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Israpundit » Blog Archive » Feith: “Israel Should Be a U.S. …

www.israpundit.com11/2/11

Pro-Israel organizations have long been active in American politics, promoting friendly relations between the U.S. and Israel. Jewish groups, in particular, have helped ensure that candidates' attitudes toward Israel would be …

America: Strengthened by Its Support of Israel

www.raptureforums.com11/1/11

America: Strengthened by Its Support of Israel By David Meir-Levi In the first in the series of articles analyzing US foreign aid to Israel, the present writer posed five questions: 1.) Why is there an Israel-USA "special relationship," an alliance …

New Report: Israel Adds Strong Strategic Contribution to US

Robert D. Blackwill and Walter B. Slocombe, who both served under Democratic and Republican administrations recently presented the Washington Institute for Near East Policy with a thesis asserting that:

"Israel and the United States enjoy a special alliance which has a strong strategic contribution to US security".

"The United States has taken advantage of access to unique Israeli capabilities in key ‘niche’ areas of military technology. Israeli technology promotes American interests. Increasingly, US homeland security and military agencies are turning to Israeli technology to solve some of their most vexing technical problems.

"Through joint training and exercises as well as exchanges on military doctrine, the United States has benefited in the areas of counter terrorism cooperation, tactical intelligence, and experience in urban warfare".

"Counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation is deep and extensive, with the United States and Israel working to advance their common interest in defeating the terrorism of Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda; sharing information, supporting preventive actions, deterring challenges, and coordinating overall strategy".

"In the vital realm of missile defense cooperation, the United States has a broad and multifaceted relationship with Israel, which is its most sophisticated and experienced partner in this field".

"Israel’s national missile defenses will be an integral part of a larger missile defense architecture spanning Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf that will help protect US forces and allies throughout this vast area".

Walter B. Slocombe

Born September 23 1941, Slocombe is a lawyer and career federal official.

He joined the staff of the National Security Council in 1969 and prior to that he worked as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas.

He was Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Clinton administration (1994–2001) and was the Senior Advisor for Security and Defence to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad (2003).

He is a four-time recipient of an award for Distinguished Public Service and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and currently practices law with the Washington firm of Caplin & Drysdale.

Robert D. Blackwill

Born August 8 1939, Robert Dean Blackwill is an American lobbyist and retired diplomat.

He was the United States Ambassador to India (2001–2003), and United States National Security Council Deputy for Iraq (2003–2004), where he was a liaison between Paul Bremer and Condoleezza Rice.

More From The Report

"Israel’s integrated, multi-layered command-and-control network contributes to the US military’s ability to defend against the Iranian missile threat".

"Israel and the US enjoy broad intelligence cooperation, and this intimate relationship reinforces overall US intelligence efforts by providing Washington with access to Israel’s unique set of capabilities for collection and assessments on key countries and issues in the region, since Israel is able to focus resources and attention on certain targets of central importance to the United States.

"As Israel’s strategic intelligence collection capabilities mature, this cooperation and exchange of intelligence information will increasingly serve US national interests".

The Pros Easily Outweigh The Cons

"We do not deny that there are costs to the United States, in the Arab world and elsewhere, for its support of Israel. We are, however, convinced that in a net assessment those real costs are markedly outweighed by the many ways in which Israel bolsters US national interests and the benefits that Israel provides to those interests".

"In particular, we believe that the United States can have strong and productive relations with Arab and other Muslim nations while sustaining its intimate collaboration with Israel, and that US support for Israel is not the primary, and probably not even a dominant reason Islamist terrorists target the United States".

"The long-standing US commitment to Israel has not prevented development of close ties with Arab nations and nor has it made the Arab oil-exporting states any less conscious of their own economic and strategic interest in a reasonably stable flow of oil to world markets, or their eagerness to buy first-class military equipment from the United States".

The Bottom Line

Blackwill and Slocombe wrote that the:

"The conclusion of our analysis is that the US-Israel relationship is a significant asset to US national interests and the potential for even greater US benefits from deeper cooperation is substantial".

An article entitled Does Israel Depend On American Aid? was written back in 2009, but it provides in depth info about the cost of US aid to Israel and the findings might surprise you.

Did S&P Downgrade Your Bank? | The Daily Capitalist

dailycapitalist.com11/30/11

Did S&P Downgrade Your Bank? By Jeff Harding, on November 29th, 2011. S&P issued new ratings for the world's 37 largest banks. Was your bank upgraded or downgraded? As a public service, I have included the entire list. Standard …

S&P: No U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade Despite Supercommittee Fail

www.huffingtonpost.com11/22/11

WASHINGTON — Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's says it will not downgrade the U.S. government's credit rating because a Congressional committee failed to come up with a plan to trim deficits by at least $1.2 trillion …

As you most likely already know, the U.S. had its AAA credit rating downgraded for the first time by S&P, which slammed the nation’s political process and said lawmakers failed to cut spending enough to reduce record deficits.

If you already know the bad news, but don’t know exactly the reasons for the downgrading then maybe watch the vid!

Aug 5, 2011 David Beers, the London-based managing director of sovereign credit ratings at Standard & Poor’s, talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene about S&P’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

It’s a pity that David Beers stammers and says so many “ahs”, but it’s perhaps understandable because he’d never been in such a hot-seat before.

Just imagine the heat that he’s getting!