, where to evacuate, and hoped that they would be spared. Just like the residents of New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward.

No, it is not the victims' fault. It is the leaders who did not actively take steps to evacuate the elderly, the poor and the sick while facing warning signs.

Thousands of Israelis left their homes, too, moved further south. And they did not have the benefit of warning about incoming missiles.

Israel had intelligence that Hezbollah was hiding in Qana. Nothing new. As the PLO did 20 years ago, terrorists hide inside civilian homes, force them to accommodate them and pray for the 70 virgins when they die. Remember, these are people that value martyrdom more than life.

[eFriendly]

1. *cough* Bullshit. n/t

[LA lady]

2. BS again

Yes and Israel has American money to build bomb shelters, weapons and roads to get people out.

[question everything]

3. Not true

Most of the foreign aid given to Israel and to other countries has to be used to purchase arms and military equipment from the US. A large part of the profit of the military-industrial complex comes from other nations who buy its products.

Now, whatever you think of the military-industrial complex is a different story..

And Hezbollah is using Iranians, Chinese and Russian money to get weapons and to prevent people from getting out.

[LA lady]

4. How much time have you spent there?

I lived there for 17 years and did advanced degree studies on the MidEast.
Not only do they get a third of our foreign aid, they get a tremendous amount of private American money, loans that they don't have to pay back and they lend us back OUR money and charge us interest! And they are a VERY WEALTHY country.

Since 1992, the U.S. has offered Israel an additional $2 billion annually in loan guarantees. Congressional researchers have disclosed that between 1974 and 1989, $16.4 billion in U.S. military loans were converted to grants and that this was the understanding from the beginning. Indeed, all past U.S. loans to Israel have eventually been forgiven by Congress, which has undoubtedly helped Israel's often-touted claim that they have never defaulted on a U.S. government loan. U.S. policy since 1984 has been that economic assistance to Israel must equal or exceed Israel's annual debt repayment to the United States. Unlike other countries, which receive aid in quarterly installments, aid to Israel since 1982 has been given in a lump sum at the beginning of the fiscal year, leaving the U.S. government to borrow from future revenues. Israel even lends some of this money back through U.S. treasury bills and collects the additional interest.

In addition, there is the more than $1.5 billion in private U.S. funds that go to Israel annually in the form of $1 billion in private tax-deductible donations and $500 million in Israeli bonds. The ability of Americans to make what amounts to tax-deductible contributions to a foreign government, made possible through a number of Jewish charities, does not exist with any other country. Nor do these figures include short- and long-term commercial loans from U.S. banks, which have been as high as $1 billion annually in recent years.

Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.
http://www.washington-report.org/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm