{"id":276486,"date":"2024-10-07T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2024-10-07T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=276486"},"modified":"2024-10-06T08:35:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T07:35:08","slug":"inside-the-us-state-departments-weapons-pipeline-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/10\/inside-the-us-state-departments-weapons-pipeline-to-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the US State Department\u2019s Weapons Pipeline to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_276488\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/gaza-genocide-israel-palestine.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-276488\" class=\"wp-image-276488\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/gaza-genocide-israel-palestine-1024x682.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/gaza-genocide-israel-palestine-1024x682.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/gaza-genocide-israel-palestine-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/gaza-genocide-israel-palestine-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/gaza-genocide-israel-palestine-1536x1024.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/gaza-genocide-israel-palestine.webp 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-276488\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">People take cover behind a wall as a building in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip is hit by an Israeli airstrike on 12 May 2023. Credit: Bashar Taleb\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<ul class=\"highlights__list\">\n<li class=\"highlights__highlight\"><em><span class=\"highlights__subheading\">More Bombs: <\/span> Ambassador Jack Lew urged Washington to give thousands more bombs to the Israelis because they have a \u201cdecades-long proven track record\u201d of avoiding killing civilians.<\/em><\/li>\n<li class=\"highlights__highlight\"><em><span class=\"highlights__subheading\">A Thank-You: <\/span> After State Department officials spent months working through weekends and after hours on arms sales, the Israelis sent cases of wine to them just before Christmas.<\/em><\/li>\n<li class=\"highlights__highlight\"><em><span class=\"highlights__subheading\">A Lobbying Push: <\/span> Defense contractors and lobbyists have also helped push along valuable sales by leaning on State Department officials and lawmakers whenever there\u2019s a holdup.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>4 Oct 2024 <\/em>&#8211; In late January, as the death toll in Gaza climbed to 25,000 and droves of Palestinians fled their razed cities in search of safety, Israel\u2019s military asked for 3,000 more bombs from the American government. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, along with other top diplomats in the Jerusalem embassy, sent a cable to Washington urging State Department leaders to approve the sale, saying there was no potential the Israel Defense Forces would misuse the weapons.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"3.0\">The cable did not mention the Biden administration\u2019s public concerns over the growing civilian casualties, nor did it address well-documented <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/video\/world\/100000009208814\/israel-gaza-bomb-civilians.html\" >reports<\/a> that Israel had dropped 2,000-pound bombs on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/12\/13\/politics\/intelligence-assessment-dumb-bombs-israel-gaza\/index.html\" >crowded areas<\/a> of Gaza weeks earlier, collapsing apartment buildings and killing hundreds of Palestinians, many of whom were children. Lew was aware of the issues. Officials say his own staff had repeatedly highlighted attacks where large numbers of civilians died. Homes of the embassy\u2019s own Palestinian employees had been targeted by Israeli airstrikes.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"4.0\">Still, Lew and his senior leadership argued that Israel could be trusted with this new shipment of bombs, known as GBU-39s, which are smaller and more precise. Israel\u2019s air force, they asserted, had a \u201cdecades-long proven track record\u201d of avoiding killing civilians when using the American-made bomb and had \u201cdemonstrated an ability and willingness to employ it in [a] manner that minimizes collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"5.0\">While that request was pending, the Israelis proved those assertions wrong. In the months that followed, the Israeli military <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/08\/world\/middleeast\/us-israel-bomb-gbu39-gaza.html\" >repeatedly dropped<\/a> GBU-39s it already possessed on <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/06\/06\/middleeast\/israel-airstrike-un-school-gaza-intl-hnk\/index.html\" >shelters<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/05\/28\/middleeast\/gaza-us-munitions-rafah-strike-analysis-intl-hnk\/index.html\" >refugee camps<\/a> that it said were being occupied by Hamas soldiers, killing scores of Palestinians. Then, in early August, the IDF bombed a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/08\/10\/middleeast\/israeli-school-strike-gaza-intl-hnk\/index.html\" >school and mosque<\/a> where civilians were sheltering. At least 93 died. Children\u2019s bodies were so mutilated their parents had trouble identifying them.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.0\">Weapons analysts identified shrapnel from GBU-39 bombs among the rubble.