[R-G] U.S. Weaponry Facilitates Killings in Gaza

[Anthony Fenton]

POLITICS:  U.S. Weaponry Facilitates Killings in Gaza
By Thalif Deen

Israel's two-week military onslaught has resulted in the deaths of  
over 700 Palestinians, including more than 300 civilians, mostly  
victims of U.S. weaponry.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45337

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 8 (IPS) - The devastating Israeli firepower,  
unleashed largely on Palestinian civilians in Gaza during two weeks of  
fighting, is the product of advanced U.S. military technology.

The U.S. 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 U.S. 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  
U.S. supplied weapons paid for with U.S. 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- 
defence while perpetrating collective punishment, human rights  
violations and undertaking massively disproportionate attacks that  
harm and kill civilians," Frida Berrigan, senior programme associate  
at the New America Foundation, told IPS.

Besides military aid, the United States 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 U.S.-designed systems that were  
either made in the United States or produced under licence in Israel,"  
says the New America Foundation.

The two-week military onslaught has resulted in the deaths of over 700  
Palestinians, including more than 300 civilians, mostly victims of  
U.S. 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 U.S.-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 United States.

"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 subsidises the U.S. weapons industry  
and U.S. military grants to Israel," he told IPS.

Tracing historical links, Rabbani said Israel replaced South Vietnam  
as the primary recipient of U.S. 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 U.S. 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 Organisation)  
allies.

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

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

Last week, U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Democrat of Ohio) wrote a  
letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointing out that  
Israel's use of U.S. 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 U.S.  
weapons systems, primarily for "internal security" or "legitimate self  
defence".

The letter says that Israeli forces have used U.S.-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 U.N. 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 Jan. 20."

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

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

"While I would by no means dismiss the issue of U.S. 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  
Nov. 4 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."