[News] How Israel Got an Endless Supply of U.S.-Made Smart Bombs

Tue Dec 5 10:15:34 EST 2023

inthesetimes.com
<https://inthesetimes.com/article/united-states-israel-precision-guided-munitions-stockpile>
How Israel Got an Endless Supply of U.S.-Made Smart Bombs
December 4, 2023
------------------------------
[image: Jabalia-refugee-camp-PGMs.jpg]

The United States has had the authority to quietly transfer
precision-guided munitions, or PGMs, to Israel for the past three years
through a little-noticed provision passed by Congress in January 2021.

Section 1275 of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act
<https://www.congress.gov/116/plaws/publ283/PLAW-116publ283.pdf> (NDAA)
allows a limitless transfer of PGMs from U.S. reserve stocks to Israel’s
stockpile without normal
<https://www.acquisition.gov/dfars/225.871-7-congressional-notification.>congressional
notifications, as long as U.S “combat readiness” isn’t compromised.

PGMs — which include any guided missile designed to hit an extremely
precise target — have been an Israeli weapon of choice
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/us/politics/israel-gaza-deaths-bombs.html>
in the massive and deadly bombardment that has destroyed
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67565872> an estimated 98,000
buildings in Gaza and reportedly
<https://sg.news.yahoo.com/gaza-deaths-over-15-000-144952891.html> killed
more than 15,000 Palestinians. Satellite-guided bombs (a type of PGM) of
between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds made up about 90% of the weapons the Israeli
military used
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/04/us/politics/israel-gaza-deaths-bombs.html>
in the first two weeks after October 7.

While PGM’s advanced targeting is billed as a way to avoid
<https://www.justsecurity.org/74619/avoiding-collateral-damage-on-the-battlefield/>
civilian harm, they have been linked to many strikes
<https://www.justsecurity.org/74619/avoiding-collateral-damage-on-the-battlefield/>
by Israel and other U.S. allies
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/19/us-supplied-bomb-that-killed-40-children-school-bus-yemen>
on densely populated areas, including on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/01/jabalia-camp-airstrike-gaza>
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) admitted
<https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnns-wolf-blitzer-confronts-idf-flack-who-admits-to-jabalia-refugee-camp-bombing#:~:text=A%20spokesperson%20for%20the%20Israeli,said%2C%20according%20to%20Al%20Jazeera.>
to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that they struck the camp knowing the area was
crowded with civilians.

President Joe Biden says that the United States has been “surging
additional military assistance” to Israel since October 7. But government
reporting
<https://www.stimson.org/2023/learning-from-ukraine-to-strengthen-oversight-of-u-s-military-aid-to-israel/>
on the details of that assistance has been sporadic and opaque.

Now, a source in the State Department confirms to *In These Times* and
Women for Weapons Trade Transparency that Section 1275 has been invoked
since October 7 to rush more PGMs to Israel.

[image: People carry a stretcher through a street filled with rubble.]

Analysts believe Israel used Boeing-manufactured JDAMs, a type of
precision-guided missile, in strikes on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza
that left an estimated 195 dead. Photo by Sami Abu Tabak/Anadolu via Getty
Images
An endless stockpile

Israel lobbied the United States for greater access to PGMs in the wake of
its 2014 assault on Gaza that left some 2,200 Palestinians dead. The
Israeli government argued that it needed more smart bombs to use against
Hamas and Hezbollah in case of emergency. Section 1275 of the 2021 NDAA was
seemingly meant to fulfill that request, enabling the president to bypass
normal weapons spending caps on transfers of PGMs already stored in
U.S. reserves.

“Although it is almost impossible for independent experts to trace due to
a lack of basic transparency, there is little doubt that Israel and the
U.S. took advantage of the provision,” says William Hartung, senior
research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “The
whole purpose of doing it in this fashion is to hide the extent of these
deadly transfers — and the mechanisms used to carry them out — from
public view.”

The *Jerusalem Post *reported in 2021 that the United States quickly
replenished the hundreds of PGMs dropped on the Gaza Strip in May 2021 and
that Israel planned to purchase “far more” by 2024.

Hartung says that the common-sense logic in Washington D.C. is that U.S.
weapons transfers should “increase stability” or “bolster the ability of
allies to defend themselves.”

“While this may be true in some cases, in many others — such as U.S. arms
supplies to Saudi Arabia for use in the war in Yemen or for Israel’s war on
Gaza — pouring in arms to regions of tension enables human rights abuses,
entrenches authoritarian regimes and fuels deadly conflict,” he says.

*A *New York Times* investigation found that Israel used JDAMs — a type of
PGM — in May 2021 attacks on a Gaza apartment complex that killed
civilian families.*
Civilian killings, precisely targeted

The Biden administration argues that guided weapons are a valuable tool to
reduce civilian casualties by enabling more precise targeting. But U.S.
policy decisions have tacitly admitted that sometimes the opposite is true.
In 2016, President Barack Obama’s administration suspended
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-saudiarabia-yemen-exclusive-idUSKBN1421UK/>
PGM sales to Saudi Arabia due to “systemic, endemic” concerns that the
advanced weaponry was deployed against civilian targets.

