The announcement last week by the United
States of the largest military aid
package in its history – to Israel – was
a win for both sides.
Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu could boast
that his lobbying had boosted aid from
$3.1 billion a year to $3.8bn – a 22 per
cent increase – for a decade starting in
2019.
Mr Netanyahu has presented this as a
rebuff to those who accuse him of
jeopardising Israeli security interests
with his government’s repeated affronts
to the White House.
In the past weeks alone, defence
minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared
last year’s nuclear deal between
Washington and Iran with the 1938 Munich
pact, which bolstered Hitler; and Mr
Netanyahu has implied that US opposition
to settlement expansion is the same as
support for the “ethnic cleansing” of
Jews.
American president Barack Obama,
meanwhile, hopes to stifle his own
critics who insinuate that he is
anti-Israel. The deal should serve as a
fillip too for Hillary Clinton, the
Democratic party’s candidate to succeed
Mr Obama in November’s election.
In reality, however, the Obama
administration has quietly punished Mr
Netanyahu for his misbehaviour. Israeli
expectations of a $4.5bn-a-year deal
were whittled down after Mr Netanyahu
stalled negotiations last year as he
sought to recruit Congress to his battle
against the Iran deal.
In fact, Israel already receives
roughly $3.8bn – if Congress’s
assistance on developing missile defence
programmes is factored in. Notably,
Israel has been forced to promise not to
approach Congress for extra funds.
The deal takes into account neither
inflation nor the dollar’s depreciation
against the shekel.
A bigger blow still is the White
House’s demand to phase out a special
exemption that allowed Israel to spend
nearly 40 per cent of aid locally on
weapon and fuel purchases. Israel will
soon have to buy all its armaments from
the US, ending what amounted to a
subsidy to its own arms industry.
Nonetheless, Washington’s renewed
military largesse – in the face of
almost continual insults – inevitably
fuels claims that the Israeli tail is
wagging the US dog. Even The New York
Times has described the aid package as
“too big”.
Since the 1973 war, Israel has
received at least $100bn in military
aid, with more assistance hidden from
view. Back in the 1970s, Washington paid
half of Israel’s military budget. Today
it still foots a fifth of the bill,
despite Israel’s economic success.
But the US expects a return on its
massive investment. As the late Israeli
politician-general Ariel Sharon once
observed, Israel has been a US
“aircraft carrier” in the Middle East,
acting as the regional bully and
carrying out operations that benefit
Washington.
Almost no one blames the US for
Israeli attacks that wiped out Iraq’s
and Syria’s nuclear programmes. A
nuclear-armed Iraq or Syria would have
deterred later US-backed moves at regime
overthrow, as well as countering the
strategic advantage Israel derives from
its own nuclear arsenal.
In addition, Israel’s US-sponsored
military prowess is a triple boon to the
US weapons industry, the country’s most
powerful lobby. Public funds are
siphoned off to let Israel buy goodies
from American arms makers. That, in
turn, serves as a shop window for other
customers and spurs an endless and
lucrative game of catch-up in the rest
of the Middle East.
The first F-35 fighter jets to arrive
in Israel in December – their various
components produced in 46 US states –
will increase the clamour for the
cutting-edge warplane.
Israel is also a “front-line
laboratory”, as former Israeli army
negotiator Eival Gilady admitted at the
weekend, that develops and field-tests
new technology Washington can later use
itself.
The US is planning to buy back the
missile interception system Iron Dome –
which neutralises battlefield threats of
retaliation – it largely paid for.
Israel works closely too with the US in
developing cyberwarfare, such as the
Stuxnet worm that damaged Iran’s
civilian nuclear programme.
But the clearest message from
Israel’s new aid package is one
delivered to the Palestinians:
Washington sees no pressing strategic
interest in ending the occupation. It
stood up to Mr Netanyahu over the Iran
deal but will not risk a damaging clash
over Palestinian statehood.
Some believe that Mr Obama signed the
aid package to win the credibility
necessary to overcome his domestic
Israel lobby and pull a rabbit from the
hat: an initiative, unveiled shortly
before he leaves office, that corners Mr
Netanyahu into making peace.
Hopes have been raised by an expected
meeting at the United Nations in New
York on Wednesday. But their first talks
in 10 months are planned only to
demonstrate unity to confound critics of
the aid deal.
If Mr Obama really wanted to pressure
Mr Netanyahu, he would have used the aid
agreement as leverage. Now Mr Netanyahu
need not fear US financial retaliation,
even as he intensifies effective
annexation of the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu has drawn the right
lesson from the aid deal – he can act
against the Palestinians with continuing
US impunity.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-09-19/palestinians-lose-in-us-military-aid-deal-with-israel/#sthash.fL4Eq28N.dpuf
Do Western Nations Care About Yemeni Lives
Or Saudi Blood Money?
By Medea Benjamin
October 13, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- How much is the life of a Yemeni worth?
Not much, according to the Saudi regime that
has been bombing and starving the people of
Yemen for since March 2015, or to the
Saudi’s western backers, particularly the US
and UK, which have been supplying the Saudi
regime with weapons, military training,
logistical support and diplomatic cover for
its dirty interventionist war.
The
latest outrage is the October 8 bombing of a
packed funeral hall in Yemen’s capital city
of Sanaa. This horrendous attack killed more
than 140 people and injured about 600 more.
On
the heels of this attack comes a blistering
report by Reuters showing,
through Freedom of Information Act
documents, that the Obama administration
went ahead with a $1.3 billion arms sale to
Saudi Arabia last year despite warnings from
US officials that the United States could be
implicated in war crimes for supporting a
Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen that has
killed thousands of civilians.
