#arms shipments to israel

[eretzyisrael]

by Vijeta Uniyal

Report: Biden Admin halted arms shipment to Israel as a pressure tactic against Rafah invasion

The Biden administration last week halted an ammunition shipment to Israel in a bid to pressure the IDF into abandoning the planned operation in Rafah, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported in the new website Axios Sunday.

The revelation comes as Israel’s military offensive against Hamas enters its seventh month. Israel, a key U.S. ally, relies of American-made weapons, ammunition and spare parts for its armed forces.

In recent months, the Biden White House has been threatening to cut shipment of arms and ammunition if Jerusalem did not comply with its demands, including plans to eliminate Hamas leadership cornered in Rafah. According to the The New York Sun on March 18, Washington was “considering leaving Israel short of the armaments it needs to fight Hamas.”

The Axios reported:

The Biden administration last week put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, two Israeli officials told Axios.(…) The incident raised serious concerns inside the Israeli government and sent officials scrambling to understand why the shipment was held, Israeli officials said. President Biden is facing sharp criticism among Americans who oppose his support of Israel. The administration in February asked Israel to provide assurances that U.S.-made weapons were being used by Israel Defense Forces in Gaza in accordance with international law. Israel provided a signed letter of assurances in March. The Israeli officials said the ammunition shipment to Israel was stopped last week. (…) The White House declined to comment. (…) The Pentagon, the State Department and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office didn’t immediately respond to questions.

[contemplatingoutlander]

President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city Rafah, administration officials said on Tuesday night, a sign of the growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem over the conduct of the war. The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared could be dropped on Rafah, where more than one million Gazans have taken refuge, the officials said. The administration is reviewing whether to hold back future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions. The decision to delay the delivery of the 3,500 bombs was the first time that Mr. Biden has used his power to curtail arms as an instrument to influence Israel’s approach to the war since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack.

It's about time.

[girlactionfigure]

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a clear and firm statement regarding arms shipments to Israel during a Bundestag session:

“We have supplied weapons to Israel. We will continue to supply weapons to Israel. New arms shipments will be coming soon. This is the position of the German government.”

(Gets applauded)

Gott segne Sie, Bundeskanzler Scholz.

[originalleftist]

Blocking US weapons to Israel "on the table".

Now, this is a statement from a Senator, not the White House, and Biden has recently made clear that a total ban on arms shipments is not on the table (he specified maintaining the Iron Dome, which is a defensive system).

But this does underscore that America's support for Israel is NOT a blank check for Benjamin Netanyahu to do whatever he wants.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Biden administration paused a shipment of US-made ammunition to Israel, according to a source familiar with the matter, who did not disclose why the decision was made. The hold is not connected to a potential Israeli operation in Rafah and doesn’t affect other shipments moving forward, the source said.

Asked about the paused shipment, a National Security Council spokesperson cited ongoing security assistance to Israel.

“The United States has surged billions of dollars in security assistance to Israel since the October 7 attacks, passed the largest ever supplemental appropriation for emergency assistance to Israel, led an unprecedented coalition to defend Israel against Iranian attacks, and will continue to do what is necessary to ensure Israel can defend itself from the threats it faces,” the spokesperson said.

Axios first reported the paused ammunition shipment.

US officials have maintained that there is no change in policy toward Israel. And last month, Biden signed a foreign aid bill that included $26 billion for the Israel-Hamas conflict — including $15 billion in Israeli military aid, $9 billion in humanitarian aid for Gaza and $2.4 billion for regional US military operations.

But US officials remain concerned about a potential Israeli operation in Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have been sheltering.

The US is currently involved in intensive negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage deal in the Israel-Hamas war.

Over the weekend, Israel and Hamas have remained locked in a back and forth over who to blame for stalled ceasefire talks even after the latest round of negotiations in Cairo created some cause for optimism. Both sides blamed the other for extreme views, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taking issue with Hamas’ demand that Israel withdraw from Gaza.

