September/October 2006 Postcard

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DEAR SENATOR:
The Bush administration agreed on July 21 to rush delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel in order to resupply stockpiles being used in Israeli raids on Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. As part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year, Israel may purchase as many as 100 “bunker busters” or GBU-28s, as well as satellite-guided munitions.

Moreover, Israel uses American tax dollars to pay for its major U.S. arms purchases. The Congressional Research Service’s (CRS) annual study of international arms sales to Israel from 1997 to 2004 arrived at a total of $8.4 billion—$7.1 billion of which came from the United States. A major factor in this trend was the rise in U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF)—outright grants to Israel—which has now reached about $2.3 billion a year, all paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

Israel clearly is violating U.S. law by using American-made weapons to attack innocent civilians in Lebanon and Gaza. To make matters worse, my tax dollars are helping finance Israel’s arms procurements!

I’ve had enough.

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The rubble of buildings destroyed by U.S.-made Israeli fighter-bombers in dawn air strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Aug. 7. (AFP Photo/ Ramzi Haidar).

Israel is in violation of U.S. arms-control laws for deploying U.S.-made fighter planes, combat helicopters, and missiles to kill civilians and destroy Lebanon’s infrastructure. According to Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, “Section 4 of the [U.S.] Arms Export Control Act requires that military items transferred to foreign governments by the United States be used solely for internal security and legitimate self-defense.” 

“Since Israeli attacks against Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure and population centers clearly go beyond legitimate self-defense,” Zunes said, “the United States is legally obliged to suspend arms transfers to Israel.”

—For more information, see “Israel Violated U.S. Law With Attack on Lebanon,” by Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service, <www.antiwar.com>, July 18, 2006