[eternalban]

Typically, in a corrupt country, the 'take' of corrupt institutions and actors critically diminishes available (finite) Capital and distorts the distribution of what remains.

What is unusual is that Israel is the recipient of largess of the American tax payers and enjoys continual replenishment of available Capital. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[jasonvm]

Nope. Almost all US aid is in the form of military equipment, and , incidentally, 75% must be spent on US-made armaments. So it's more like aid to the US military-industrial complex.

[eternalban]

All nations spend substantial sums of money on defense. If you don't need to spend n% of your GDP on defense (because someone else is paying for it) that is money in the pocket.

[mullen]

Israel's GDP is $380B, so $3B-$4B is just a drop in the bucket. As other posters mentioned, that $3B-$4B is earmarked for Defense purchases which means they have to spend that money in the US.

[simonh]

Iraq gets about the same nowadays. The US also provides $1.2bn aid to Egypt and recently committed to providing a total of $6bn to Jordan through 2022. So yes Israel gets a decent slice, but it's only incrementally more than other individual nations in the region. It's a lot smaller than overall US military and development aid to the other nations across the middle east.