text: why does the us give so much aid to israel? the israeli government is the largest recipient of us financial aid in the world, receiving over one-third of total us aid to foreign countries4, even though israel’s population comprises just .001% of the world’s population and has one the world’s higher per capita incomes.   since 1949 the us has given israel a total of $84,854,827,200. the interest costs born by us taxpayers on behalf of israel are $49,937,000,000 – making the total amount of aid given to israel since 1949 $134,791,507,200 (more than $134 billion).5  since 1992, the us has offered israel an additional $2 billion in loan guarantees every year.6   the u.s. should not be aiding israel no more than it should have been aiding south africa under apartheid, iran under the shah, iraq's saddam during his war with iran, cambodia under pol pot, or indonesia during its campaign against the east timorese. yeah so what? and israel is the only democracy in the middle east. and if they withdrew aid the israelis would be murdered in there thousands by the arabs. would that sit well on your liberal conscience.