> Michael--
>
> There are three questions you need to ask about money like this (probably
> closer to $6 billion than $3 billion per year):
>
> 1) Have successive American administrations been simply delusional for
> more than thirty years about the usefulness of spending these amounts?
>
> 2) Are the anti-Semites right -- the machinations of the Jewish lobby are
> so irresistible that it can extort such sums? (And if so why didn't its
> writ run in '56?)
>
> 3) Is it simply a bad conscience about what the Nazis did sixty years ago
> that keeps America forking over these colossal sums year in and year out?
>
> If the answer to all of these questions is No (and I think it is), then
> you have to explain the subventions.
I haven't seen anyone sufficiently answer Brad's challenge: find someone in the ruling class other than a Likudnik who actually believes that supporting Israel furthers the interests of the American "empire". You can't just assume such interests must underlie US support for Israel because the ruling class must be getting something for their money.
-- Luke