Josh Ruebner calls on US President Barack Obama to make US military aid to Israel consistent with the Arms Export Control Act, which limits the use of weapons given to foreign countries to “internal security” and “legitimate self-defence”, not the killing of innocent civilians and illegal occupation, as Israel is doing.
“The provision of US weapons to Israel at taxpayer expense has done nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to achieving a just and lasting peace. Rather, these weapons have had the exact opposite effect, as documented recently by Amnesty International, which pointed to US weapons as a prime factor “fueling” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
In pledging to trim ineffective spending, President Obama declared that “there will be no sacred cows and no pet projects. All across America, families are making hard choices, and it's time their government did the same.”
By asking earlier this month for 2.775 billion US dollars in military aid to Israel in his financial year 2010 budget request, it would seem that on this important policy issue President Obama's commitment is more rhetorical than substantive. Since 1949, according to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has provided to Israel more than 100 billion dollars in military and economic assistance. In 2007, the United States and Israel signed an agreement for 30 billion dollars in additional military aid up to FY2018.
Yet the provision of US weapons to Israel at taxpayer expense has done nothing to bring Israelis and Palestinians closer to achieving a just and lasting peace. Rather, these weapons have had the exact opposite effect, as documented recently by Amnesty International, which pointed to US weapons as a prime factor “fueling” the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, during the Bush administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 innocent Palestinian civilians, including more than 1,000 children. During its December 2008-January 2009 war on the occupied Gaza Strip alone, Israel killed nearly 1,200 non-combatants.
On average, for each day that President Bush sat in the Oval Office, Israel killed one Palestinian civilian, often with US weapons. Before Congress appropriates any additional military aid to Israel, it should insist upon President Obama providing a comprehensive and transparent review of the effects US weapons transfers to Israel have on Palestinian civilians. The Arms Export Control Act limits the use of US weapons given to a foreign country to “internal security” and “legitimate self-defence”.
If, after reviewing the impact of Israel's misuse of US weapons, the president and Congress cannot find the political will to sanction Israel for its violations of the Arms Export Control Act and prohibit future arms transfers as is required by law, then there are still steps that the US government should take to ensure that any future transfers are not used to commit human rights abuses but instead to promote US policy goals. For example, previous US loan guarantees to Israel have stipulated that funds cannot be used to support Israeli activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Conditioning US military aid to Israel in the same way would prevent these weapons from being used to kill innocent Palestinian civilians.
As President Obama has stated, “We can't sustain a system that bleeds billions of taxpayer dollars, on programmes that have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of politicians, lobbyists or interest groups. We simply can't afford it.” In regard to US aid to Israel, this is true as much from a budgetary standpoint as it is from a moral one.
Josh Ruebner is the National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
