[News] US weaponry facilitates killings in Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

US weaponry facilitates killings in Gaza

Thalif Deen, The Electronic Intifada, 9 January 2009
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10147.shtml

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The devastating Israeli firepower, unleashed 
largely on Palestinian civilians in Gaza during two weeks of military 
siege, is the product of advanced US military technology.

The US weapons systems used by the Israelis -- including F-16 fighter 
planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles and a wide array of 
munitions -- have been provided by Washington mostly as outright 
military grants.

The administration of President George W. Bush alone has provided 
over 21 billion dollars in US. security assistance over the last 
eight years, including 19 billion dollars in direct military aid as freebies.

"Israel's intervention in the Gaza Strip has been fueled largely by 
US supplied weapons paid for with US tax dollars," says a background 
briefing released Thursday by the Arms and Security Initiative of the 
New York-based New America Foundation.

"The Bush administration has been unwilling to use its considerable 
influence -- as Israel's major military and political backer -- to 
dissuade the government in Tel Aviv from its pattern of claiming 
self-defense while perpetrating collective punishment, human rights 
violations and undertaking massively disproportionate attacks that 
harm and kill civilians," Frida Berrigan, senior program associate at 
the New America Foundation, told IPS.

Besides military aid, the US has contracted more than 22 billion 
dollars in arms sales to Israel in 2008 alone, including a proposed 
deal for 75 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, nine C-130J-30 military 
transport aircraft and four combat ships.

"So, when Israeli forces engage in combat in Gaza or the West Bank, 
they are more often than not using US-designed systems that were 
either made in the United States or produced under license in 
Israel," says the New America Foundation.

The two-week military onslaught has resulted in the deaths of at 
least 700 Palestinians, including more than 300 civilians, mostly 
victims of US weaponry.

In comparison, the Israeli death toll is about seven soldiers and 
four civilians, primarily due to "friendly fire," or victims of 
rocket attacks by Hamas.

Mouin Rabbani, contributing editor at the Washington-based Middle 
East Report, says the intimacy of the US-Israeli military 
relationship, and the frequency with which Israel launches wars, 
means that the Israeli military also performs the function of testing 
newly-developed weapons systems in actual warfare, which is of value 
to both Israel and the US.

"Twice over, in fact, because less effective versions of these same 
weapons systems are subsequently sold at hugely inflated prices to 
Arab states, which effectively subsidizes the US weapons industry and 
US military grants to Israel," he told IPS.

Tracing historical links, Rabbani said Israel replaced South Vietnam 
as the primary recipient of US foreign military aid in the 1970s and 
has maintained that status ever since.

With consistently fewer exceptions over the years, he pointed out, 
Israel has the run of the US arsenal, particularly with regard to 
obtaining new and advanced weapons that are not sold (or, as in the 
present case, given) to non-NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies.

He said that Israel is also permitted to participate in various US 
weapons development programs, meaning that in addition to weapons 
deliveries it benefits enormously from the transfer of military technologies.

"Israel also has access to various US intelligence programs and data, 
and the list goes on for quite some length," Rabbani added.

Last week, US Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat of Ohio) wrote a 
letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointing out that 
Israel's use of US weapons in Gaza may constitute a violation of the 
requirements of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) of 1976.

The AECA outlines the conditions under which countries may use US 
weapons systems, primarily for "internal security" or "legitimate 
self defense."

The letter says that Israeli forces have used US-supplied F-16 
fighter planes and Apache helicopters "to precede and to support 
ongoing ground actions such as the one in which 40 Palestinians were 
killed while taking shelter in a UN facility."

"Israel is not exempt from international law and must be held 
accountable," he added.

Berrigan said that with the onslaught about to enter its third week, 
hundreds of Gazans killed and wounded, 10 Israelis killed and more 
wounded, Hamas continuing to launch rocket attacks and a grave danger 
that the conflict will widen to include Lebanon, President-elect 
Barack Obama "will step into a bed of molten hot quicksand on 20 January."

"It will be difficult for the new administration to turn the tide of 
US-Israeli relations and challenge Israeli exceptionalism, but it is 
urgently necessary," she added.

Rabbani pointed out that given the level of US military assistance to 
Israel, the deployment of these weapons in the current onslaught 
against the Gaza Strip, and US political support for Israel during 
this crisis, Palestinians could be forgiven for insisting the US 
shares direct responsibility.

"While I would by no means dismiss the issue of US military transfers 
to Israel in their various forms and dimensions, the key issue is 
nevertheless the impunity with which these are used," he added.

It is this impunity, rather than the weapons transfers in and of 
themselves, that accounts for Israel's ability to sow widespread 
death and destruction throughout the Gaza Strip at will.

Asked if there would a change in policy under an Obama 
administration, Rabbani said: "I don't see any indication that things 
are set to change once Obama takes office."

He has attempted to wrap his silence in a cloak of decorum and 
statesmanship, "claiming he was left with no choice because he is not 
yet president, then -- in view of his constant pronouncements since 4 
November regarding the financial meltdown -- rather too cleverly in 
my view elaborated that this only applies to foreign policy."

"So we are supposed to believe that if instead 600 Israelis had been 
killed by Palestinian suicide bombers in the space of 10 days, or 
Russia had decided to suddenly advance on Tbilisi, you could still 
hear a pin drop in Washington? Unlikely."



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