We know very little about how American weapons are used once they reach the Israeli military.
Are they used in Gaza, and how? Are they flowing to the West Bank? Is there a possibility that they reach battalions that the United States is considering sanctioning because of alleged human rights violations?
When the Biden administration ships arms to Ukraine, it pulls out the megaphones. It announces its shipments and hails its own efforts “to support the brave Ukrainian people as they defend their country,” as Secretary of State Antony Blinken put it last month. The White House emphasizes transparency about aid provided to Ukraine, saying it wants to be clear how “that money has been spent.”
It’s a different story when the destination is Israel. A few details leak in the American or Israeli press, but overall, when sending arms to the Israel Defense Forces, the Biden administration seems to prefer the sound of silence.
Transparency about arms transfers takes on special significance now that President Biden has signed a landmark $95 billion foreign aid package, approved after long delays in the House of Representatives. That package will pay for billions of dollars of arms flowing to Ukraine, Israel and other nations. As soon as the bill became law, the administration issued new announcements about weapons shipments to Ukraine, but not about transfers to Israel.
“I think the administration makes sure that the word gets out to the pro-Israel community that these things have been transferred but doesn’t want to inflame the not pro-Israel community,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel and Egypt. “The word gets out anyway, but it’s not a headline.”
Transparency is the lifeblood of democracies.
For the same reason that the White House takes care to explain how taxpayer dollars are spent on military support for Ukraine, the administration owes it to Americans to be forthcoming about weapons flown to Israel, even if it finds disclosure to be politically uncomfortable.
.Here are the top political news stories for today.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Why do you think the U.S. chooses to publicize support for Ukraine but not for Israel, and how does that align with your values on freedom of information?
@9LXVXBT2yrs2Y
Because the general public agree that Ukraine are those to be helped because they have been victimized and maimed by Russia, but when they support Israel they know that its not something to super celebrate and that the u.s. government is supporting Israel for monetary interests, Israel is not to be celebrated and they know it.
@9LY9DDK2yrs2Y
Ukraine doesn't need help when all the money we sent in foreign aid could be used to lower the national deficit.
@9LXVXMZ2yrs2Y
I think some people think that maybe Ukraine may be important then Israel but that's just what I think.
@9LXVT782yrs2Y
It's not "popular" with the left to support Israel, but it is popular to support Ukraine.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
How does the secrecy surrounding U.S. arms transfers to Israel impact your views on the ethical responsibilities of international support?
@9LXYMHP2yrs2Y
I have no idea, but it could be something about defending their country as a secret.
@9LXZWX2 2yrs2Y
There is clearly some inside people for Israel in the government, which in my opinion shouldn’t even be a thing. Money buys power in America and that should be investigated and taken more seriously and it actually be a crime.
@9LXX6WPRepublican2yrs2Y
I feel like they aren't being transparent enough to the public on what we are sending over there and how much it is costing us.
Ukraine is a country fighting for its freedom and its democracy against an invader, while Israel is a country bent on using the force of arms to subjugate a people whose land it has stolen and whose human rights it continues to deny.
Arming Israel has a bad look, because Israel is not defending itself against an invader, it IS the invader. It's as if we armed Russia.
I am a registered Democrat but will not vote for Joe Biden due to his two faced behaviors. Like not doing a thing to sanction the West Bank groups like he said he would. Biden is simply not worthy of being POTUS again, nor the other guy.
But one of them is going to be, and you would have to be blind to think that it wouldn't make a difference. Biden may not be doing exactly what you want in the Middle East, but he is much more likely to push back against Netanyahu than Trump would be, and is better on literally every other issue as well.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
Considering potential human rights violations, should the U.S. be more transparent about where and how its weapons are used by other nations?
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
How does the difference in transparency between U.S. arms shipments to Ukraine and Israel affect your trust in government decisions?
@9LXX4SD 2yrs2Y
The consistent funding in israel after everything going on with protest against israel worldwide has significantly lowered my trust in the governments ability to make sound decisions
@9LXW9V72yrs2Y
I do not trust many government officials to present and do the right thing in funding and take in to consideration people's opinions.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
If transparency is vital for democracy, how do you reconcile the U.S.'s handling of arms shipments to Ukraine differently from those to Israel with democratic ideals?
@9LXVXMZ2yrs2Y
I think their trying to see who is eligible to be able to be transported.
This is silly. The US is being transparent about its weapons to Ukraine for the benefit of Putin, so he will know what's coming at him and the level of the US commitment, so there can be no misunderstanding about the degree of what the US is doing so that the war will nit go nuclear. On the other hand, it pays to keep Iran and its terrorist groups guessing about we have sent to Israel.
Might politics be playing some role in the lack of transparency? Perhaps, but there are national security matters at stake with what we are doing for Israel (given that we have troops in the region) unlike Ukraine.
The answer to the question is obvious. The American public is waking up to the fact that our money is going to support a brutal regime of bigots who seem to always think they are owed favoritism.
@PigletBillGreen2yrs2Y
If we look at all the conditions put on Ukraine's use of the weapons sent to them, and how long it took to get certain categories of weapons to be approved and compare this with the unconditional transfer to Israel, things look rather bad. The appearance is that Biden cares much more about offending Putin than what happens to Palestinian civilians. If it weren't for the fact that he is running against Trump, he would be losing a lot more votes on this issue.
I don't understand Biden: he seems to be solely catering to getting the votes of pro-zionist American Jews. Jews only represent 2.6% of the US population. And I assume pro-zionist American Jews even less. Israel's other diehard supporters are Christian evangelicals. They're all voting for Trump. Is Biden terrible at math? All those students protesting are all potential Biden voters. Or they were. Like me.
Wow. Looking at the weapons that Ukraine list, it’s a great time to be in the defense business
Wish we could have spent this money on projects here in America
I’m quite certain at the end of both these conflicts, things will be just the same or worse before our intervention
It’ll end the same way Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria did….a lot of money spent, a lot of dead and maimed bodies and nothing changed for the better
Loading the political themes of users that engaged with this discussion
Loading data...
Join in on more popular conversations.
