US arms flood into Israel despite mounting alarm
The United States has quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel since the Gaza war began last October, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid, US officials told members of Congress in a recent classified briefing.
The triple-digit figure, which has not been previously reported, is the latest indication of Washington’s extensive involvement in the polarising five-month conflict, even as top US officials and lawmakers increasingly express deep reservations about Israel’s military tactics in a campaign that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
Only two approved foreign military sales to Israel have been made public since the start of the conflict: US$106 million (NZ$173m) worth of tank ammunition, and US$147.5m worth of compo- nents needed to make 155mm shells. Those sales invited public scrutiny because the Biden administration bypassed Congress to approve the packages by invoking an emergency authority.
But in the case of the 100 other transactions, known in government speak as Foreign Military Sales (FMS), the weapons transfers were processed without any public debate because each fell under a specific dollar amount that requires the executive branch to individually notify Congress, according to US officials and lawmakers who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Taken together, the weapons packages amount to a massive transfer of firepower at a time when senior US officials have complained that Israeli officials have fallen short on their appeals to limit civilian casualties, allow more aid into Gaza, and refrain from rhetoric calling for the permanent displacement of Palestinians.
“That’s an extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time, which really strongly suggests that the Israeli campaign would not be sustainable without this level of US support,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior Biden administration official and current president of Refugees International.
A US State Department spokesman said the administration had “followed the procedures Congress itself has specified to keep members well informed, and regularly briefs members, even when formal notification is not a legal requirement”.
He added that US officials had “engaged Congress” on arms transfers to Israel “more than 200 times” since Hamas launched a cross-border attack into Israel that killed 1200 people and saw more than 240 taken hostage.
Asked about surge of weapons into Israel, some US lawmakers who sit on committees with oversight of national security said the Biden administration had to exercise its leverage over the government of Israel.
“You ask a lot of Americans about arm transfers to Israel right now, and they look at you like you’re crazy’,” said Texas Democract Joaquin Castro, a member of the House intelligence and foreign affairs committees.
US officials have warned the Israeli government against waging an offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter, without a plan to evacuate civilians.
But some Democrats worry that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will disregard Washington’s pleas, as he has other US demands to allow more food, water and medicine into the enclosed enclave, and to dial back the intensity of a military campaign that has levelled entire city blocks and destroyed huge numbers of homes across the strip.
Colorado Democrat Jason Crow, also a member of the House intelligence and foreign affairs committees, said the administration should apply “existing standards” stipulating that the US “shouldn’t transfer arms or equipment to places where it’s reasonably likely that those will be used to inflict civilian casualties, or to harm civilian infrastructure”.
“I am concerned that the widespread use of artillery and air power in Gaza – and the resulting level of civilian casualties – is both a strategic and moral error,” said Crow, a former US Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A senior State Department official declined to provide the total number or cost of all American arms transferred to Israel since October 7, but described them as a mix of new sales and “active FMS cases”.
“These are items that are typical for any modern military, including one that is as sophisticated as Israel’s,” said the official.
The dearth of publicly available information about US arms sales to Israel leaves unclear how many of the most recent transfers amount to the routine supply of US security assistance to Israel, as opposed to the rapid replenishing of munitions as a result of its bombardment of Gaza.
Israel, like most militaries, does not routinely disclose data about its weapons expenditures, but in the first week of the war it said it had dropped 6000 bombs on Gaza. – Washington Post