When Israel’s Regime Buys US Weapons, It Buys Them With Your Money

Thomas Knapp / AntiWar.com

 (May 22, 2021) — On May 5, Hamas commander Mohammed Deif issued a warning to Israel’s government: Unless Israeli police and troops stopped attacking Palestinians in Jerusalem — including not just those protesting against the regime’s theft of their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on behalf of Israeli “settlers,” but also worshipers at al-Aqsa mosque, one of Islam’s most sacred sites — rockets would fly.

On the same day, the Biden administration notified Congress of its approval for Boeing’s sale of $735 worth of Joint Direct Attack Munitions to the Israeli regime.

The Israelis ignored Deif’s warning and continued their abuses. The rockets flew. And, in the name “self-defense,” prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the war he badly needs to distract from his recent election defeat and his ongoing corruption trial.

As I write this, more than 200 Palestinian Arabs (including 59 children) lie dead in Gaza, as do ten Israelis (including two children).

President Biden says he supports a cease-fire, but his UN ambassador blocked a UN Security Council resolution calling for one. And those Boeing munitions are presumably on their way to help keep up the carnage for as long as possible.

Let’s at least be honest about those weapons. The Israelis aren’t really buying them. You are.

Each year, the US government dispenses $3.8 billion of your money in “military aid” to the Israeli government. The string attached to that aid is that the Israelis have to use it to buy American (rather than, say, Russian or Chinese) arms.

In fact, that’s one of the main arguments that supporters of the aid put up when people object to the US government handing out such big welfare checks: It’s not really aid to the Israelis, they say, it’s actually just corporate welfare for American “defense” contractors, creating jobs right here in the good ol’ US of A.

This is supposed to make you feel better about the whole thing, I guess. You shouldn’t , though. If you think about it, every dollar funneled into artificially “creating jobs” in the “defense” industry is a dollar that could have instead been used by you to buy the things you actually want and need, creating real jobs providing those goods and services in the process.

But even if the corporate welfare angle did make sense, it also reveals that you, the American taxpayer, are financing the half-filling of body bags with the the bodies of children.

Yep, that’s your tax dollars at work, saving the political neck of Israel’s answer to Saddam Hussein.

I suspect that may not be what Oliver Wendell Holmes had in mind when he told us that “taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” If you share my suspicion, let “your representatives” in Washington know.

Thomas L. Knapp is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism. He lives and works in north central Florida. This article is reprinted with permission from William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism

Media Ignore Largest Foreign Military Aid Package in US History

Alison Weir / Israel-Palestine News

Congress is about to legislate the largest military aid package to a foreign country in US history, but US media aren’t telling the American public. Israelis know about the money, and Israel partisans are pressuring the one lone Senator opposing it, but apparently US news organizations don’t think the general public needs to know…

 (November 29, 2018) — In an astounding case of media negligence, US news media are failing to tell Americans that Congress is about to enact legislation for the largest military aid package to a foreign country in US history.

This aid package would likely be of interest to Americans, many of whom are cutting back their own personal spending.

The package is $38 billion to Israel over the next ten years, which amounts to $7,230 per minute to Israel, or $120 per second, and equals about $23,000 for each Jewish Israeli family of four. A stack of 38 billion one-dollar bills would reach ten times higher than the International Space Station as it orbits the earth.

And that’s the minimum — the amount of aid will likely go up in future years.

The package was originally negotiated by the Obama administration in 2016 as a “memorandum of understanding (MOU),” which is is an agreement between two parties that is not legally binding.

The current legislation cements a version of that package into law — and this version is even more beneficial to Israel. Among other things, it makes the $38 billion a floor rather than a ceiling as the MOU had directed.

While US media did report on the MOU two years ago, we could not find a single mainstream news report informing Americans about this new, even more extravagant version — and that it is about to become law, if constituents do not rise up in opposition.

And many Americans likely would oppose the legislation, if they knew about it. Surveys show that 60 percent of Americans feel the US already gives Israel too much money. Many oppose Israel over its systemic human rights violations.

While US media are inexplicably ignoring this massive aid legislation, Israeli media and Jewish publications are covering it regularly, and Israel lobbying organizations are calling on their members to support it. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, reportedly pioneered the legislation.

The Legislation

The current aid package is divided between two bills. The first part — $5.5 billion over 10 years — is in the 2019 military spending bill, which was passed earlier this year.

The second part — $33 billion — is in the bill currently in the Senate: ‘‘S. 2497 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018.’’ The bill is named in honor of retiring US Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen for her long service to Israel. The bill has 73 sponsors and co-sponsors.

