Israel Received Small Portion of U.S. Loans, Grants in Fiscal 72

The U.S. government “paid out” $11,343,900,000 in grants and loans for military and economic aid to foreign governments in the U.S.-fiscal year that ended June 30, 1972, and also provided almost $5 billion in insurances and guarantees. Of these totals, Israel received only $50 million in grant aid–a single item for supporting economic assistance. It also received $171 million in loans. Government backed guarantees for credit and insurance to Israel reached $688 million.

These figures were made available today to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by the office of Senator Clifford Case (R.N.J.) following an announcement made jointly by him and Senator William Proxmire-(D.Wis.) that they have just received the first report from the Nixon administration on “the bill for foreign aid” incurred by U.S. taxpayers for that year.

The Senators said that the grants and loans in fiscal 72 totaled $5,274,800,000 in military aid and $6,069,100,000 for economic aid. In addition. various agencies of the government guaranteed and insured $4,910,200,000 worth of loans and investments to foreign countries, contributed $163,400,000 to international organizations, and turned over military facilities to foreign governments worth $631,200,000.

“These figures are staggering, and they should be carefully scrutinized in light of our pressing domestic priorities,” the Senators said in a statement. They cautioned that while they sought to bring some order “out of the chaos of various foreign assistance programs being run by at least six different government agencies,” like “the problem of adding apples and oranges and getting fruit salad, all the figures cannot be brought together into a grand total.”

Most of the grants and loans went to South Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. Military aid to Jordan totaled $104 million; Iran, $118 million; Lebanon $10.2 million; and Turkey. $152 million.