According to the Washington Post, rifts that “have emerged between the United States and Israel over the war’s conduct” did not limit weapons transfers to Israel.
The US Administration of Joe Biden has secretly authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in “bombs and fighter jets” to Israel despite Washington’s public criticism of Tel Aviv’s planned invasion of the southern city of Rafah, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
Citing Pentagon and US State Department officials, the report indicated that “the new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs”.
According to the Washington Post, rifts that “have emerged between the United States and Israel over the war’s conduct” did not limit weapons transfers to Israel.
“The increasingly public spat has not dissuaded Biden from rushing weapons and military equipment into the conflict,” the Post reported, citing US officials.
“Last week, the State Department authorized the transfer of 25 F-35A fighter jets and engines worth roughly $2.5 billion,” the report added.
“We have continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself,” a White House official reportedly told The Post, adding that “conditioning aid has not been our policy.”
The Post said that the Israeli government declined to comment on the most recent transfers.
Devastating Impact
According to The Washington Post, the 2,000-pound bombs “have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.”
A CNN report last December highlighted that “2,000-pound bombs are normally used sparingly by Western militaries (..) because of their potential impact on densely populated areas like Gaza.”
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Israel “has used them extensively in Gaza”, the Post reported, “most notably in the bombing of Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp Oct. 31.”
The strike, which killed over 100 people, was condemned by the United Nations as a “disproportionate attack that could amount to war crimes.”
AIPAC
According to the Post, “Biden’s decision to continue the flow of weapons to Israel has been strongly supported by powerful pro-Israel interest groups in Washington, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee”.
The report added that AIPAC is “spending tens of millions of dollars this election cycle to unseat Democrats it views as insufficiently pro-Israel.”
Biden’s recurring approvals of arms transfers to Israel has caused a stir inside the administration itself. For example, on October 18, US State Department official Josh Paul resigned in protest of Biden’s Gaza policy.
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Commenting on the most recent transfer, Paul told the Post that “this is a policymaking process that is fundamentally broken, and which makes everyone from policymaking officials to defense manufacturers to the U.S. taxpayer complicit in Israel’s war crimes”.
Majority in US Disapprove of Israel’s Action
The report comes just one day after a new poll published by Gallup on Wednesday revealed a significant shift in American public opinion regarding the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
“After narrowly backing Israel’s military action in Gaza in November, Americans now oppose the campaign by a solid margin,” according to Gallup.
The latest results, from a survey conducted between March 1 and the 20th, revealed that “fifty-five percent (of US citizens – PC) currently disapprove of Israel’s actions, while 36% approve”.
“All three major party groups in the U.S. have become less supportive of Israel’s actions in Gaza than they were in November,” according to Gallup.
In the case of Democrats and independents, the results showed “declines of 18 percentage points in approval”. As “even-point decline” was registered among Republicans.
“Democrats’ widespread opposition to Israel’s actions underscores the difficulty of the issue for President Joe Biden among his most loyal supporters,” according to Gallup.
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 32,623 Palestinians have been killed, and 75,092 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’
(The Palestine Chronicle)
I am ashamed of our government. Even my vote in November will not make any difference. The democracy that our fore fathers established is crumbling. What the United States has done to, as Jeremy Salt calls it, unmake the Middle East is heartbreaking. I am so very sorry to the Palestinian people who suffered through Nakba and now this abomination that Israel and the US are inflicting on innocent Palestinians. May you please forgive me as a sad citizen of the US.