Hacker News Reader

Yea but then we miss out on a step. Less steps = less middlemen = less people leeching to become rich

Won't you think of the MBAs!

It is a simple way to subsidize US military industry but hiding it as foreign aid.

Israel has a lot of critics that are plainly against its existence, but that does not justify banning any dissent.

Giving foreign aid instead of spending the money directly allows circumventing WTO rules about subsidizing your products. The book The Dictator's Handbook discusses this in detail.

This misses some detailing:

> America to miss out on giving money to Israel to give back to America

America[n tax payers] to miss out on giving money [as charitable aid] to [the apartheid regime controlling] Israel to [spend it at] America[n weapons manufacturers].

And in that case it becomes clear why directly from taxpayers to weapons manufacturers is not going to fly: it's too obvious and does not put the weapons where they can be (ab)used!

Are you familiar with the defense budget? ;)