While there were many news reports on the Pentagon spending bill, it appears that none of the reports mentioned the billions of dollars to Israel. PBS did an in-depth examination of the bill, and while it included a discussion of aid to Ukraine, it failed to mention aid to Israel — which is over ten times higher.

The current aid bill has been in process for many months and has passed through several stages.

It was introduced last March and passed by the Senate in August; an even stronger version was passed by the House in September, and now that version is back in the Senate. Yet, US news media seem to have failed to report on any of these actions.

Rand Paul Places Block

Last week, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) placed a hold on the bill, which means that he may filibuster against it if the bill goes to a vote. In all likelihood it will, given that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has received over $1.5 million from pro-Israel campaign donors, and given that pro-Israel donors often dominate US politicians (recent leaked video footage shows Israel lobby manipulation first hand).

AIPAC has reportedly issued an action alert to its members to pressure Senator Paul to end his historic effort against aid to Israel, and has placed Facebook ads targeting him. Paul has issued a statement in response and says he will introduce an amendment in the coming days.

Somehow, US media have so far missed both this extraordinary action by an American Senator and the orchestrated pressure against him, but Israeli media are covering it thoroughly.

In other words, Israelis know about the $38 billion legislation, Israeli partisans in the US know about it and are pressuring Congress to pass it, but the large majority of American taxpayers whose money will be given to Israel have no idea that the legislation is even before Congress.

Perks and Problems

The bill gives Israel a number of additional perks of various types. For example, Section 108 authorizes Israel to export arms it receives from the US, even though this violates US law and may well cost American jobs.

The bill also requires NASA work to with the Israel Space Agency, despite accusations of Israeli espionage against the US. In 2015, a Caltech scientist revealed that the Chair of Israel’s National Committee for Space Research had illegally acquired classified US information. The alleged espionage and theft largely took place at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a top NASA research and development center. This was also largely ignored by mainstream media.

The Israel aid legislation is problematic on a number of grounds, among them:

(1) It would fund Israeli violations of international law and human rights abuses, causing tragedy in the region and hostility to the US

(2) As noted above, the majority of Americans feel we already give Israel too much money.

(3) It would violate US laws.

• It would violate two amendments to the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act, known as the Symington and Glenn Amendments, that ban support for countries engaged in clandestine nuclear programs. (More information here.)
• It would violate the Leahy Law, which prohibits aid to countries guilty of human rights violations.

In addition, in the past, Israel has used US aid in ways that repeatedly violatedthe Arms Export Control Act (AECA), which prohibits re-export of US-origin defense and dual-use technology. Israel has also been charged with using US weaponry illegally.

Agencies report that the 11-year Israeli blockade and ongoing attacks on Gaza have caused 95% of the young people surveyed to have deep psychological distress; medical institutions and medical supplies are inadequate, and children are suffering malnutrition, anemia, and stunted growth. Israeli forces have killed 23 Palestinians this month alone, many of them taking part in unarmed demonstrations; Palestinian resistance fighters have killed one Israeli soldier.

Human Rights and Media Omission

Israeli human rights abuses have been documented in reports by numerous humanitarian agencies, including the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Defense for Children International, Christian Aid, Amnesty International, and both Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations, but these reports, also, are largely ignored by US media.

For many years, US media have provided Israel-centric reporting, inaccurately portrayed the chronology, and failed to give Americans the full picture. Even alternative media frequently filter the information they provide to Americans, and it appears that almost none of the larger sites have covered the current aid package.

If Rand Paul does filibuster against the aid, perhaps there will be some news coverage at that point, at least in his home state of Kentucky.

But whether or not the general American public is told about it, there is no doubt that Israelis and Israel partisans will continue to learn of Paul’s action. Watch for negative news reports about Paul in the coming weeks and months — quite likely from across the political spectrum.

Free Beacon, a rightwing pro-Israel website, reports that Paul “has had multiple confrontations with the pro-Israel community over the years as result of his views. Paul has sought to hold up US aid to Israel multiple times over the years, creating friction between him and top US pro-Israel lobbying shops.”

Wolf Blitzer, who lived in Israel for many years and used to work for the Israel lobby, recently ranted against Paul during an interview on a different matter. Such animosity against a US Senator considered “the last obstacle” to Israel’s latest money grab is unlikely to diminish.

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, president of the Council for the National Interest, and author of Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the US Was Used to Create Israel.

Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.