- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
The Biden administration is preparing to send bombs and other weapons to Israel that would add to its military arsenal even as the U.S. pushes for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, according to current and former U.S. officials.
The proposed arms delivery includes roughly a thousand each of MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions that add precision guidance to bombs, and FMU-139 bomb fuses, the officials said. The arms are estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars. The proposed delivery is still being reviewed internally by the administration, a U.S. official said, and the details of the proposal could change before the Biden administration notifies congressional committee leaders who would need to approve the transfer.
The planned weapons transfer comes during a crucial moment in the war in Gaza as Israel prepares to launch an assault on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where more than one million Palestinians are sheltering from the war. Israel has said it needs to expand its military offensive in the area to attack Hamas militants hiding among civilians who have fled there from other areas of the strip.
An assessment of the proposed arms transfer drafted by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, and viewed by The Wall Street Journal, said the Israeli government requested “rapid acquisition of these items for the defense of Israel against continued and emerging regional threats.”
The assessment said there were no potential human rights concerns with the sale. “Israel takes effective action to prevent gross violations of human rights and to hold security forces responsible that violate those rights. In the past, Israel has been a transparent partner in U.S. investigations into allegations of defense article misuse,” the assessment says.
Because the best way to show the aggressor that you’re serious about demanding a ceasefire is to send BOMBS to them!
The official line is that the US is only sending weapons so that Israel can defend themselves, but how the fuck do you use a bomb defensively??
Use it on an orphanage or a hospital
The only US ally that can use a bomb defensively right now is Ukraine because they are actively being invaded by our most belligerent enemy. WTF aren’t we sending this equipment there instead?
Because this particular equipment isn’t suitable for the battlefields of Ukraine. Gravity and guided bombs are of little use in a theater where both sides have air defenses that make the use of bombers almost impossible.
I understand your sentiment but you absolutely can use a bomb defensively. You can use it in a CAS capability, to drop bridges to prevent enemy advances, etc., just look to Ukraine.
Israel is many things, but calling them “the” aggressor in this conflict is extremely dishonest.
Are you serious?
Yeah? Who has been killing and oppressing who for the past 75 years? Who’s suffered 20-30 times as many civilian casualties as the other? Paints a very clear picture of who’s being aggressive if you ask me…
Yeah, I’m seriously aware about the fact that there’s no such thing as a defensive bombing.
Haven’t you ever heard of a victim that occupies and bombs their oppressor 24/7? It’s called “nuance”… look it up.
XD
This conflict as we know it today started with the Arab nations jointly attacking the young nation of Israel. Egypt then occupied Gaza for decades, as did Jordan with the West Bank. Neither permitted the local Palestinian Arabs any influence on how they were being governed and the occupation regimes were generally authoritarian and oppressive.
You’re showing either ignorance or dishonesty by instead claiming “75 years of oppression”. This conflict is far more complex than that.
The lopsided civilian death toll primarily exists for two reasons: Israel goes to extreme lengths to protect its civilian population: Bomb shelters in nearly every home, early warning systems, missile defense systems. Palestinian leadership on the other hand openly encourages and forces as many civilians to die as possible, so that they can use them as political ammunition, both domestically and internationally, so that naive people like you repeat these numbers as if they were some gotcha that determines guilt. They are also routinely inflating death tolls and they stopped distinguishing between military and civilian deaths years ago, which further increases the numbers, as a sandal militia coming up against an experienced standing army will of course suffer disproportionately high losses in combat.
And yes of course you can use a bomb defensively in a military context. If you know an enemy force is about to attack you and you bomb them, the site of a planned ambush or their military infrastructure instead, is that not the defensive use of a bomb?
You skipped one step at the beginning where Israel took power by force in '48.
And by force you mean by UN mandate.
Might makes right arguments don’t resonate with me.
Then you should be glad that the Arab attempt at implementing this maxim was unsuccessful.
Framing the Arabs as the mighty over the Europeans is a new one for me.
I see this stuff all the time, and I still don’t quite know what to say.
I grew up on the same taking points as you. I’m aware of the failing of the Muslim leaders.
Take a big step back. Antisemitism is skyrocketing. Children who grew up in a concentration camp and losing limbs and whole families in death from above. Over a thousand Israelis are dead. Something like 50 thousand Palestinians are dead or maimed, and millions could die of deliberate starvation. Concertgoers raped, elderly kibbutniks held hostage for months while Israeli radicals prevent the merger food and medicine allowed by the government to pass on that would feed hostages and children.
So much has gone terribly wrong. Families in the West Bank are experiencing pogroms inflicted by the grandchildren of the victims of identical pogroms in Europe and Russia. Jewish Israeli hostages have been executed by the IDF. A Jewish Israeli civilian who killed two gunmen on a rampage in Jerusalem is executed by Israeli police. Journalists and their families – Palestinian and Jewish alike – are being hunted inside Gaza and Israel, while an emboldened right wing openly celebrates what they proudly recognize as genocide. And hostages continue to die. Bombed, starved, buried.
STOP. It must stop. All of it. This isn’t about defending Israel’s right to exist. Even Israeli hawks and former prime ministers have acknowledged that this war has been hijacked for wicked ends that don’t make Israel safe.
At this point, even Zionists need to wake up and call for a ceasefire. Because this is a shoah.
God, give men mercy. I’m crying. I can’t bear watching this darkness. Wake up. Lovers of Israel: WAKE THE FUCK UP. Unchecked, the Jewish fascism movement is going to destroy Israel.
Removed by mod
Not if you live in the real world and possess a functioning moral compass.