CIA Director Bill Burns, who had been in Cairo for the ceasefire negotiations over the weekend, also went to Doha to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. He will remain in Doha on Monday, despite previous plans to go to Israel, a source familiar with his meetings told CNN.

Burns has acted as a key interlocutor for the United States in the multiparty talks between Israel, Hamas, Egypt, and Qatar over a release of hostages held in Gaza that would be paired with a temporary ceasefire.

It’s unclear why Burns’ stay in Doha was extended or what may have changed. Sources have consistently noted how fluid the negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire are.

The US has sought to increase the pressure on Hamas to accept what is thought to be the most recent proposal — which sources previously told CNN would require the group to release as many as 33 hostages kidnapped from Israel in exchange for a pause in hostilities in Gaza — while also trying to prevent the Israeli military from launching a ground offensive on Rafah.

Even with a deal in place, Netanyahu has said Israel could still enter Rafah as it looks to eliminate the threat from Hamas.

[immaculatasknight]

Genocide Joe falls to his knees

[archaalen]

Netanyahu again claims the US is withholding arms shipments, days after Washington denies it

[plethoraworldatlas]

The straightforward demand consistently made by human rights experts, a top European Union official, and college students across the U.S. and in a growing number of countries formed the basis for a Global Day of Action on Thursday, with 250 groups organizing direct actions to call on governments around the world to "Stop Sending Arms" to Israel.

Groups including Amnesty International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the Center for Jewish Nonviolence helped organize actions in at least 12 countries, "with a strategic emphasis on countries with significant arms exports" and an "aim to resonate globally."

Protest events including rallies, "die-ins," and the projection of messages and images on government buildings were organized in countries including the United States—the top supplier of arms to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)—Canada, Germany, Australia, South Korea, and Slovakia.

"The Global Day of Action must serve as a wake-up call to states that continue to supply arms to all parties to the conflict in Gaza that they are at risk of being complicit in war crimes and other violations of international law," said Erika Guevara Rosas, senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns at Amnesty International.

The groups and their supporters amplified the global campaign on social media using the hashtags #StopSendingArms and #CeasefireNOW.

[kropotkindersurprise]

August 5, 2024 - Palestine Action used a repurposed prison van to crash through the fences and the gates at the heavily-secured Bristol-based research, development and manufacturing hub for Israel's biggest arms producer, Elbit Systems, where they smashed hundreds of thousands of pounds worh of equipment and merchandise.

In this video you can see activists directly smashing high-tech quadcopters that the Israelis have used over and over to gun down innocent people gathering in hospitals or around humanitarian aid shipments. Israel has slaughtered hundreds of people in this way, a naked, unashamed war crime that kind of disappears among all the other war crimes that Israel commits daily, supported by their unconditional american friends Biden and Harris. [video]

[eowyntheavenger]

Americans, these are things we are NOT saying in 2024:

"Voting blue won't solve anything." Yes it will: if enough of us do it, it will solve a problem called Trump's second term in the White House. We unfortunately live in a two-party system. If you refuse to vote, you're effectively voting for Trump. I shouldn't need to explain this to people, yet here we are.

"It doesn't matter who's president. Both candidates are the same anyway." No, they are REALLY not. Biden was never my first choice, and his shipments of arms to Israel are despicable, but don't try to tell me even for a second that a second Trump term would be the same for the world as a second Biden term.

"But voting blue won't fix [fundamental underlying problem in America]." Voting for Democrats cannot fix every issue, this is true. But by saying this and ONLY this you are discouraging people from voting by making them feel hopeless. Voting is one of many tools in our arsenal, not the only tool, but an important one, and it does matter.

"You shouldn't vote blue, you should do [other thing] instead." See above: you can vote and protest and organize at the same time. It's not either/or. You can do it all. Stop discouraging voters from exercising their rights under the guise of leftism.

"Voting is just legitimizing government power. It makes you part of the system." Literally just shut up. Women and people of color didn't fight for their voting rights to have you say things like this. If you live in America and you can legally vote, then you should fucking vote, and vote blue. There is no neutral option.

