by Dr. Eowyn
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II.
To date, the United States has provided Israel $134.7 billion (current, or non-inflation-adjusted, dollars) in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding. Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance, although in the past Israel also received significant economic assistance. (Source: Congressional Research Service Report to Congress, February 26, 2018)
Callum Paton reports for Newsweek that on August 9, 2017, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) revealed construction details of a new $800 million underground wall to run along Israel’s 40-mile border with Gaza and extending into the Mediterranean.
Israel already is protected by a 143-mile border fence, touted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) for drastically reducing illegal immigration along its southern border:
“Israel … had a real problem with illegal immigrants coming in from the southern border, about 16,000 in one year. In two years, they constructed 143-mile fence, about $2.9 million per mile, and it cut that illegal immigration rate from about 16,000 to I think 18. Cut it by 99 percent.”
The new $800 million wall is to protect Israel from the threat of attack tunnels dug by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007, and to stop Hamas fighters from swimming ashore.
The wall, 19-ft. high and 131 feet underground, will be constructed mainly from concrete, reinforced with iron bars and pipes and covered in sensors. Work on the wall began in October 2017 and is expected to take two years to complete.
H/t Voat
Meanwhile, Paul Dijks reports for Voice of Europe that on Nov. 20, 2018, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited Israel’s need to protect its borders as the reason why Israel will not be signing the United Nations’ global migration pact set to be formally approved on December 12 in Marrakech, Morocco.
Netanyahu said in a statement:
I instructed the Foreign Ministry to announce that Israel won’t participate [in the Marrakech gathering]and won’t sign the migration pact. We have a duty to guard against illegal infiltrators. [Jewish Nation-State Law requires the government] to stand up for a clear migration policy that protects our borders from illegal infiltrators.
Seven countries have withdrawn from the UN global migration pact over concerns about national sovereignty: Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the United States.
On December 2, 2017, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. Mission to the United Nations had informed the UN Secretary-General that the United States is ending its participation in the Global Compact on Migration because the compact is “inconsistent” with U.S. policies:
The New York Declaration contains numerous provisions that are inconsistent with US immigration and refugee policies and the Trump Administration’s immigration principles. As a result, President (Donald) Trump determined that the United States would end its participation in the Compact process that aims to reach international consensus at the UN in 2018.
Curiously, Jews outside of Israel are rabidly pro-migration and anti-border wall.