The real reason why the US gives Israel $3.8 billion a year as military "aid".
The Obama administration has agreed to a military aid package for Israel worth $38bn over the next 10 years, a huge increase from the last military aid package (where Israel got $3.1bn annually as opposed to the $3.8 bn it will now receive annually), and this package also makes it the largest such deal in US history.
Pro-Palestinian groups criticized the deal, saying it rewards Israel despite the ongoing construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. One can only imagine what the US could do with $38 billion. It could fix its infrastructure, help some of its bankrupt cities like Detroit, help ease the pressure of student debt from young people, take better care of its vets, the possibilities are endless. But instead it chooses to pump all that money into Israel, a developed nation that flaunts UN resolutions, maintains a brutal military occupation over the Palestinians and a country that has an an extremely strong and vibrant economy. Why is that? The truth is that most of the money goes back to the US, in the form of weapons orders for the Israeli army. Basically the US uses Israel in order to subsidies its military industrial complex by shipping US taxpayers money to Israel which in turn becomes Israeli arms deals with the US. It's a win win situation for Israel and the US military industrial complex who both get what they want, while it's a lose lose situation for US taxpayers and the Palestinians who both end up paying the price for this “aid” package.