"Voting blue just makes you complicit in [this bad policy]." Inaction, and allowing Trump to have a second term, is worse for the entire world than any Democrat policy. Yes, even that one. Voting is not about finding a perfect unproblematic candidate. It is about choosing the lesser of two evils.

"Voting doesn't work because—" STOP IT. STOP DISCOURAGING PEOPLE FROM VOTING.

You know who wants you NOT to vote? Trump supporters, that's who. You should be suspicious of ANYONE who is suggesting that your vote doesn't matter, or that both candidates are the same, or that Biden's policy on XYZ means you shouldn't vote for him. Trump supporters aren't trying to get your vote by saying, "Vote for Trump!" They're trying to get your vote by DISCOURAGING YOU FROM VOTING AT ALL.

I don't like Biden either, but Trump is unequivocally worse. Voting doesn't fix everything, but it is the minimum fucking requirement of living in a democracy. Voting for president has real, tangible, immediate impacts on people's lives, and choosing not to vote is not the rebellion you think it is, it is just relinquishing your voice. So fucking vote. THIS IS A GROUP PROJECT AND DAMN IT WE ARE NOT FAILING BECAUSE OF YOU.

[eretzyisrael]

by Vijeta Uniyal

With Israeli troops engaged in pitched battles against well-armed and fortified terrorist forces across Gaza, the military “noted a recent reduction of American arms supplies,” the article added.

Prime Minister Netanyahu on Saturday approved a military and humanitarian plan for capturing the Hamas stronghold, the Israeli media revealed.

The NY Sun reported Monday:

President Biden, keeping Prime Minister Netanyahu at arm’s length, is reportedly considering leaving Israel short of the armaments it needs to fight Hamas. Such a politically based move risks harming America’s global interests. By Sunday, Israel must tell America that it is complying with international restrictions on arms supplies, including by facilitating ample humanitarian assistance to Gaza, the national security adviser, Jacob Sullivan, told reporters Monday, adding that it is yet to do so. Meanwhile, a Jerusalem official noted a recent reduction of American arms supplies to Israel, ABC news reports. The Israel Defense Force is running out of 155 mm artillery shells and 120 mm tank shells, as well as sensitive guidance equipment, the official said. (…) In a deep analysis of the Gaza war, the chairman of urban warfare studies at West Point, John Spencer, concluded that Israel “has painstakingly followed the laws of armed conflict and implemented many steps to prevent civilian casualties, despite enormous challenges.” Denying arms to Israel, then, would be a “political decision” that is “not backed by what has actually happened in Israel and Gaza,” Mr. Spencer tells the Sun. It could also backfire if the IDF runs out of precision bombs, Mr. Roggio adds. As in Iraq during the war there, he says, once supply of such arms dwindles, a military quickly moves to using less discriminating munitions, resulting in higher civilian casualty rates.

Biden tells Netanyahu not to attack Rafah stronghold without ‘Washington’s approval’

The revelation comes as President Joe Biden ‘warned’ Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu not to undertake the planned large-scale military operation in Rafah aimed at eliminating Hamas leadership and freeing the remaining hostages.

In a phone conversation that took place on Monday, Biden “warned” the Israeli prime minister “not to act without approval from Washington in a stern phone call on Monday,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Israel lacks a viable military strategy to eliminate Hamas in Rafah,” the U.S. president said, according to the newspaper.

The Qatari-funded Al Jazeera called it the “strongest public warning yet to Israel against invading” the terrorist bastion.

The NBC News reported the phone call:

During a critical phone call Monday, President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Israel’s carrying out a planned military operation in Rafah, the White House said. “Our position is that Hamas should not be allowed a safe haven in Rafah or anywhere else, but a major ground operation there would be a mistake,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said at the White House briefing where he outlined the leaders’ conversation. “It would lead to more innocent civilian deaths, worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepen the anarchy in Gaza and further isolate Israel internationally,” Sullivan added.

Netanyahu to Biden: “We don’t have any other choice.”

