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.
There was an arms embargo. They clandestinely bought modified Czechoslovakian-built Messerschmidts (which were awful) to use them against far superior Egyptian Spitfires. There were also various smaller purchases of arms from Europe, again in a clandestine manner. They would typically e.g. purchase a few hundred rifles through a Nicaraguan front firm, the ship would then conveniently “sink” somewhere after having offloaded the guns somewhere in international waters onto a ship heading for Israel. Other weapons, like tanks, were bought literally from scrapyards and repaired again. They got a few American bombers, which had been converted into civilian transport aircraft, converting them back to military spec - which resulted in prison sentences for the Americans who helped them with this.
Generally though, due to the American- and British-enforced embargo, the dire economic situation of the new nation of Israel and the fact that they were surrounded from all sides, except for the ocean, meant that there was a shortage of everything in Israel and that they did not have enough weapons at any point during this war. They very quickly resorted to building their own small arms as a start - that’s where the famous Uzi submachine gun comes from. Decades later, they would start to build their own tanks, after realizing that relying on foreign imports was inadvisable, since the political situation could change rapidly and since imported tanks weren’t ideal for their requirements. In the 1980s to early '90s, they had a program for a domestic fighter jet, which however was ended due to American pressure. The plans for this likely ended up in China.
As you can see, dumbing this down to “was supplied arms from Europe” doesn’t really tell the whole story.
I’ve have not read any analysis that has not said the Czech weapons were superior, but I’m not a weapons expert. The Israelis also had more fighting men than the combined Arab forces. This Israel underdog narrative is mythology.
Wait so they illegaly aquired weapons and war machines to drive the locals out so they could start their country? That makes Israel sound much worse than what the other guy said.
Where do you think Jews are from? Mars? They are just as much locals as Arab Palestinians.
No, the vast majority of them emigrated to Palestine starting at the end of the 19th century, but even then they made up something like 15% of the population. You might be referring to the racial claim to the land, that since Jews came from Canaanites in the region thousands of years ago that the land belongs to Jews today, but of course that’s ludicrous. Please take a look at this one example, the occupied city of Akka. It had 1.2% Jewish population in 1922, and then
So yes, they did that even though there were already Jews there, and now the city is under Israeli rule.
By the way, do you think Turkey (Ottoman Empire) or Italy (Roman Empire) have any claim to Palestinian land? Honest question.