Biden State Department Quietly Grants Boeing License for $735 Million
Bomb Sale
Joe Biden exits a roomPresident Joe Biden walks away from the podium
following his remarks on the conflict in the Middle East from the White
House on May 20, 2021, in Washington, D.C.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
By
Jake Johnson <https://truthout.org/authors/jake-johnson/>,
Common Dreams
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/26/appalling-biden-state-department-quietly-grants-boeing-export-license-735-million?cd-origin=rss>
Truthout - Published
May 26, 2021
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The Biden administration hasreportedly granted
<https://jewishcurrents.org/breaking-news-days-before-approving-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza-state-department-agreed-to-contentious-bomb-sale-to-israel/>Boeing
an export license for the sale of $735 million in advanced weaponry to
the Israeli government, news that came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony
Blinken on Tuesday pledged $5.5 million in emergency aid to help Gaza
recover from the latest Israeli bombing campaign.
Citing an unnamed congressional staffer, Alex Kane of/Jewish
Currents/reported
<https://jewishcurrents.org/breaking-news-days-before-approving-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza-state-department-agreed-to-contentious-bomb-sale-to-israel/>Tuesday
that the U.S. State Department approved the export license on May 21, a
necessary step in the planned delivery of Joint Direct Attack Munitions
and Small Diameter Bombs to Israel.
As Kane pointed out, the “two kinds of laser-guided munitions…
werereportedly used
<https://www.aljazeera.net/%D8%A3%D8%AD%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%AB-%D9%81%D9%84%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%8A%D9%86/2021/5/17/%D8%AA%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%8A-%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AC-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B1%D8%B6-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D9%82%D9%8A%D9%82-%D9%84%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B2%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A9>by
Israel in the 11-day attack on the Gaza Strip that ended on Friday with
a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.”
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The Biden administration notified Congress of the proposed $735 million
sale in early May, just days before Israel launched its latest onslaught
against Gaza. The nearly two-week aerial and artillery campaign — which
Biden administration officials and the president himselfpublicly
defended
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/14/biden-claims-israeli-attack-gaza-not-overreaction-onslaught-intensifies-death-toll>
— killed more than 240 Palestinians,displaced
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/19/no-safe-place-gaza-latest-round-israeli-violence-has-displaced-58000-palestinians-un>tens
of thousands, and furtherdecimated
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/25/israels-assault-gaza-left-400000-without-regular-access-clean-water-oxfam>Gaza’s
critical civilian infrastructure.
Warning that selling additional weapons to the Israeli government would
deepen U.S. complicity inwar crimes
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/17/amnesty-international-calls-icc-war-crimes-probe-israeli-strikes-gaza-homes>,
a small coalition of progressive lawmakers last week mounted a late bid
to block the agreement with so-called resolutions of disapproval.
But neither the House nor Senate resolution — led byRep. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/19/ocasio-cortez-unveils-resolution-block-bidens-735-million-weapons-sale-israel>(D-N.Y.)
andSen. Bernie Sanders
<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/20/us-made-bombs-are-devastating-gaza-sanders-resolution-aims-block-735-million-weapons>(I-Vt.),
respectively — has received a vote as the Biden administration plows
ahead with the sale. The lawmakers say Congress still has a chance to
stop the deal before the weapons are delivered.
/Jewish Currents/reported Tuesday that after being notified of the
export license, Sanders “responded by placing a hold on all State
Department nominees, blocking Congress from considering them for
diplomatic posts.”
“After the administration committed to humanitarian aid for the
rebuilding of Gaza, Sanders lifted the hold,” according to/Jewish Currents/.
Raed Jarrar, advocacy director of human rights group Democracy for the
Arab World Now, said in astatement
<https://dawnmena.org/u-s-state-department-secret-approval-of-license-for-weapons-sales-to-israel-circumvents-historic-senate-vote-on-arms-sale-to-israel/>Tuesday
that the State Department’s secretive approval of the export license “is
all you need to know about its apparent anxiety at proceeding with this
troubling deal while Israeli war crimes and apartheid rule continue
unabated.”
“Rather than secretly approving arms sales to Israel ahead of his
meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Jarrar added, “Secretary
Blinken should do his due diligence and travel across Gaza to see
exactly what kind of harm and destruction American weapons are causing
Palestinians.”
After hismeeting
<https://www.state.gov/public-schedule-may-25-2021/>with Netanyahu in
Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, Blinken visited the occupied West Bank and
vowed that the U.S. will “provide $5.5 million in immediate disaster
assistance for Gaza and a little over $32 million for [the U.N. Relief
and Works Agency’s] emergency humanitarian appeal.”
Inremarks
<https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-and-palestinian-authority-president-mahmoud-abbas-statements-to-the-press/>to
the press alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas,
Blinken said the U.S. is committed to helping realize “the aspirations
of the Palestinian people,” which “are like those of people everywhere:
to live in freedom; to have their basic rights respected, including the
right to choose their own leaders; to live in security; to have equal
access to opportunity for themselves, for their children; to be treated
with dignity.”
But human rights advocates and progressive members of Congress have
stressed that selling weapons to the regime currently occupying and
brutalizing the Palestinian people is at odds with any serious effort to
secure lasting peace and justice in the region.
“The State Department should immediately revoke approval for this arms
sale to, at minimum, allow for proper debate in Congress,” Rep. Rashida
Tlaib (D-Mich.) told /Jewish Currents/. “Remember that these are weapons
of war and destruction that will be used to kill children, bomb
hospitals, homes, and schools — lives literally hang in the balance.”
--
Rosalind Bresnahan, Ph.D.
Collective of Coordinating Editors
Latin American Perspectives
Home: 500 Edgerton Dr., San Bernardino, CA 92405
Phone: 909-881-1229
E-mail: rosalind568@xxxxxxxxx
The marriage of ignorance and force always generates
unfathomable evil, an evil that is unseen by perpetrators
who mistake their own stupidity and blindness for innocence.
Chris Hedges, The Great Forgetting, Truthdig, Jan. 10, 2016