Defying Biden, Netanyahu vowed to go ahead with the planned military operation against the terrorists in Rafah, the Israeli TV channel i23NEWS reported Tuesday:

Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly told a closed meeting of the Foreign Affairs Knesset committee that “The Americans asked us not to carry out the operation in Rafah, but we don’t have any other choice. We need to have control over the Philadelphi Corridor [Hamas’s main weapons supply route on the Egyptian border].”

[sayruq]

In the one hundred fifty days after October 7, Israel killed thirty-one thousand Palestinians, injured seventy-two thousand, displaced 1.7 million, and razed or damaged more than half of Gaza’s buildings. Joe Biden sent over one hundred weapons shipments to Israel during the same stretch. In a recent classified briefing, US officials told members of Congress that the Biden administration approved and delivered more than one hundred separate weapons sales to Israel in the one hundred fifty days after October 7, “amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid,” the Washington Post reported on Wednesday. That works out to one new arms deal every thirty-six hours, on average.

[i-am-aprl]

BREAKING: Canada has become the first major Western ally of Israel to halt weapons exports to Israel.

Canada's parliament passed a non-binding motion calling on the government to stop sending weapons to Israel and the Foreign Minister has since confirmed that they will end its weapons shipments.

While the move falls short of a full arms embargo, it has drawn strong criticism from Israeli officials who are afraid it could trigger a domino effect among other Western countries.

[imanes]

"Refusal to handle military equipment for war in Palestine

While a genocide is underway in Palestine, workers at the various airports in Belgium are seeing weapons headed for war zones.

The loading and unloading of these weapons enables the resupplying of organizations killing innocent people.

We, the different unions active in the ground handling sector, call on our members not to handle flights that ship military material to Palestine/Israel as there were also clear agreements and rules at the start of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine.

We call for an immediate ceasefire and ask the Belgian governments to be consistent and not to tolerate arms shipments through Belgian airports. As unions, we declare our solidarity with those who are taking action for peace.

The common trade union front"

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Israel used a US weapon in a March airstrike which killed seven healthcare workers in southern Lebanon, according to a Guardian analysis of shrapnel found at the site of the attack, which was described by Human Rights Watch as a violation of international law.

Seven volunteer paramedics, aged between 18 and 25, were killed in the 27 March attack on an ambulance center belonging to the Lebanese Succor Association in the town of al-Habariyeh in south Lebanon on 27 March.

The Guardian examined the remnants of a 500lb Israeli MPR bomb and a US-manufactured Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) recovered by first responders from the scene of the attack. Pictures of the shrapnel sent by The Guardian were further verified by Human Rights Watch and an independent arms expert.

JDAMs are guidance kits produced by US aerospace company Boeing which attach to 500-2,000lb “dumb bombs” and convert them into GPS-guided precision missiles. They have been key to Israel’s war effort in Gaza and Lebanon, and have been one of the most requested munitions from the US.

Shrapnel recovered from the al-Habariyeh attack included a fragment with writing identifying it as a “bomb MPR 500”, as well as the parts of a JDAM which clip the bomb to the guidance system and remnants of its motor.

Human Rights Watch said that its own investigation concluded that the strike on the healthcare center was unlawful and should have implications for US military assistance to Israel.

“Israel’s assurances that it is using US weapons lawfully are not credible. As Israel’s conduct in Gaza and Lebanon continues to violate international law, the Biden administration should immediately suspend arms sales to Israel,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch.

Five days after the attack on healthcare workers in Lebanon, Israel killed another seven aid workers employed by the World Central Kitchen in Gaza. This attack led to global outrage and was called a “serious mistake” by Israel.

The revelation of Israel’s use of US weaponry in an unlawful attack comes as the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is set to deliver a report to Congress on 8 May on whether he finds credible Israel’s assurances that its use of US weapons do not violate US or international Law.

The Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said that the attack on al-Habariyeh should be reflected in Blinken’s report to Congress.

“These reports are deeply concerning and must be fully investigated by the Biden administration, and their findings should certainly be included in the NSM-20 report that is due to be submitted to the Congress on May 8,” Van Hollen said in an email.

Public pressure is mounting to limit or stop US weapons transfers to Israel as more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military operation in Gaza, launched in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack which killed 1,200 Israelis.

