It truly is pushing the envelope of lunacy to assume that this latest revelation was revelatory. US weapons, the wonks in Washington find, are being used by the Israeli Defense Forces to kill their opponents, many of them Palestinians, and most of them civilians. These are detailed in a report ordered by the White House pursuant to National Security Memorandum 20, also known as “National Security Memorandum on Safeguards and Accountability With Respect to Transferred Defense Articles and Defense Services.”
NSM-20 requires the Secretary of State to obtain credible and reliable assurances within 45 days from any country engaged in armed conflict in which US defence articles are used. The NSM-20 report, in addition to Israel, considers Colombia, Iraq, Kenya, Nigeria, Somalia and Ukraine. But Israel, by far, is the most significant, given that it is the most prominent recipient of US weapons. As John Ramming Chappell notes for Just Security, these include reported transfers of “bombs, artillery shells, precision guidance kits (which are attached to bombs for targeting purposes), thank ammunition, guided missiles, firearms, drones, various types of ammunition, and other weapons.”
The Israeli entry starts off with various qualifying conditions about the horror of the Gaza conflict. Hamas is blamed for embedding “itself deliberately within and underneath the civilian population to use civilians as human shields.” The scene is set.
In a pitiful dodge, the report claims it is “difficult to determine facts on the ground in an active war zone”, a state of mind that is bound to lend itself to justifications. “The nature of the conflict in Gaza and the compressed review period in this initial report amplify those challenges.”
The report acknowledges various “reported incidents to raise serious concerns” that US weaponry is being used in a manner not in conformity with international law. While it was “difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents,” it was “reasonable to assess that defense articles covered under NSM-20 have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with IHL [International Humanitarian Law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm.”
The discussion is filled with softening qualifiers. Israel had “the knowledge, experience, and tools to implement best practices for mitigating civilian harm in its military operations” but “results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases.”
Despite concerns about IHL violations, the report accepts that in Israel, there are “a number of ongoing, active criminal investigations pending and there are hundreds of cases under administrative review.” Surely this would be a troubling, rather than assuring fact.
The report goes on to reveal the view of the US Intelligence Community (IC) that, while Israel had “inflicted harm on civilians in military and security operations, potentially using US-provided equipment”, it had “no direct indication of Israel intentionally targeting civilians.” It could, however, “do more to avoid civilian harm.” How high a body count does one need before the intention to kill is evinced?
Mindful of the image of an ally, the report is seemingly less concerned by the staggering civilian death toll than “the impact of Israel’s military operations on humanitarian actors.” Despite the intervention of the US government and engagement between humanitarian organisations with Israeli officials regarding deconfliction and coordination procedures, “the IDF has struck humanitarian workers and facilities.”
Inexplicably, Israel gets a clean bill of health in terms of section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, which bars military aid to a state that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United states humanitarian assistance.” This, despite the acceptance that Israeli actions had “delayed or had a negative impact in the delivery of aid to Gaza.” Current levels of aid reaching Palestinian civilians “while improved” remained “insufficient”.
The assessment of Israel’s use of US weapons, all in all, is paltry. It glaringly omits making any specific adverse findings regarding breaches of international law. This proved to be a satisfactory state of affairs for Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who agreed with the “assessment that Israel has not violated International Humanitarian Law and that military assistance to support Israel’s security remains in the US interest and should continue.”
Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen begged to differ, noting the report’s failure “to do the hard work of making an assessment and ducks the ultimate questions that the report was designed to determine.”
In a fuller statement, Van Hollen identifies the “continuation of a disturbing pattern where the expertise and analyses of those working most closely on these issues at the State Department and at USAID have been swept aside to facilitate a predetermined policy outcome based on political convenience.”
While the Biden administration recently paused the transfer of a weapons shipment to Israel comprising 1,800 2000-pound bombs, and 1,700 500-pound bombs, Congressional sentiment is seemingly in favour of the status quo. Despite the grumbling of some lawmakers, the general view is that the business of supplying the IDF is a sound one. The killing of Palestinian civilians can, in all its ghoulishness and cruelty, continue.
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What a hypocrite, he seems to have forgotten Vietnam, when I was there during the TET offensive February 1968, the communists had taken the ancient capita Hue, and to recapture it would involve a lot of subarban fighting, when a marine general was given the task his words were ” IN ORDER TO SAVE HUE I MUST DESTROY IT” and nobody metioned civillian casualities, when he did just that.
In the Gaza the alleged high civillian casualities also includes Hamas and its supporters all listed as innocent civillians? and HAMAS is pretty loose with the truth.
No amount of towering weaselease can disguise the fact that the US is aiding and abetting a genocide,business as usual.in other words.There will be an almighty reckoning,sooner, rather than later,and it may well begin with an orange baby president.
Typical obscurantism from Uncle Sam, enough to (for idiots) conceal the brutality of their militarized commercial hegemony. Playing right into orbit of the criminally inclined lying and deceiving Netanyahu and Likud and their now flunky IDF.
They’ve had 70+ years to sort it out, but they don’t want to. The Israelis with their increasingly hysterical ‘Holy Land for the Chosen Ones’ manipulation, and Uncle Sam’s insistence at maintaining its Israeli suzerain as a military outpost to maintain the commercial / strategic objectives of its hegemony.
It started when Britain, France and Russia, then later Uncle Sam conspired that all in and east beyond the Levant (especially the Ottomans and Arabs) were trash.
In ways beyond their control now, the chooks are coming home to roost – big time.
The West has created a uncontrollable nuclear armed rabid pariah state in the form of Zionist Israel.
Western elites in politics, business, media, and church have brought shame on themselves and us. Either covertly or overtly they have supported or wilfully ignored the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by Zionists for well over 75 years. They stood against apartheid in South Africa but sanctioned and supported apartheid in Zionist Israel. History will be a very harsh judge. The Wests double standards and hypocrisy are there for all to see in their “rules based order” that ignores international law.
The question is is the West capable of undoing its folly without creating a nuclear WW3?
One is tired of blaming Biden’s administration for everything including Hamas and Netanyahu/IDF violence, but defence and security policies are normally bipartisan and long term, hence, why ignore the GOP; ditto locally, why ignore the LNP?
Because it’s a lazy RW MSM and influencer electoral tactics to denigrate centrist leadership as weak, to create doubts and antipathy amongst above median age &/or low info voters; open political campaigning for the right.
Have no doubts; the USA (United States of Apartheid) is a willing supplier of armaments to Israel from the US NE military industrial complex that are being paid for by the American taxpayers for the benefit of shareholders in those corporations.
So, the deliberate genocidal attacks causing the deaths of about 34,000 Palestinian mainly women & children is a stated deliberate NETANYAHU AND IDF policy to ”PUSH ALL PALESTINIANS INTO THE SEA” to make way for fresh ZION@ZI SUPREMACIST COLONISERS AND SETTLERS IN THE GAZA STRIP with their new residential housing provided by carpet-bagging American, European and Middle East entrepreneurs.
Remember how many American corporations had branches in, and did business with, the German regime 1933-1945. Especially the American banks including the antecedents of two POTUSes.
What a messed up and overrated country the The Divided States of Armageddon truly is. Lying, hypocritical, untrustworthy, deceitful, back-stabbing and just plain horrid. The worse ever experiment in to democratic government that failed and became the greediest capitalist country in the world believing itself to be the world’s ‘superior’ nation and protector of “god’s people”. Their foreign policies are all about making itself the wealthiest nation on earth and remaining that way at the expense of all the rest. If I was in any way religious I would be agreeing with the muslim nations in calling it “The Great Satan”.
STOP FUNDING GENOCIDE!!