Progressive Democrats Succeed in Removing $1 Billion Iron Dome Funding From Bill

[Beastly Boy]

64. Fair question.

Israel is a country of about 9 million people, whose population is far more heavily taxed already than, for instance, US. Israel, no matter how much they raise taxes any further, is not by itself capable of matching the resources that Iran, a country of 83 million people and rich in natural resources, can raise at will. Iran can outspend Israel under any scenario.The foreign aid Iran provides to Hamas and Hezbollah is very substantial, and is already contributing to an economic crisis in Lebanon. So it is logical to conclude that Iran's money can potentially lead to the destabilization of the heavily taxed Israel. A stable Israel is the only military power in the Middle East that can oppose Iran. If Israel becomes unstable for any reason, whether militarily weakened by Hamas and Hezbollah or economically weakened by Iran's influx of resources into the region, Iran will become the regional power with no opposition.

Iran's ambitions extend far beyond neutralizing Israel. Being a Muslim Shiah nation, it is currently engaged in the struggle for dominance with the neighboring Sunny arab nations. Iran poses a deadly military threat to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, among others, most of them US allies. Should Israel weaken militarily or economically, the US will have to pay tenfold to prop up all these countries in the face of Iran's expansion. As a matter of foreign policy, it is far more efficient for the US to aid Israel in sustaining its capacity to oppose Iran and Iran's vassals in the region than to provide separate military aid to six or seven Sunni states, none of whom currently pose a serious military threat to Iran.