Costs of arming Israel can no longer be ignored
Josh RuebnerThe Electronic Intifada25 April 2011
US weaponry was used in the flattening of Gaza during the three weeks of
attacks in winter 2008-09. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
Israel may be forgiven for failing to realize the current fiscal woes of the
United States. After all, US
military aid to Israel not only sailed unscathed through this month’s
passage of the 2011 budget, but reached the record level of $3 billion.
The US additionally provided Israel $415 million for procurement, research and
development of joint US-Israeli missile defense projects, including $205
million to fund Israel’s newly-deployed Iron Dome system.
This anti-missile battery already has altered significantly the
strategic balance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when Israel
successfully shot down incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip
earlier this month. With the assured diplomatic backing of the US
to prevent Israel from being held accountable by the international
community for its illegal blockade, Iron Dome will embolden Israel to
tighten its siege and escalate its attacks on the occupied Gaza Strip by
providing its citizens with additional protection against
retaliatory fire.
US funding of Iron Dome is but one example of many of how US
weapons transfers to Israel privilege Israeli military dominance over
Palestinian freedom and create perverse economic disincentives for
Israel to defy US policy goals such as halting
Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land, ending its collective
punishment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and negotiating in good
faith a lasting peace agreement.
As long as US weapons continue to flow,
Israel will feel free to disregard the Obama administration’s mild
blandishments and half-hearted attempts to bring Israel to the
negotiating table. Unfortunately this disincentive structure is set to
be reinforced over the coming years.
Under a Bush-era agreement, US weapons
transfers to Israel are scheduled to total $30 billion from 2009-2018,
an annual average increase of 25 percent above previous levels. With
this 2007 Memorandum of Understanding, the US solidified Israel’s position as
the largest recipient of US
military aid this decade. In line with increases proposed under this
arrangement, President Obama asked for a record-breaking $3.075 billion
of weapons for Israel in his 2012 budget request.
A new online database — “How Many Weapons to Israel?”
(http://www.weaponstoisrael.org/) — casts doubt on whether the US
can afford, either morally, financially or politically, to continue
transferring weapons to Israel at taxpayer expense without examining the
ramifications of this policy.
>From 2000-2009, the US licensed, paid for
and delivered to Israel more than 670 million weapons and related
equipment, valued at nearly $19 billion, through three main weapons
transfer programs (Foreign Military Sales, Direct Commercial Sales and
Excess Defense Articles). These weapons transfer programs accounted for
nearly 80 percent of the more than $24 billion in military aid
appropriated to Israel during these years. The bulk of the remaining
money was spent by Israel on its own domestic arms industry, a unique
exemption written into law for Israel. All other countries receiving US
military aid are required to spend the whole sum within the US.
Military aid to Israel ran the gamut from the patently absurd — one
used food steamer valued at $2,100 — to the lethal — 93 F-16D fighter
jets valued at a total of nearly $2.5 billion. With nearly 500
categories of weapons transferred to Israel, the US is pervasively, intricately
and comprehensively involved in arming its military.
These weapons transfers also make the US
deeply complicit in almost every action the Israeli military takes to
entrench its illegal 43-year military occupation of the Palestinian West
Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip and the apartheid
policies that undergird its government’s stance toward Palestinians.
>From September 2000-December 2009, roughly the same period during which the US
transferred these 670 million weapons to Israel, the Israeli military
killed at least 2,969 Palestinians, of whom 1,128 were children, who
took no part in hostilities, according to the Israeli human rights
organization B’Tselem.
For example, Israel killed 446 unarmed Palestinians, including 149
children, with missiles fired from helicopters. The Pentagon classifies
the number, types and value of missiles transferred to Israel; however,
the US gave Israel nearly 200 AH-64D Apache, Sikorsky CH-53 and Cobra
helicopters from which at least some of these lethal missiles were fired. It
was likely one such US-supplied missile from a US-supplied
helicopter that Israel fired in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza
Strip on 29 December 2008, which killed five sisters, Jawaher (age 4),
Dina (age 7), Samar (age 12), Ikram (age 14) and Tahrir Baulusha (age
17) during an attack on a nearby mosque.
Israel’s misuse of US weapons to commit
human rights abuses like these against Palestinian civilians should
trigger sanctions against, rather than increasing amounts of military
aid to, Israel. The Arms Export Control Act limits the use of US
weapons to “internal security” and “legitimate self-defense.” Israel’s
occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and
Gaza Strip is defined by the US government as a
foreign military occupation, and the killing of thousands of unarmed
civilians in support of a military occupation cannot be justified as
legitimate without distorting the meaning of self-defense.
In addition, the Foreign Assistance Act strictly prohibits US
foreign assistance to any country that “engages in a consistent pattern
of gross violations of internationally-recognized human rights.” The
State Department’s recently released 2010 Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices documents amply, if not comprehensively, Israel’s human
rights abuses of Palestinians.
As Washington now considers raising the debt ceiling and making even
more substantial cuts to the 2012 budget, the moral, financial and
political costs of arming Israel can no longer be ignored.
If the Obama administration is serious in its efforts to resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and genuine in its stated commitment to the
universality of human rights, then it must utilize the significant
leverage the US wields over Israel through its
military aid program. By terminating weapons transfers to Israel at
least until Israel upholds its obligations under US
and international law, ends its illegal military occupation of
Palestinian land and negotiates in good faith a just and lasting peace
with Palestinians, the US can create an incentive structure to achieve its
frustrated policy goals.
Josh Ruebner is the National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the
Israeli Occupation, a national coalition of more than 350 organizations working
to change US
policy toward Israel and the Palestinians to support human rights,
international law and equality. He is a former Analyst in Middle East
Affairs at Congressional Research Service.
http://electronicintifada.net/content/costs-arming-israel-can-no-longer-be-ignored/9873
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
