OK, and then maybe Israel can stop shnorring off the US. I mean what's good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

How much is the IDF's budget exactly ? How much do they receive from the country's tax coffers, US loan guarantees, donations from individuals, benefactors and organisations ? What assets do they own ? What income do they earn from various arms sales ? What should the correct balance be between expenditure on military/hard defence and diplomacy for a nation ? What is possible via trust building ? Comment 15 in the list is interesting. It alludes to Isaiah 2:4... "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." What the famous prophecy communicates is that the progression from a paradigm of myopia, cowardice, betrayal of trust and abuse of power which leads to denial, evil, the collapse of time and thus widespread violence on the familial, communal and national level to one of vision, courage, trust building and healing will occur over time. It doesn't mean that there will be an instant abandonment of one's material defences before the time is right. Getting the focus/priority/expenditure balance right requires great nuance, empathy, intelligence and skill. Thus the commander of the IDF should be more like a philosopher king than a comptroller.

lapid conveniently got an exemption from combat. Was he sick or scared, yellow to the bone like his colleagues at haaretz who typify self hatingjews. Lapid undercuts the army and then asks israel to make concessions. What an ass! I cannot believe how stupid some israelis are-livni,peres, now lapid. This begins to explain why so much misfortune has befallen the jews. you have 500000 haredi who run around begging the state for protection and this is OK???!!! You have the whole livni lapid herzog movement who say abbas is a partner while his media calls for israelis destruction. Am I missing something? What the hell is wrong with you people Ultimately, average israelis are responsible for electing lapid, olmert, livni, gal on, and now herzog, a weakling extraordinaire.

Lapid's daddy was one of Israel's most powerful journalists: daddy said he wanted sonny boy to get a cushy job, whose going to say no? The funny thing is that Yair later made a career attacking other people for not serving. You can't credit Lapid voters with excess intelligence.

Socialism is expensive - professional army will save tons of money. Leaner, meaner, motivated, professional; all western nations have professional armies.

IF (BIG IF) it is true you have "neighbors who are determined to kill you," then no amount of money or war toys will prevent that, so you may as well find a safer place. The reality is the world is awash in war toys just as good as anything Israel has or will ever have and there are 20X more "neighbors" than there are Israelis. The lesson of the last 10000 years is small groups ALWAYS lose to larger groups. So no matter how belligerent Israel is, it will eventually suffer humiliating defeat. Israel ONLY option is to negotiate or lose the next war.

When they attack us with $80 dollar rockets, we send a pair of 35million dollar planes burning 1000 gallons of fuel.hr to target them surgically with a $1millon missile. It does not take long for the unsustainability to surface. It would have been wiser to arm the residents of Sderot to return in kind random mayhem with cheap but deadly projectiles.