Supplying these attack munitions to Israel, a government with a history
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrYHge7tqsQ&t=11s> of striking civilian
infrastructure with PGMs — and which has publicly stated
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-gaza-bombing> that the emphasis
of its bombing of Gaza is “damage and not accuracy” — has been
particularly controversial.

When the State Department notified
<https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/06/politics/us-israel-weapons-sale-transfer/index.html>
Congress on October 31 that it planned to transfer $320 million in kits to
convert unguided bombs into precision munitions, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
introduced a resolution
<https://omar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-omar-introduces-resolution-block-weapons-sale-used-fund-war-crimes-gaza>
of disapproval in a move applauded by peace and arms control civil society
groups, including Women for Weapons Trade Transparency.

There is ample evidence that PGMs have been used in the current Israeli
campaign in strikes
<https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/world/middleeast/israel-bomb-jabaliya.html>
against civilian infrastructure. Marc Garlasco, a military advisor at the
Dutch peace organization PAX, says that “photos of weapon remnants,
craters, and reporting out of Israel and Gaza indicate strikes carried out
in Gaza City, including strikes at multiple refugee camps, were conducted
with GBU-31’s and other [PGMs].” Analysts believe
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/01/jabalia-camp-airstrike-gaza>
Israel used a Boeing
<https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/104572/joint-direct-attack-munition-gbu-313238/>-manufactured
guided bomb unit, a kind of PGM, during its Oct. 31-Nov. 2 airstrikes
<https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/10/31/confirming-a-strike-on-jabalia-refugee-camp-as-israeli-forces-approach-gaza-city/>on
Jabalia Refugee Camp, which reportedly killed 195 people
<https://www.reuters.com/graphics/ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/GAZA-JABALIA/byprrdygjpe/>.

Less and less transparency

In its request for $14.5 billion in military aid to Israel, the Biden
administration is following the precedent set by Section 1275 and other
NDAA amendments by further undercutting transparency in all stockpile
transfers, not just for PGMs. The President’s requested supplemental bill
would waive the annual cap
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/25/biden-israel-weapons-stockpile-arms-gaza/>
on transfers to the U.S. stockpile within Israel. With no limit on those
transfers and Israel’s ability
<https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/08/best-friends-dont-have-to-ask-110036/>
to draw from that stockpile at will, the U.S. would supply Israel with
a virtually endless supply of weaponry without congressional authorization
or oversight.

The Senate is currently working
<https://www.democrats.senate.gov/news/press-releases/majority-leader-schumer-floor-remarks-on-the-urgent-need-to-pass-a-bipartisan-national-security-supplemental-package>
to pass the supplemental, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
(D-N.Y.) saying the bill could be up for a vote as early
<https://www.democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/majority-leader-schumer-floor-remarks-on-the-urgent-need-to-pass-national-security-supplemental-funding-legislation-to-support-our-friends-and-allies-and-defend-democracy>
as this week.

The White House’s supplemental request also contained another transparency
waiver, first reported by Women for Weapons Trade Transparency and *In
These Times* last month, which would let the White House unilaterally
blanket-approve
<https://inthesetimes.com/article/white-house-request-waiver-arms-sales-gaza-israel>
future sales of military equipment and weapons to Israel without
notifying Congress.

In response, some Democrats want stronger assurances
<https://www.vanhollen.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_president_biden_on_gaza.pdf>
that U.S. weapons will be used consistently with U.S. law and called for
greater transparency in transfers.

Several high-ranking Democrats have already come out against giving Biden
increased powers to transfer weapons to Israel without scrutiny. “We should
not make exceptions to this practice — it’s our duty to review these funds
and ensure their use is in the best interests of the American people and in
alignment with U.S. policy,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the
Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement to the *Washington Post*.

Sen. Schumer’s office did not respond by deadline to an inquiry about
whether the two transparency waivers will be included in the bill.

<https://inthesetimes.com/authors/ari-tolany>

Ari Tolany <https://inthesetimes.com/authors/ari-tolany> is a research
consultant with Women for Weapons Trade Transparency, where her research
focuses on the arms trade, civilian harm, and state fragility. Previously,
Ari was the U.S. program manager at Center for Civilians in Conflict and
a Scoville Peace Fellow at the Stimson Center.

<https://inthesetimes.com/authors/lillian-mauldin>

Lillian Mauldin <https://inthesetimes.com/authors/lillian-mauldin> is
a Founding Board Member of Women for Weapons Trade Transparency and
a Research Fellow at the Center for International Policy. Her work focuses
on political strategy and legislative and grassroots advocacy.

<https://inthesetimes.com/authors/janet-abou-elias>

Janet Abou-Elias <https://inthesetimes.com/authors/janet-abou-elias> is
a Founding Board Member of Women for Weapons Trade Transparency and
a Research Fellow at the Center for International Policy. Her research
focuses on international arms trade policy, U.S. foreign policy, and
sustainability initiatives.

Women for Weapons Trade Transparency
<https://inthesetimes.com/authors/women-for-weapons-trade-transparency> is
a nonprofit committed to producing high-quality research on the
international weapons trade and advocating for humane and sustainable
global demilitarization policies.
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