Israeli aid has nothing to do with why the US is "floundering". If anything, bickering over small potatoes like our foreign military aid budget instead of focusing on larger issues like the necessity of our own military budget likely is a bigger contributor to us "floundering".
The rhetorical tactic of citing some much larger number to justify a misuse of funds is meant to obfuscate and confuse, and it's not a good faith argument. It's like a mayor saying "yes, this program is wasteful and corrupt, but look at how big our military spending is! Why aren't you talking about that?!". Or "Yes, I may have created a made up job for my brother, but look at the trillions we spent in Afghanistan! Why aren't you talking about that?!"
We should not be falling for that type of rhetoric when calling out government waste and abuse.
There is no reason that the U.S. should be sending any aid to Israel (or, for that matter, Egypt), it's not a poor country, there are many more countries deserving of the aid, and the aid is being used to increase the militarization of a region that has already had too much military conflict.
Second, Israel is a shining example of a robust democracy in a part of the world that is more or less run by kleptomaniacs and dictators. Israel's politics -- especially with the coalition government -- serves as a role model for citizens of other countries. I think it seems reasonable that we extend foreign aid to them.
It pays off in the long run.
"Israel among the U.S.’s most threatening cyber-adversaries and as a “hostile” foreign intelligence service." [2]
"Israel’s snooping upset White House because information was used to lobby Congress to try to sink a deal" [3]
[1] https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-nsa-document-highlights-is...
[2] https://theintercept.com/2015/03/25/netanyahus-spying-denial...
[3] https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-spied-on-iran-talks-1427...
Just a few months ago, we were caught red handed spying on the EU and our closest allies [0]. I’m sure their equivalent of NSA lists us as the most aggressive hackers behind China and Russia.
When your economy or your survival (in Israel’s case) is at stake and you have the tools, the temptation is just too strong.
[0] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spie...
