This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.

This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
License: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/
international.
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How the United States helps to kill Palestinians
By: []
Date: None

The US military alliance with Israel also involves joint military exercises and joint production of Arrow missiles and other weapons systems. The U.S. and Israeli militaries have collaborated on drone technologies tested by the Israelis in Gaza. In 2004, the United States called on Israeli forces with experience in the Occupied Territories to give tactical training to US Special Operations Forces as they confronted popular resistance to the United States’ hostile military occupation of Iraq.

The US military also maintains an estimated $1.8bn stockpile of weapons at six locations in Israel, pre-positioned for use in future US wars in the Middle East. During the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014, even as the US Congress suspended some weapons deliveries to Israel, it approved handing over stocks of 120mm mortar shells and 40mm grenade launcher ammunition from the US stockpile for Israel to use against Palestinians in Gaza.

Diplomatically, the United States has exercised its veto in the UN Security Council 82 times, and 44 of those vetoes have been to shield Israel from accountability for war crimes or human rights violations. In every single case, the United States has been the lone vote against the resolution, although a few other countries have occasionally abstained.

It is the United States’s privileged position as a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, and its willingness to abuse that privilege to shield its ally Israel, that gives it this unique power to stymie international efforts to hold the Israeli government accountable for its actions under international law.

The result of this unconditional US diplomatic shielding of Israel has been to encourage increasingly barbaric Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. With the United States blocking any accountability in the Security Council, Israel has seized ever more Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, uprooted more and more Palestinians from their homes and responded to the resistance of largely unarmed people with ever-increasing violence, detentions and restrictions on day-to-day life.

Political support

On the political front, despite most Americans supporting neutrality in the conflict, pro-Israel groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), have exercised an extraordinary role in lobbying US politicians to provide unconditional support for Israel.

The roles of campaign contributors and lobbyists in the US political system make the United States uniquely vulnerable to influence peddling, whether by monopolistic corporations and industry groups like the Military-Industrial Complex and Big Pharma, or well-funded interest groups like the National Rifle Association, AIPAC and, in recent years, lobbyists for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

On 22 April, just weeks before this latest assault on Gaza, the overwhelming majority of congresspeople, 330 out of 435, signed a letter to the chair and ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee opposing any reduction or conditioning of US monies to Israel. The letter, a repudiation of calls from some progressives in the Democratic Party to condition or otherwise restrict aid to Israel, supports one of the main demands of the AIPAC.

The US president, Joe Biden, who has a long history of supporting Israeli crimes, responded to the latest massacre by insisting on Israel’s “right to defend itself” and inanely hoping that “this will be closing down sooner than later”. His UN ambassador also shamefully blocked a call for a ceasefire at the UN Security Council.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/north-africa-west-asia/how-united-states-helps-kill-palestinians/