Israel has initiated a ground war in Gaza. It can pull from the power of 1,650 main battle tanks, 7,500 light armoured vehicles, 650 self propelled artillery, 300 towed artillery, 100 multi-launch rocket systems, 595 fighter bombers, 48 attack helicopters, 643,000 military personnel, 465,000 reserve personnel…not to mention an 8,000 strong paramilitary force.
A good friend of mine, Mary Elliott Nelis, a tireless pro-Palestinan activist, mentioned recently that America sends millions of dollars in aid to Israel, which is of course correct. However, America is not the only country to do so. Israel fights its wars thanks to numerous countries providing aid and weapons to ‘defend’ itself from other countries even though Israel has one of the most developed drone industries in the world churning out weaponised military drones to other countries, making billions of dollars – something Israel denies.
In 2019, the US sent $3.8 billion in foreign military aid to Israel. Israel also benefits from about $8 billion of loan guarantees, with almost all US aid to Israel now in the form of military assistance, while in the past it also received significant economic assistance. That’s before some funding which is rumoured to come from America’s ‘Black Budget’ which is not published to the public. America, at least in part, pays for Israelis to have basic universal healthcare as a right, something even American’s do not have in their own country.
Israel was the first international operator of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the US Department of Defense’s fifth-generation stealth aircraft, considered to be the most technologically advanced fighter jet ever designed and made. To date, Israel has purchased 50 F-35s in three separate contracts, funded with U.S. assistance. For 2021, the Trump Administration had requested $3.3 billion for Israel and $500 million in missile defense aid. The Administration also requested $5 million in Migration and Refugee Assistance humanitarian funding for Jewish migrants to Israel – and people wonder why America rarely criticises Israel’s annexing of Palestinian land, homes and property.
The Defense, Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, Financial Services and General Government, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2021, which passed through the House in July 2020, would provide $500 million in joint US/Israeli missile defence cooperation, of which $73 million was intended for Iron Dome, $177 million for David’s Sling which is an anti-missile integrated defence system, $77 million for Arrow III missiles, and $173 million for Arrow II missiles. I won’t go on, but suffice to say, Israel is substantially funded and aided by America both in terms of military aid and economic aid.
The British Government is not blameless in funding, aiding and abetting the Israeli military, in what seems to be an almost constant onslaught on what has been described as the open-air prison known as Gaza. Six months before the 2014 invasion of Gaza, the UK approved £7 million specifically in arms sales to Israel, arms which where most definitely used in the assault. Just a year after the 2014 invasion of Gaza ended, the British government lifted all remaining restrictions on the sale of arms and military equipment to Israel. As a nation, Britain is officially assenting to trade deals which put weapons targeting systems, armoured vehicles and drones in the hands of an apartheid state which Amnesty International has openly accused of war crimes.
Theresa May’s statement at the time, that she wanted to work “towards a genuine two-state solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict” was laughable. A two-state solution is impossible if one ‘state’ has been reduced to a smouldering heap of rubble thanks to the arming of one side by the very people calling for peace. Realistically, Israelis need to recognise Palestine. Indeed Michael Fallon, Secretary of State for Defence between 2014 and 2017 urged fellow MP’s to stop criticising Saudi-Arabia’s flagrant human rights abuses for fear that such criticisms would jeopardise a lucrative upcoming arms deal. Hours later he and fellow MP’s were wined and dined in a £450-a-head banquet by arms manufacturers. Saudi-Arabia went on to use the weapons against civilians in Yemen. Such is the profit before people mindset of the British Government.
The media is not innocent in any of this. In fact, more often than not the media’s reporting of the Gaza situation is reactionary with reporting starting at the point when Palestinians retaliate to Israeli aggression. For instance, the spark which initiated the recent round of rockets fired at Israel was the siege of the Al-Asqa mosque and the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes, under threat of death by Israeli settlers and IOF forces. Hamas actually gave Israel a deadline to halt the siege of the mosque, only firing the rockets after the deadline had lapsed. As per usual, the media started reporting only after Hamas had fired the initial rockets toward Israel, unguided rockets I might add. Headlines such as “Hamas rockets target Israel” and “Nine dead as rockets fired from Gaza” flooded the front pages, completely ignoring the fact that for five days prior, israeli settlers and police had besieged the holy mosque of Al-Asqa, while Palestinians were at prayer, injuring 300 Palestinians.
The only way to combat this military and lazy media onslaught of Gaza, is to hit Israel where it hurts, financially. We are, sadly, a part of the UK in the North (sad but true, though not for long) so we can lobby our MPs to speak out, with the threat of not receiving our votes next time round if they don’t speak out. We can strenuously adhere to BDS, something which Israel despises. In fact Israel attempted to have BDS outlawed, saying it was hurting the economy so much.
We can email and lobby the UK and Biden (appealing to his Irish American roots) and make sure, in both these countries, the disgust at the arming and funding of Israel is seen to be unjust and actually prolonging the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel and by extension, peace. Protest at, and contact the American embassy in Belfast and Dublin conveying your disgust at US and UK foreign policy (make no mistake, the US has influence on UK foreign policy) just as in America and England people are starting to vocalise their disgust at how Israel is receiving more aid than some facets of American and UK society. Make no mistake, if you want to defeat Israel, you need to stop aid and weapons to Israel from countries like the UK and the US.
Oh…and Irish-based companies have exported €6.42m worth of military and ‘dual use’ hardware to Israel since 2011. We are not innocent.
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