What has been the US and UK governments’
response to the funeral bombing? The British
government announced UK arms sales to the
Saudis is “under careful and continual
review”, while the Obama administration
issued a statement that US support for
Saudis is not a “blank check” and that the
US was “prepared to adjust our support so as
to better align with US principles, values
and interests.”
The
“principles, values and interests” of the
Western powers, however, have been to buy
cheap Saudi oil and make record profits by
selling massive quantities of weapons to one
of the most repressive countries in the
world.
Ever since the founding of the kingdom in
1932, the West has allied itself with a
government that beheads nonviolent
dissidents, forces women to live under the
dictates of male guardians, treats foreign
workers like indentured servants, spreads
the intolerant Wahhabi version of Islam
around the world, funds terrorist groups,
crushes democratic uprisings in neighboring
countries like Bahrain and now wages a
catastrophic war in one of the poorest
countries in the Arab world, Yemen.
Yemenis are furious about the latest Saudi
massacre, as well as Western complicity and
the lack of action on the part of the
international community. Thousands marched
on the UN headquarters demanding a UN
investigation. Others are amassing at the
Saudi border, calling for revenge and
perhaps sparking an even wider conflict.
In
the US, Senator Chris Murphy from
Connecticut is one of the few
representatives
expressing outrage. He said the Saudi
attack on funeral party follows months of
attacks on schools, homes, and hospitals.
“If the U.S. is serious when it says our
support for Saudi Arabia isn’t a blank
check, then it’s time to prove it – because
it’s clear the Saudi-led coalition isn’t
listening. The administration should pull US
support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen
because it’s harming America’s national
security, enabling terrorist groups to
thrive, and killing innocent civilians.”
What can we do?
Join us in demanding that our government
stop arming the Saudi regime.
Support the courageous human rights
defenders inside Saudi Arabia who are trying
to reform their government through
nonviolent means, such as Saudi Civil and
Political Rights Association, also known as
ACPRA, whose eleven members – all prominent
human rights defenders – are suffering
lengthy prison sentences.
Call on the United Nations to form an
independent international commission to
investigate war crimes in Yemen.
The
time for review and mild statements of
condemnation is over. The blood of the
Yemeni people is on our hands. If the
Western nations want to show that they value
the lives of Yemenis over the profits of
their weapons industries, they must
immediately stop providing
the bombs, the bombers, the armored
tanks, the Apache helicopters, the missiles,
the howitzers, the training, the refueling,
and all other military support to the Saudi
criminals. If Western values do not
prioritize making blood money for General
Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and the
other companies that profit from war, let’s
prove it.
How much is the life of a
Yemeni worth? Not much, according to the
Saudi regime that has been bombing and
starving the people of Yemen since March
2015, or to the Saudi’s western backers,
particularly the US and UK, who have been
supplying the Saudi regime with weapons,
military training, logistical support, and
diplomatic cover for its dirty
interventionist war.
The latest outrage is the October 8 bombing
of a packed funeral hall in Yemen’s capital
city of Sanaa. This horrendous attack killed
more than 140 people and injured about 600
more. What have the US and UK governments’
response to this outrage been? The British
said UK arms sales to the Saudis is “under
careful and continual review”, while the
Obama administration issued a statement that
US support for Saudis is not a “blank check”
and that the US was “prepared to adjust our
support so as to better align with US
principles, values and interests.”
The “principles, values and interests” of
the Western powers, however, have been to
buy cheap Saudi oil and make record profits
by selling massive quantities of weapons to
one of the most repressive countries in the
world.
Ever since the founding of the kingdom in
1932, the West has allied itself with a
government that beheads non-violent
dissidents, forces women to live under the
dictates of male guardians, treats foreign
workers like indentured servants, spreads
the intolerant Wahhabi version of Islam
around the world, funds terrorist groups,
crushes democratic uprisings in neighboring
countries like Bahrain, and now wages a
catastrophic war in one of the poorest
countries in the Arab world, Yemen.
Yemenis are furious about the latest Saudi
massacre, as well as Western complicity and
the lack of action on the part of the
international community. Thousands marched
on the UN headquarters demanding a UN
investigation. Others are amassing at the
Saudi border, calling for revenge and
perhaps sparking an even wider conflict.
In the US, Senator Chris Murphy from
Connecticut is one of the few
representatives
expressing outrage. He said the Saudi
attack on funeral party follows months of
attacks on schools, homes, and hospitals.
“If the U.S. is serious when it says our
support for Saudi Arabia isn’t a blank
check, then it’s time to prove it — because
it’s clear the Saudi-led coalition isn’t
listening. The administration should pull
U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen
because it’s harming America’s national
security, enabling terrorist groups to
thrive, and killing innocent civilians.”
What can we do?
Join us in demanding that our government
stop arming the Saudi regime.
Support the courageous human rights
defenders inside Saudi Arabia who are trying
to reform their government through
nonviolent means, such as Saudi Civil and
Political Rights Association, also known as
ACPRA, whose eleven members - all prominent
human rights defenders -are suffering
lengthy prison sentences.
Call on the United Nations to form an
independent international commission to
investigate war crimes in Yemen.
The time for review and mild statements of
condemnation is over. The blood of the
Yemeni people is on our hands. If the
Western nations want to show that they value
the lives of Yemenis over the profits of
their weapons industries, they must
immediately stop providing
the bombs, the bombers, the armored
tanks, the Apache helicopters, the missiles,
the howitzers, the training, the refueling,
and all other military support to the Saudi
criminals. If Western values do not
prioritize making blood money for General
Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and the
other companies that profit from war, let’s
prove it.
Medea Benjamin,
cofounder of the peace group
CODEPINK, is author of Kingdom of the
Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection. |
