Unfettered US support for Israel may be waning
Since the beginning of Israel's onslaught on Gaza, Western countries and the US in particular, have voiced their unequivocal support for Israel and what they call Tel Aviv's right of self defense, while ignoring the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
The US President Joe Biden visited Israel shortly after the Israeli military started the massive war on Gaza.
Biden unequivocally justified the Israeli regime's genocide in the coastal Gaza Strip, saying Washington would provide the Israeli regime with everything it needed to, 'defend itself'.
Israel has the right and, I would add, responsibility to respond to the slaughter of their people. And we will ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against these terrorists. That's a guarantee.
US President, Joe Biden
Analysts believe that when it comes to Israel, Biden echoes the policies crafted not in Washington but in Tel Aviv.
You listen to President Biden and it sounds like he's reading from an Israeli teleprompter, line after line, after line, are lines that you hear from Netanyahu, or you hear from his ministers, or you hear from Israeli propagandists, line after line, after line, in the things that the President says, from the beginning of this war until today, crafted in in Tel Aviv, crafted in Jerusalem.
Rashid Khalidi, Historian
The US president has also promised to ask Congress for an unprecedented military aid package for Israel to assist its ongoing war on Gaza.
For decades we've ensured Israel's qualitative military edge, and later this week I'm going to ask the United States Congress for an unprecedented support package for Israel's defense.
US President, Joe Biden
The Biden administration has asked Congress for an additional $14 billion for Israel. This request is focused on providing air and missile defense support and replenishing US military stockpiles given to Israel.
Currently, Israel receives $3.8 billion in military aid from the US annually under a memorandum signed in 2019. That accounted for about 16% of Israel's total military budget in 2022. The United States has always made it clear that nothing can stop it from supporting its staunch ally.
We will support them in any way that we can. Certainly intelligence is a part of that and I won't get into the specifics of what that means ISR other types of collection. We've worked with the Israelis, you know, over many, many years and those sharing mechanisms are there. Those channels are there to share information, and we will look to continue to do that.
Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State
The US has strong historical and economic ties to Israel. The US, which has supported the formation of Israel since World War Two, is Israel's top trading partner with annual bilateral trade of nearly $50 billion in goods and services.
Experts believe the creation of Israel was the direct result of imperial powers support, especially the policies of both Britain and the USA.
Without the external support that Zionism received from the British, none of what we have seen in the past century and more would have happened as it did. British, and later, American and other external support, were absolutely essential to the success of the Zionist project from the very beginning.
Rashid Khalidi, Historian
Shortly after the beginning of the Nakba, or the catastrophe, in which Zionist forces expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and established Israel, the United States started transferring a huge cache of weapons to Israel.
According to data recently published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States provided Israel with more than 70,000 weapons between 1950 and 2022.
The weapons included aircraft, ground vehicles, missiles, and bombs, most of which were used against the defenseless people of Palestine.
Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign military financing, with most of that aid coming in the form of weapons grants. The US has provided Israel with at least 16 types of weapons in 2023, including missiles and aircraft.
It is widely believed that US support has emboldened Israel in its atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Recently, a US State Department official resigned over the transfer of arms to Israel amid growing dissent over President Biden's unequivocal support for the regime.
We have to look at the situation on the ground and say is that what is actually happening? Is Israel more secure as a result of our assistance?
Or has our military assistance enabled Israel to move ahead with the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, to continue the siege of Gaza, and, to take steps that, ultimately, undermine its own security?
Josh Paul, State Department
In fact, US made weapons are being used extensively in the current Israeli operations in Gaza.
Apart from ground penetrating munitions, the US has also given Israel several other types of bombs and artillery shells.
The United States has given its bunker buster bombs and an array of other munitions to Israel for its war on Gaza.
A Wall Street Journal report, citing an unnamed US official, revealed that Washington has transferred 100 BLU-109 bombs to Israel that are able to penetrate hardened structures before exploding.
The US has also sent Special Forces to the occupied territories to assist the Israeli military. According to American officials, the American commandos are in Gaza to help the Israeli military in finding captives held by Palestinian fighters.
While there is overwhelming bipartisan support for Israel among the American politicians, some critics are now casting doubts on whether spending taxpayer dollars to provide such huge funds to Israel serves the interests of the American people.
Yes, there are enormous emergencies abroad, but there are also very serious emergencies in our own country, including the crises we face in child care, and in primary health care, housing and other needs.
The American people do not want us to continue to ignore these issues. I do not believe we should be appropriating over $10 billion for the right wing extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military approach.
What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law; and the United States should not be complicit in those actions.
Senator Bernie Sanders
But the question to ask is why the American officials, including Democrats and Republicans, are so committed to supporting Israel while ignoring the needs of their own people?
The simple answer is because they're under the thumb of the Israel lobby and Israel has penetrated our government system very effectively through the lobby.
And this is what you get out of the other end. As far as these people are concerned there is a First Amendment and you have freedom of speech in the United States, unless you're saying something about Israel.
And this is appalling, this is disgusting, but the fact is, they get away with it because they have such influence, I would even go further, control over many congressmen, they are major donors, to congressmen and this has an impact.
They have major influence over what appears in the media, and this has a major impact on politicians running for office.
Phil Giraldi, Former CIA Officer
However, it seems that the younger American generation no longer buys the propaganda spread by mainstream media, desperately trying to justify US support for Israel.
Surveys show an increase in the number of young Americans having an unfavorable view of Israel over its recent genocide in Gaza.
Black intellectuals, Native American intellectuals, Hispanic intellectuals, are all much more critical of Israel, especially the younger ones, than are their elders or that are not even Republicans as a general rule.
And this is not just true of young black students or young Latino students or young Arab or Muslim students. It's also true of young Jewish students.
When we look at college campuses and Jewish Voice for Peace is a central component of the drives for divestment of these universities assets from companies that support the Israeli occupation and of Palestinian rights in general.
So this is a generational divide.
Rashid Khalidi, Historian
If once the unconditional support of the Israeli regime was something for US politicians to take pride in, however, it seems that it's going to cost them politically in the near future, as more and more people in the United States are getting to know more about the realities of the occupied territories.
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