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"8.0\">In the months before and since, an array of State Department officials urged that Israel be completely or partially cut off from weapons sales under laws that prohibit arming countries with a pattern or clear risk of violations. Top State Department political appointees repeatedly rejected those appeals. Government experts have for years unsuccessfully tried to withhold or place conditions on arms sales to Israel because of credible allegations that the country had violated Palestinians\u2019 human rights using American-made weapons.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"10.0\">On Jan. 31, the day after the embassy delivered its assessment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosted an agency-wide <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/blinken-says-intense-fighting-gaza-top-challenge-distribute-aid-2024-01-31\/\" >town hall<\/a> at an auditorium at the State Department headquarters where he fielded pointed questions from his subordinates about Gaza. He said the suffering of civilians was \u201cabsolutely gut wrenching and heartbreaking,\u201d according to a transcript of the meeting.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"12.0\">\u201cBut it is a question of making judgments,\u201d Blinken said of his agency\u2019s efforts to minimize harm. \u201cWe started with the premise on October 7 that Israel had the right to defend itself, and more than the right to defend itself, the right to try to ensure that October 7 would never happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.0\">The embassy\u2019s endorsement and Blinken\u2019s statements reflect what many at the State Department have understood to be their mission for nearly a year. As one former official who served at the embassy put it, the unwritten policy was to \u201cprotect Israel from scrutiny\u201d and facilitate the arms flow no matter how many human rights abuses are reported. \u201cWe can\u2019t admit that\u2019s a problem,\u201d this former official said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.0\">The embassy has even historically resisted accepting funds from the State Department\u2019s Middle East bureau earmarked for investigating human rights issues throughout Israel because embassy leaders didn\u2019t want to insinuate that Israel might have such problems, according to Mike Casey, a former U.S. diplomat in Jerusalem. \u201cIn most places our goal is to address human rights violations,\u201d Casey added. \u201cWe don\u2019t have that in Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"16.0\">Last week, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/gaza-palestine-israel-blocked-humanitarian-aid-blinken\" >ProPublica detailed how<\/a> the government\u2019s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance \u2014 the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department\u2019s refugees bureau \u2014 concluded in the spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza and that weapons sales should be halted. But Blinken rejected those findings as well and, weeks later, told Congress that the State Department had concluded that Israel was not blocking aid.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"16.0\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/israel-gaza-america-biden-administration-weapons-bombs-state-department\" >TO CONTINUE READING Go to Original &#8211; propublica.org<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"86.2\">______________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\" data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"86.2\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/brett-murphy.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-276487 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/brett-murphy-e1728198710872.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"80\" height=\"80\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Brett Murphy is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter on <\/em>ProPublica<em>\u2019s national desk. He writes about the federal government, among other things.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/people\/mariam-elba\" >Mariam Elba<\/a> contributed research.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/israel-gaza-america-biden-administration-weapons-bombs-state-department\" >Go to Original &#8211; propublica.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>4 Oct 2024 &#8211;<br \/>\n*Ambassador Jack Lew urged Washington to give thousands more bombs to the Israelis because they have a \u201cdecades-long proven track record\u201d of avoiding killing civilians.<br \/>\n*After State Department officials spent months working through weekends and after hours on arms sales, the Israelis sent cases of wine to them just before Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":276487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[3339,3264,742,88,2097,1855,234,767,2462,427,880,70,481],"class_list":["post-276486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anglo-america","tag-hezbollah","tag-idf","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-mainstream-media-msm","tag-media","tag-middle-east","tag-military-industrial-media-complex","tag-palestine","tag-state-terrorism","tag-usa","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276486"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276493,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276486\/revisions\/276493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}