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1/8: U.S. Weaponry Facilitates Killings in Gaza/Resource: War in Gaza, Weapons from the USA |
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U.S. Weaponry Facilitates Killings in GazaBy Thalif Deen - Inter Press Service
January 8, 2009
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45337
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.
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."
Resource: War in Gaza, Weapons from the USA
Backgrounder by Frida Berrigan and William D. Hartung
Arms and Security Initiative, New America FoundationJanuary 7th, 2009 – Israel's intervention in the Gaza Strip has been fueled largely by U.S.-supplied weapons paid for with U.S. tax dollars:· During the Bush administration (from FY2002 through FY2009) Israel has received over $21 billion in U.S. security assistance, including $19 billion in direct military aid under the Pentagon's Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program.· The bulk of Israel's current arsenal is composed of equipment supplied under U.S. assistance programs. For example, Israel has 226 U.S.-supplied F-16 fighter and attack jets, over 700 M-60 tanks, 6,000 armored personnel carriers, and scores of transport planes, attack helicopters, utility and training aircraft, bombs, and tactical missiles of all kinds.· During 2008 alone, the United States made over $22 billion in arms sales offers to Israel, including a proposed deal for as many as 75 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters worth up to $15.2 billion; nine C-130J-30 aircraft worth up to $1.9 billion; 4 Littoral combat ships and related equipment worth as much as $1.9 billion; and up to $1.3 billion worth of gasoline and jet aviation fuel.
For additional background, see the following:· "Selected U.S. Weapons Systems Proposed to Israel, 2008," ASI Factsheet, January 7, 2009 (see text below).· "U.S. Military Assistance and Arms Transfers to Israel: U.S. Aid, Companies Fuel Israeli Military," Frida Berrigan and William D. Hartung, World Policy Institute Issue Brief, July 20, 2006. http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/israel.lebanon.FINAL2.pdfSelected U.S. Weapons Systems Proposed to Israel, 2008 ASI Factsheet, January 7, 2009
Date of Offer*
| System
| Value**
| Notes
| September 29, 2008
| Twenty-five F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft with an option to purchase at a later date an additional 50 F-35 CTOL or Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) aircraft, as well as associated equipment and services.
| As high as $15.2 billion.
| Prime Contractors:
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas;
Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut; and
General Electric/Fighter Engine Team, Cincinnati, Ohio
| September 9, 2008
| Three PATRIOT System Configuration 3 Modification kits to upgrade 3 PATRIOT fire units to Radar Enhancement Phase 3 (REP-3) and Classification, Discrimination and Identification Phase 3 (CDI-3).
| As high as $164 million.
| Prime contractor:
Raytheon Corporation, Andover, MA.
| September 9, 2008
| One thousand GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs as well as associated equipment and services.
| As high as $77 million.
| Principal contractor:
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, Boeing Corporation, St. Louis, MO.
| September 9, 2008
| Twenty-eight thousand M72A7 66mm Light Anti-Armor Weapons (LAAWs), 60,000 M72AS 21mm Sub-Caliber Training Rockets, spare and repair parts and other related elements of logistics support.
| The estimated cost is $89 million.
| Principal contractor; Talley Defense of Mesa, Arizona.
| July 30, 2008
| Nine C-130J-30 Aircraft as well as associated equipment and services.
| As high as $1.9 billion.
| Principal contractor:
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, Texas.
| July 15, 2008
| Up to 4 Littoral Combat Ships (LCS-I variant): Hull, and all mechanical and electrical functions, as well as weapons systems such as 2 MK-41 Vertical Launch Systems, 8 cells for each system; 1 Close-In-Weapon System, etc.
| As high as $1.9 billion.
| Principal contractors:
Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, Moorestown, NJ;
Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, Eagan, MN;
General Dynamics, Armament Systems, Burlington, VT;
Raytheon Company, Equipment Division, Andover, MA; and
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Waltham, MA
| July 15, 2008
| 28,000,000 gallons of unleaded gasoline, 186,000,000 gallons of JP-8 aviation jet fuel, and 54,000,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
| The estimated cost is $1.3 billion.
| The vendors are unknown at this time due to the competitive bid process for the supply source(s).
| June 9, 2008
| Twenty-five T-6A Texan aircraft, as well as associated equipment and services.
| As high as $190 million.
| Principal contractors:
Hawker Beechcraft Corporation, Wichita, Kansas;
Pratt & Whitney Corporation, Quebec, Canada and Bridgeport, West Virginia;
Martin Baker, Middlesex, United Kingdom;
Hartzel Propeller, Pique, Ohio
Canadian Marconi, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; and
L-3 Vertex, Madison, Mississippi
|
Source: Defense Security Cooperation Agency New Releases, http://www.dsca.mil *Date of offer: The date the DSCA notifies Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale. Congress has two weeks to object to the sale. ** This is an estimated price if all the items in the Notification are approved and the country is able to purchase them all.
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