Why is Germany Giving Away Billions of Euros to a Rich Country?

Günter Grass' op-ed 'poem' was lame on many levels, but in Salon, a couple of investigative journalists praise Grass for focusing attention on a pretty stunning fact:

Germany had already given Israel two Dolphin-class submarines, and subsidized one-third of the $540 million cost of another. The Germans are planning to similarly subsidize the sale of the latest submarine.

Before the Grass poem, I'd be willing to bet that very few ordinary Germans were aware that their government was simply giving away billions of dollars in military technology to Israel. Take it away, Wikipedia:

Israel has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. It is a developed country, an OECD member, and its economy, based on the nominal gross domestic product, was the 41st-largest in the world in 2010. Israel has the highest standard of living in the Middle East.

Its GDP per capita is around 26th in the entire world, and it already receives $3 billion in yearly aid from the U.S (pdf). So why can't it simply pay for the military hardware it wants to buy? All Eastern European countries are much poorer than Israel, yet when they want German military hardware, they have to pay for it.

Historical issues aside, surely Germany has better uses for €1.5 billion in taxpayer money than giving away free military presents to a country that can easily pay for them itself. How many schools could that money  have built in Botswana?

Comments

[M. Möhling]

If memory serves, our host decreed that what makes the news in Germany is unlikely to be dealt with here. A noble sentiment. Yet, I'm pleased to see that there are even nobler, more passionate sentiments that make us overturn our motto, as some topics warrant it. Indeed, G-boy's op-ed 'poem' was lame on many levels; judging by the overwhelming support by the German populace it didn't went far enough by far. That's not new, as 65% of Germans (69% of Austrians, 59% of EU citizens) think Israel to be the greatest threat to world peace. The Jews are our misfortune! They still are, as knows Salon's queer theorist and one "former BBC investigative journalist" that's royally unknown to the beeb. I'm not investigative enough to have found out what's investigative about their work,[1] apart from surmising that Israel plans a preemptive war against Iran,with consequences beyond imagination, unless you're a poet.

Again, if memory serves, Israel already launched that kind of war twice, against Syrian and Iraqi nuclear installations. Some bombs were dropped, some personal likely killed, and nuclear aspirations aborted. No public reaction by Assad, some loud mouthing by Saddam Hussein--possibly some terrorists got more funding than usual that year. No war, unless you're a stickler, and passionately so, no Armageddon. Of course this time it's different, honest injun, as this time those Zionist Imperialists are our misfortune! QED. Repeat annually til true.

Now really; the GraSSman alleged Israel to plan nuclear annihilation of the Iranian people, expected "us", ie the world and Germans in particular to remain as "survivors" "at best". Last year, in the same vein, that senile crank phantasied the Soviets to have killed 6 millions German POW, no less. Historians estimate about 1,1 million, but then poets they ain't. It's a up to self-styled beebsters to fight the ensuing "smear" together with, say, the National-Zeitung, junge Welt, and any "decent people," as they write. As regularly do the aforementioned, Mr. Ahmadinejad, and any "decent people," they push forward the Jewish support they can muster, as they can't understand for the life of them that this won't validate any claim. Can't get nobler than that. Besides, they found an angle that's deemed praiseworthy here; Germany got them J-boys subs worth about 1 billion € so far. Incidentally, from 1995 to 2009 alone Russia received about twelve billions, China six and India four in "official development assistance" from our treasury.[2] As far as I can tell we assist those poor things exploring space or whatever while helping Israel to survive. Being a one-bomb-country, sizewise. The Ayatollahs rightly having surmised Iran could take many, contrastwise. Because that's how we roll,[3] guiltwise. Which is irksome, to some, thus this post. As the poet is lame and needs a little help from his friends. Really, what's wrong with the left?

1. Perhaps the queer theorist's Desire: Paradox and Perversity in Gay Lives Today (1993)? Or A Queer Geography: Journeys Toward a Sexual Self (1996)? The cookbook from 1999 written as co-author?
2. http://blog.zdf.de/hyperland/2011/10/wie-ein-daten-mashup-die-deutsche-entwicklungshilfe-aufschluesselt/
   "Allein Russland erhielt in den Jahren 1995 bis 2009 rund zwölf Milliarden Euro, China rund sechs Milliarden und Indien vier Milliarden Euro."
3. Actually we don't, our trustees do. Wait, most of them don't either, but so far they feel the need to keep up appearances, the poet helping them to get over their Judenknacks, eventually.

[Andrew]

Two points: I think the Eastern European example is pretty on-point, given that Germany also inflicted massive suffering on most Eastern European countries and the war it started resulted in their being absorbed into the Communist bloc. Yet they must pay for German military hardware.

I'd say the rationale for Germany giving free weapons to Israel was pretty strong in the 1950s and 1960s, when Israel was much poorer than it is today and was genuinely under existential threat from hostile neighbors. Now that Israel has several hundred nuclear missiles of its own and is richer than many European countries, I'd say it's superfluous to give Israel military hardware it is perfectly capable of buying on its own.

[Cuneiform]

Historical issues aside, surely Germany has better uses for €1.5 billion in taxpayer money than giving away free military presents to a country that can easily pay for them itself.
Why do you put historical considerations aside? I think compensation for the holocaust is an excellent reason for giving away something to Israel.

And these submarines are a good fit for coastal protection, useful components in Israels supplies.

[Argaman]

I think it was quite justified in the Adenauer era. You're right that Israel today is much better off than it was in the 1950s, but it seems to me that Germany is subsidizing the price of these submarines for historical reasons (a feeling of responsibility after the Holocaust) rather than economic ones.

On the other hand, perhaps Germany should also be subsidizing military sales to eastern European countries, to which it also has an historical responsibility. (ducks in face of brickbats...)

[dubuc]

well roared, lion!
I think it started with some Sikorsky helicopters back in the Adenauer era. Would be interesting to sum up the whole 50-60 years of these gifts' worth.