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"The Biden-Harris administration gave Israel at least 3,000 of these munitions from October-December 2023 alone," noted one expert.
At least one U.S.-supplied bomb was used by Israel in a Thursday night airstrike that killed at least 22 people and wounded over 115 more in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, according to a Guardiananalysis published on Friday.
The crisis, conflict, and arms division of Human Rights Watch and a former U.S. military explosives expert analyzed shrapnel from a bomb used by Israel in the strike on an apartment complex in the densely populated Basta neighborhood near central Beirut and concluded it came from a joint direct attack munition (JDAM) manufactured by Boeing.
"The bolt pattern, its position, and the shape of the remnant are consistent with the tail fin of a U.S.-made JDAM guidance kit for MK80-series air-dropped munitions," HRW senior researcher Richard Weir told The Guardian.
MK80-series JDAMs are attached to so-called "dumb" bombs ranging from 500 to 2,000 pounds to convert them into GPS-guided "smart" munitions.
"The use of these weapons in densely populated areas, like this one, places civilians and civilian objects in the immediate area at grave risk of immediate and lasting harm," Weir said.
In May, the Biden administration—which has approved tens of billions of dollars in armed aid to Israel, even as the key ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice— suspended transfers of 500- and 2,000-pound bombs over fears that the devastating munitions would be used in airstrikes on Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge.
By that time, Israel had already dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs—which the U.S. military avoids using in civilian areas because they can destroy entire city blocks—on Gaza, including in an October 31 attack on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp that killed more than 120 civilians.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said in June that Israel's use of 2,000-pound bombs and other U.S.-supplied weapons likely violated international law by deliberately targeting civilians in disproportionate attacks. Israeli military commanders have also been criticized for using artificial intelligence-based target selection to approve bombings they know will cause high civilian casualties.
The Biden administration resumed shipments of 500-pound bombs to Israel in July, while keeping the temporary proscription on 2,000-pound munitions in place.
While Israeli forces and Hezbollah have been engaged in cross-border attacks since the armed wing of the Lebanon--based political and paramilitary group began firing rockets and other weapons at Israel in solidarity with Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, the intensity of Israel's assault has increased dramatically since last month.
Since then, two waves of Israeli-engineered detonations targeting thousands of pagers and other communication devices killed dozens of people including Hezbollah members and civilians, two of them children. Later in September, Israeli forces unleashed an aerial bombing campaign in Lebanon, including the September 27 strike that assassinated Hezbollah political leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior members of the group.
Expert analysis concluded that Israel used U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs in the strike on a densely populated suburb of Beirut, which flattened several residential buildings.
Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health says that more than 2,200 people—including at least 127 children—have been killed and over 10,000 others wounded by Israeli forces since last October. Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians and 39 soldiers in Israel over the same period.
On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres joined foreign ministers from countries including China, France, Italy, Indonesia, and Turkey, as well as human rights organizations around the world, in condemning Israeli attacks on U.N. personnel in southern Lebanon after two Indonesian U.N. peacekeepers were wounded by Israeli tank fire.
"It has been difficult for the U.S. public, journalists, and members of Congress to get an accurate understanding of the amount of military equipment and financial assistance that the U.S. government has provided."
U.S. armed aid to Israel and related spending on American militarism in the Middle East cost taxpayers at least $22.76 billion over the past year, according to new research published Monday.
The Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs—which has long been the premier source for statistics on the human and economic costs of ongoing U.S.-led post-9/11 wars and militarism in the Middle East and beyond—called the $22.76 billion estimate "conservative."
"This figure includes the $17.9 billion the U.S. government has approved in security assistance for Israeli military operations in Gaza and elsewhere since October 7—substantially more than in any other year since the U.S. began granting military aid to Israel in 1959," report authors Linda Bilmes, William Hartung, and Stephen Semler wrote. "Yet the report describes how this is only a partial amount of the U.S. financial support provided during this war."
In addition to the repeated multibillion-dollar rounds of military aid to Israel, related U.S. operations in the region, particularly bombing and shipping defense in and near Yemen—where Houthi rebels have attacked maritime commerce and launched missiles at Israel—have cost over $2 billion since last October.
"It has been difficult for the U.S. public, journalists, and members of Congress to get an accurate understanding of the amount of military equipment and financial assistance that the U.S. government has provided to Israel's military during the past year of war," the report states. "There is likewise little U.S. public awareness of the costs of the United States military's own related operations in the region, particularly in and around Yemen."
The analysis adds that regional hostilities "have escalated to become the most sustained military campaign by U.S. forces since the 2016-19 air war" against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
"The Costs of War project has an obligation to look at the consequences of the U.S. backing of Israel's military operations after October 7, especially as it reverberates throughout the region," Costs of War director Stephanie Savell said in a statement. "Our project examines the human and budgetary costs of U.S. militarism at home and abroad, and for the last year, people in Gaza have suffered the highest consequences imaginable."
