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There’s currently a big drive for donations to Israel in various countries. This is surprising to me as Israel is a highly developed nation with a strong economy. What’s the reason donations are necessary? Or perhaps they’re not really necessary and the primary goal is to simply show solidarity with Israel?

JonathanReez
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  • Israel is asking for donations? Even if it is does that mean it really needs them or is hoping for some fast easy money? – Joe W Oct 12 '23 at 16:16
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    Generalizing why people - since you don't seem to refer to government(s) - would want to assist a country under attack is hardly a question that can be answered here. – Italian Philosophers 4 Monica Oct 12 '23 at 16:19
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    Haven't seen such fund risers here. Are you sure it's not a scam? – Ccm Oct 12 '23 at 16:25
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    Also, is it Israel looking for donations, or is it various humanitarian organizations asking for donations so they can provide support to Israelis? And you can just as well ask why people donate to help hurricane victims in the US, or any other natural disaster. Governments can't just hand out money or arbitrarily decide to buy supplies to hand out - it would have to be authorized under some law or another, which may not exist. NGOs are much better able to supply that type of targeted aid. – Bobson Oct 12 '23 at 16:28
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    @Ccm - I've certainly seen several asks from organizations I know, but I'm sure there are plenty of scams (or just really ineffective organizations) as well. – Bobson Oct 12 '23 at 16:28
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    Organisations are always going to ask for donations to help civilians. This is different than asking for donations to help a military. Unless otherwise specified. When the Ukraine war started, a lot of organisations here asked for civilians. Donations for the army follows a different procedure. – Ccm Oct 12 '23 at 16:31
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    Voting to close - Please include more details and sources for your claim. – sfxedit Oct 12 '23 at 16:38
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    It doesn't strictly need them. If the question is: does Israel need donations, then the answer is no. If the question is: why does Israel get donations, then it is to show support with and to actually do support Israel. Even if something is not strictly necessary it can still be beneficial. – NoDataDumpNoContribution Oct 12 '23 at 18:09

1 Answers1

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  • Israel is asking for, and getting, certain specific gear.
    There is a quip that in war, nobody has ever been hit by a chunk of gross domestic product. First, the GDP must be used to buy weapons, and producing those has a long lead time (as recently seen in the Ukraine arms effort, and also the Russian arms production problems). Similar things apply to emergency supplies. Even a very rich country will not have enough 'slack' in their economy to move major parts of their population.
    For instance, Germany is loaning Israel two israeli-made combat drones and donating medical supplies.
  • Israel is a wealthy nation, but their society is under extreme stress right now.
    The government is mobilizing something like 5% of the population as reservists (and a much larger percentage of the working-age population). More are displaced, or helping the displaced, or working for the war effort. So giving money to organizations who are helping Israel, especially to branches which are currently not under rocket bombardment, will free the Israeli administration to do things which only they can do locally.
  • Finally, yes, giving money is a tangible sign of moral and political support. 'Put your money where your mouth is,' as the proverb goes.
o.m.
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  • As a point of comparison, I believe various countries donated to the United States after 9/11, as a show of support. – F1Krazy Oct 13 '23 at 08:06