If you "help" folks out all the time aren't you crippling them by preventing them from doing for themselves? How is that a good thing?

We give Israel  3.1 billion a year Tom. We give billions to other countries too all the time. Does it ever end? We  borrow money to give/loan money? How does that make any sense at all? I don't get it. Maybe you can explain to me because I can't figure it out. Thank you for your reply and Happy Wednesday. As for social security/medicare do you consider that welfare? I hope not. :)

Absolutely not, we worked for and earned social security and Medicare and rightfully deserve it, be proud .if numb nuts fools with it he will have to answer to us. 

Of course I agree with thee. We have EARNED it and rightfully deserve it. WHY do we give Israel so much money? Will it ever  stop or do we carry Israel on our backs forever more? Thank you for your reply and Happy New Year's Eve Saturday to thee TomT! :)

Actually what I had in mind is foreign aid hartfire. We give Israel 3.1 billion a year. Why? For how long? Thank you for your thoughtful reply and Happy Wednesday. We give many countries foreign aid every year. We have a large debt that keeps increasing. We borrow money to lend money/give money to others? That makes no sense to me. :)

I did a bit of research and discovered a few things: most of the financial aid is to support Israel's economy and its military; most is in the form of loans and guarantees of loans. But the majority of these have been forgiven in order to prevent defaults, which means that in effect they have become gifts.
There is only one reason I can
In "The Washington Report on Middle-Eastern Affairs," I found the following: "Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.

WHY hartfire? Can you find out  WHY? I cannot figure it out. All we do for Netanyahu and all we've and all we seem fated to do and all he does is complain. What a pain in the a ** he is. Thank you for your thoughtful and informative reply and the research you did. I wonder when or if it will ever stop? The welfare handouts to Israel? This post was edited by RosieG at December 31, 2016 4:41 AM MST

@RosieG -- The reason is very simple: Israel is holding the world (especially the United States) nuclear hostage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Samson_Option:_Israel's_Nuclear_Arsenal_and_American_Foreign_Policy

Placating Israel probably seems like the least-worst option to US policy makers, especially given the popularity of such policies among the Zionist community in the United States (which includes both many Jewish people and many Evangelical Christians).

Oy Vey! So the Israel albatross is squarely on US shoulders and will be forevermore? Quoth the Raven? We're Putin puppets thanks to Trump and NET puppets thanks to the lily-livered political cowards who operate from fear.  Isn't that swell as he**? Mahalo for your reply.The cross we must bear forever. How ironic is that?

As to 'why' Rosie, I think the answer is simply geopolitics first and the Jewish vote second.  I know 'geopolitics' is a fairly vague term, but it may become clearer if you know that barely a single border in the Middle East is natural in terms of geography or population group.

The Middle East is a mess in large part because of the interference of major powers (UK, France especially) about a century or so ago.  Syria and Lebanon were both created by France, while the UK promised the Jewish population a Jewish state, while promising the Arab population there wouldn't be one.

See a pattern?  It's called short term foreign policy and it has made a mess of a region that has always been messy.  It is a pattern that has continued with subsequent generations and shows no signs of stopping.  Before we get too certain about where the responsibility lies for the historical and present day chaos, we should also remember that Sunni, Shiite, Christian, Arab, Kurdish, Persian, and Turkic populations have been competing in the region for over a thousand years.

So whether you take the long view or the short view, the whole area is one with a history of conflict.  That the foreign policies of outsiders have contributed little that is positive is hardly a point worth debating, it's a given.

Now, on to more recent stuff.  We know what's sitting under the ground in the area and we know how much the rest of the world wants and needs it.  So there's no search for a reason as to why major powers are still there.  The next issue, (and for a long time the most important one) from a foreign power perspective, is how to attain stability and maintain it in an area devoid of natural and historical reasons to actually be stable.  This is why we've seen the picture of the 'Middle East Strong Man' repeated again and again in the region - it's a necessary historical tradition that's been going on for ever because it's been found to be the only way to stop too many people killing each other.

I'll mention religion briefly here: while it is just another reason for groups to compete, it is without doubt the most arbitrary, the most long lasting and the most vicious.  It is also the least likely to see compromise between groups.  If I can be a little bit insulting here, everyone's sacred sky-fairy tells them they're special and the result is that more people have died and suffered over religion in the area than ever have or ever will over oil.

Aside from being a major player in the re-establishment of Israel in '48, the US is also home to almost as many people who identify as Jewish as actually live there.  While only about 3% of the total population of the US, I think there is little doubt that Jews occupy a greater number of positions of influence and importance per head than many other cultural groups.  By any measure, the Jewish vote in the US is an important one, and Jewish support is valuable and often sought by those on the political road.

It is also worth thinking about what would happen were the US to remove it's support for Israel.  Following WW2 the newly formed United Nations proposed, via a committee formed of nations not directly associated with the region, that there should be a 3 state solution: a Palestinian state, a Jewish state and the State of Israel, to be administered by the UN and open to all.  It was rejected by the Arab League and within a few days conflict had broken out.  Nobody likes to give stuff up - and I refer you to the religious associations of the region and propose that those of a sufficiently religious bent cannot give stuff up.

All attempts from outsiders to moderate and stabilise the region over centuries have failed.  All attempts to rule the region peacefully and legally have failed.  Israel is a persistent breaker of international law but will be supported in it's infractions for the same reason Gaddafi and Hussein were supported in theirs.  Stability.

Wow! What an awesomely thoughtful and informative reply MrWitch!  Thank you. In other words it is very complicated. Seems hopeless. We are caught in a web from which we shall never be able to extricate ourselves. The only hope is that one day Israel will elect a less extreme-right wing fascist authoritarian who will try harder to work toward some kind of agreement sincerely and not just give it lip service while a Netanyahu keeps breaking international law and folks look the other way. Israel used to have a better class of politician.  They scraped the bottom of the barrel and got Netanyahu. We did likewise and have Trump.  I wonder if I will ever live to see the day when Israel gets rid of that NET blight and can walk toward the light with a finer/kinder/more principled leader. :)

Just spotted an enormous error in my screed Rosie.  :(

The penultimate paragraph refers to the 'State of Israel' and it's being administered by the UN and open to all.  That should of course read the 'State of Jerusalem'.

It's revealing that Jewish opinion in Europe is widely condemnatory of Israel's actions in Palestine.  It looks like the new frontier for Israeli support lies in the US and in few other places, but newer generations coming through might think less positively about this arrangement.  

The danger for Israel of course is if US support diminishes.  If it does, other things might open up, but it would seem likely that such a development would result in the sound of knives being sharpened all round the Middle East.  Simply put, Israel needs a strong backer, or it risks a conflict beyond it's capacity to cope.