In Lebanon, the attack on al-Habariyah shook the country, with hundreds showing up to pay homage at the funeral of the young medical workers: twin brothers Hussein and Ahmad al-Shaar, 18; Abdulrahman al-Shaar, 19; Mohammad Hamoud, 21; Mohammad al-Farouk Aatwi, 23; Abdullah Aatwi, 24; and Baraa Abu Kaiss, 24.

The ambulance center had been set up in the small village in south Lebanon at the end of October, as cross-border clashes between Hezbollah and Israel began to intensify.

The airstrike came without warning between 12:30 and 1am as the volunteers were on call for the night shift. No fighting had been reported in the area that day.

The 500lb bomb leveled the two-story building, with the force of the blast hurling four of the volunteers from the center and trapping three others under the rubble.

An Israeli military spokesperson said that the airstrike in al-Habariyeh killed a “prominent terrorist belonging to Jamaa Islamiya”. Jamaa Islamiya is a Lebanese Islamist political group which also has an armed wing that has fought alongside Hezbollah against Israel since 7 October.

A representative of Jamaa Islamiya said that while some of the paramedics belonged to the group, none of them were members of its armed wing.

The Guardian asked the Israel Defense Forces which of the paramedics they killed were militants and what steps the IDF took to minimise civilian harms in the strike, but received no reply.

Three first responders, as well as witnesses present during the rescue operation, said that only seven bodies were recovered from the rubble: those of the medical volunteers.

“We examined every centimeter looking for parts of bodies and their possessions. We saw nothing military-related. We knew [the victims] personally, so we could identify their remains,” Samer Hardan, the head of the local Lebanese civil defense center who participated in the rescue operation, said.

The volunteers, most of them young university students, joined the ambulance corps after the war started – out of what their parents said was a sense of duty to their community.

“I told them that it was dangerous to do this type of work, but they said that they accepted the risk. I don’t know what Israel was thinking – these were young people excited to help others,” said Kassem al-Shaar, whose twin sons Ahmad and Hussein were killed in the airstrike.

Under the 1997 Leahy law, the US defense and state departments are prohibited from providing assistance to foreign security forces when there is “credible information” that they have committed gross violations of human rights.

The Guardian reported in January that internal state department policies have spared Israel from application of that law.

A spokesperson for the US National Security Council said it was aware of reports of the attack on al-Habariyeh and that it was in touch with its Israeli counterparts to get more information.

“The US is constantly working to ensure defense articles provided by the US are being used consistent with applicable domestic and international law. If findings show violations, we take action,” the spokesperson said.

According to Josh Paul, a non-resident fellow with Democracy for the Arab World Now, a democracy and human rights non-profit, and former state department official involved in the weapons transfer process, arms transfers containing munitions like JDAMs are approved with little scrutiny.

“The state department has approved several of these transfers on a 48-hour turnaround. There is no policy concern on any munitions to Israel other than white phosphorus and cluster bombs,” Paul said.

Israel has relied heavily on US transfers of large dumb bombs, particularly the 500-2,000lb MK series, and accompanying JDAMs to fight Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. According to Paul, JDAMs have been some of the “key items” Israel has requested from the US in the past six months.

Human rights groups have raised concerns about Israel’s use of these dumb bombs – and the potential complicity of the US in any misuse of the weapons by retrofitting them with guidance kits.

In December, Amnesty International called on the US to stop arms transfer to Israel after it found remnants of JDAMs in two attacks in Gaza which killed more than 43 people.

Since 7 October, Israel has killed 16 medical workers in Lebanon, including 10 in a single day at the end of March. Medical personnel are protected under international law and targeting them is considered a war crime.

In the same period, 380 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 72 civilians. On the Israeli side, 11 soldiers and eight civilians have been killed.

“My sons wanted to do humanitarian work, and look what happened to them. Israel wouldn’t dare to do what they did if it wasn’t for the US standing behind them,” al-Shaar said.

[immaculatasknight]

Dark comedy in the Oval Office