According to the Gaza Health Ministry and international agencies, Israel's yearlong assault on Gaza has left at least 149,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing, and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened. U.S. military aid to Israel has continued in successive waves, even as the country stands trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
The Hamas-led October 7 attack on resulted in more than 1,100 Israeli and other deaths—at least some of which were caused by so-called "friendly fire" and intentional targeting under the Hannibal Directive—with more than 240 people kidnapped.
Although the Costs of War Project report mainly covers U.S. aid to Israel since last October, it also notes that since 1948—the year the modern state of Israel was founded, largely through the ethnic cleansing of Palestine's Arabs—American taxpayers have contributed over a quarter trillion inflation-adjusted dollars to the key Mideast ally.
A second report published Monday by the Costs of War Project found that around 90% of Gaza's population has been forcibly displaced by the Israeli onslaught and 96% of Gazans face "acute levels of food insecurity." The publication cites a letter sent last week by a group of U.S. physicians to President Joe Biden—who has repeatedly declared his "unwavering" support for Israel—stating that "it is likely that the death toll from this conflict is already greater than 118,908, an astonishing 5.4% of Gaza's population." That figure includes 62,000 deaths due to starvation.
"In addition to killing people directly through traumatic injuries, wars cause 'indirect deaths' by destroying, damaging, or causing deterioration of economic, social, psychological and health conditions," report author Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins wrote. "These deaths result from diseases and other population-level health effects that stem from war's destruction of public infrastructure and livelihood sources, reduced access to water and sanitation, environmental damage, and other such factors."
The new report comes less than two weeks after Israel secured yet another U.S. armed aid package, this one worth $8.7 billion. Meanwhile, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it faced a nearly $9 billion shortfall for Hurricane Helene relief efforts.
The president is at risk of losing support from Muslim, African American, and young voters in key swing states.
As I recently wrote in these pages: “The unpopularity of President Joe Biden’s Israel-Gaza policy among Arab Americans, African Americans, and young people could well flip the electoral vote to hand former President Donald Trump the 2024 election. A few tens of thousands of these voters in a handful of swing states who likely would have voted for Biden but vote for Trump, a third party, or just stay home could well be enough for Trump to win the presidency legally.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded to Biden’s mild attempts to convince him to negotiate a cease-fire deal to release the hostages and to avoid a massive ground attack on Rafah by essentially telling Biden to “f**k off.”
After a 40-minute phone call with Biden earlier this week Netanyahu rejected calls to continue negotiating a cease-fire for hostage release deal and wrote on X: “My position can be summed up in two sentences: 1. Israel rejects out-of-hand international diktats about a final-status solution with the Palestinians… 2. Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.”
If Biden and his congressional allies could break up the bill into separate parts for military aid and border security, they can further break up the bill into separate parts concerning the proposed arms sales for Israel and those for Ukraine.
As The Wall Street Journalreported: “Biden has shown no willingness to use the biggest tool in his arsenal: weapons sales to Israel. The president has dismissed any talk of slowing arms sales to Israel, U.S. officials said, and instead has largely relied on the bully pulpit to try to express discontent.” Biden’s so-called “bully pulpit” has been totally ineffective and instead demonstrates nothing but Biden’s weakness in the face of Netanyahu giving him the middle finger. Among other things, it shows that Netanyahu would like to help his friend Donald Trump defeat Biden.
Meanwhile, Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress have continued to tie a proposed bill for $60 billion in much-needed supplies to Ukraine to help them stave off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression with $14.1 billion in new military aid to Israel, which is completely unneeded to pursue a guerrilla war against Hamas which lacks most advanced weaponry.
That bill originally included the bipartisan compromise with Senate Republicans on so-called “border security.” But when House Republicans rejected that compromise, the Democrats stripped the border security provisions from the bill and are now trying to get the rest of the bill, including the military aid to Israel and Ukraine, past reluctant House Republicans.
If Biden and his congressional allies could break up the bill into separate parts for military aid and border security, they can further break up the bill into separate parts concerning the proposed arms sales for Israel and those for Ukraine (plus aid to Taiwan and humanitarian aid for Palestinians).
Biden must stop advocating for more unconditional military aid to Israel. Instead, he can add conditions that Israel: (i) stop the slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza; (ii) agree to a hostage for cease-fire deal; and (iii) commit to a pathway to a two-state solution which both recognizes Israel’s right to exist with security and the right of Palestinians to their own sovereignty, at the very least.
As Democratic U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), and Peter Welch (Vt.) wrote in The Washington Post: “Given the lack of a meaningful response to the Biden administration’s appeals to the Netanyahu government, the responsibility to lead falls upon the United States. It falls on the United States because we are the largest provider of military assistance to Israel. It falls on us because the United States has supplied many of the bombs and artillery shells that Israel has employed in its Gaza campaign.”
Biden putting conditions on further aid to Israel is not only the morally right thing to do and consistent with American values; it could help prevent Biden’s Electoral College loss to Trump due to the defection of Muslim, African American, and young voters in key swing states.
A Trump victory would be cheered by Netanyahu, Putin, and other authoritarian rulers around the world.