> But isn't this also an effective indirect US government
> subsidy to the US military industries? Money goes from
> the US taxpayer, to Israel and then back to the US military
> corporations. The great majority of this military funding
> for Israel must be spent on buying US made equipment.
> (75 percent according to M&W)...and Israel Military Industries also has
> large joint development contracts with the US.
You're absolutely right. It's a tangled web of interests.
> That may not be beneficial to US capitalists as a whole, but it sure
> sounds like a cozy situation for a certain sector of US capital.
That is the issue: How large is the weight of that parasitic sector in the whole of the class? Or, perhaps more precisely, how large is the weight of these parasitic practices in the whole of economic practices of the class? And do they make the capitalists a bunch dominated by rent seeking? Is the production segment subordinated (not only in the design of foreign policy, but in policy-making in general) to the rentiers? Some people in the left think so. There's a clear empirical basis for such belief to arise. But I'm inclined to think it's the smaller part of the historical truth.
> And also, it isn't fair, I didn't even get to see my $500 worth. :-(
Sorry to read that. But I am doing my painful part -- just filing my 2005 tax return! :-)
Julio