RIGHTS ACTIVISTS RAP BIDEN FOR SELLING $735M WEAPONS TO ISRAEL

The Biden administration is complicit with the atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza, with Jake Johnson of Common Dreams reporting for Truthout on May 17, 2021 (May 18, 2021 in Manila) that the recent $735-million weapons sale to Tel Aviv emboldened the “madman” Benjamin Netanyahu to launch attacks against Palestinians.

Earlier, the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Netanyahu has become unhinged like defeated US President Donald Trump as he spoke of being the “savior of Israel” for suppressing Palestinians, evicting them from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and preventing them from worshipping at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the reasons why the Palestinians fought back and Hamas rained more than 3,000 rockets into Israel.

Netanyahu’s forces have killed more than 200 people in Gaza while more than 10 Israelis have died in revenge attacks.

The Washington Post reported Monday that the Biden administration officially notified Congress of the sale on May 5, just days before Israeli forces began their latest bombardment of Gaza last week.

“Since last Monday, May 10, the Israeli military has used bombs and missiles made by major U.S. military contractors such as Boeing and General Dynamics to obliterate major buildings in Gaza, including one over the weekend that housed offices of the Associated Press (AP) and Al-Jazeera,” Johnson reported.

“Criminal complicity,” Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian-American writer and political analyst, tweeted in response to reports of the sale, under which Boeing would provide Joint Direct Attack Munitions to Israel. Freelance journalist Alex Kane warned that “those bombs will be dropped on Gaza if approved, as is likely.”

Speaking to the Post on the condition of anonymity, one Democratic lawmaker on the House Foreign Affairs Committee similarly cautioned that “allowing this proposed sale of smart bombs to go through without putting pressure on Israel to agree to a cease-fire will only enable further carnage.”

While Democratic-controlled Congress has the power to block the weapons sale, it is unclear whether there would be enough support in either chamber to pass a resolution of disapproval, even as a growing chorus of progressive lawmakers expresses support for conditioning — and, if necessary, cutting off — the $3.8 billion in military aid the US sends to Israel each year.

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