On an April 2, 2026 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, comedian and podcaster Theo Von claimed that the United States is sending “all of our money” to Israel, which he said is using it to carry out a “genocide” in Gaza.
Both parts of that claim fall apart under basic scrutiny.
1) The Money Claim: What the U.S. Actually Sends
Start with the headline number: the United States provides Israel with $3.8 billion per year in military aid under a long-standing agreement.
But two key facts are often left out:
- It’s military aid, not economic aid.
- About 75% of it must be spent on American-made defense products, meaning much of the money flows back into the U.S. economy.
That alone makes the “all of our money” claim inaccurate. But the bigger issue is scale.
The U.S. Spends More Elsewhere
Israel is not even close to the largest overall recipient of U.S. support.
- Ukraine received over $16.6 billion in 2023 alone
- Japan costs the U.S. roughly $5.1 billion annually in military presence
- Germany hosts U.S. forces costing about $10–15 billion per year
- South Korea: roughly $4 billion annually
- Qatar and Gulf operations: $5–10 billion annually
The U.S. maintains roughly 750 U.S. military bases in more than 80 countries and territories, costing American taxpayers an estimated $80 billion a year.
On top of that:
- Jordan receives about $1.65 billion annually, much of it economic aid
- Egypt receives about $1.3 billion annually in military financing
- Afghanistan has received over $150 billion since 2001, the most of any country
The U.S. has sent more than $18 billion in economic and humanitarian aid to Islamic terror states, including countries like Sudan where Christians are slaughtered.
By comparison, Israel ranks well outside the top tier of total U.S. spending.
Per Capita Aid Tells a Different Story
Looking specifically at economic (non-military) aid, the contrast is even sharper. Palestinians (about 5 million people across Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) received over $670 million in 2023–2024. That’s over $100 per person. By comparison, the U.S. spent less than $100 million on non-military programs in Israel—under $10 per Israeli—mostly on joint research and projects that directly benefit the American economy. Unlike Israel’s military aid, the money sent to Palestinians does not return to the U.S. economy.
No U.S. Troops Required
Another overlooked point is that the U.S. does not maintain bases in Israel and does not station troops there.
In contrast to countries like Japan or Germany, Israel largely handles its own defense and does not rely on direct American military deployment.
Israeli Investments Vastly Outweigh U.S. Aid
Israel’s economic footprint in the United States far exceeds the aid it receives. In 2024 alone, Israel purchased $14.8 billion in U.S. goods, adding $13.2 billion to the U.S. GDP. Israelis also invest nearly $24 billion in the U.S., and the country hosts more than 2,500 American firms. These ties make U.S. aid to Israel not just support for an ally, but a direct investment in the American economy. This makes U.S. aid to Israel uniquely tied to American economic interests.
2) The “Genocide” Claim: What the Evidence Shows
The accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is widely circulated—and false.
Source of the Claim
The primary source of casualty figures is Hamas, which governs Gaza and is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Its reported numbers:
- Do not distinguish between civilians and combatants
- Have been repeatedly challenged for inflation and misclassification
- Include natural deaths unrelated to combat
Based on pre-war mortality rates alone, roughly 13,500 deaths during the war period would be expected from natural causes.
Combatant vs. Civilian Ratio
In October 2025, President Trump stated that approximately 58,000 Hamas fighters had been killed. If total deaths are around 70,000 (as claimed), that would imply roughly 13,000–14,000 noncombatant deaths. That produces a civilian-to-combatant ratio of roughly 0.24:1.
For context. the UN estimates modern urban warfare averages around 9 civilians killed per combatant
By that standard, the figures—if anything—suggest an unusually low civilian casualty ratio, not a genocide.
Additional Contradictions
Other widely cited data points complicate the genocide narrative:
- In 2025, the World Health Organization reported that over 500,000 children in Gaza under age 10 were vaccinated against polio—a number 150,000 higher than the estimated total of children under ten when the war began.
- Surveys show a large share of Palestinians oppose disarming Hamas, even if it would end the war, and support continued conflict with Israel. People who are supposedly being exterminated do not support their own genocide.
These indicators are difficult to reconcile with claims of an ongoing extermination campaign.
U.S. Leadership Position
Senior U.S. officials, including President Trump and Vice President Vance, have both publicly stated that Israel’s actions do not meet the definition of genocide. It is unclear what Theo Von knows that they don’t.
Bottom Line
Theo Von fixates exclusively on Israel—a country that represents a small fraction of U.S. foreign spending—while ignoring the vastly larger sums poured into places like Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Ukraine.
If the concern were genuinely about where American money goes, those would be the obvious targets. They aren’t. Instead, Israel is singled out—despite the fact that much of its aid is tied directly back into the U.S. economy and requires no American troops on the ground.
Von’s selective outrage shows this isn’t about fiscal responsibility or protecting taxpayers at all. It’s about choosing a convenient villain and ignoring everything that doesn’t fit the narrative.
Layer on top of that his blind repetition of “genocide” claims from Hamas, and it’s clear that Theo Von is lying to his audience. The only question is why.
Sources
The Joe Rogan Experience, White House, Open Spending, Congress, Reuters, JNS, US Embassy, Quincy Institute, US State Department, US Trade Representative, U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, New York Post, Henry Jackson Society, UN, World Health Organization, CIA, Hamas, Times of Israel, Times of Israel
