By Matin Jamshidi
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $26 billion military aid package for Israel on April 20. The aid followed just two days after the U.S. vetoed a widely-backed UN Security Council resolution drafted to give Palestine full membership in the United Nations.
Such back-to-back support for Israel comes as Israel has shocked the world with its unthinkable vicious crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Truly, the United States is encouraging Israel to act more brazenly against Palestinians through such inexcusable and blind moves.
While recognition of Palestine as a full UN member could put pressure on Israel to accept a two-state solution, the United States stood against the will of the world and blocked it.
Voting against full membership to Palestine, Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the UN, said, “This vote does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgment that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties.”
Mohsen Armin, a former top Iranian lawmaker and current deputy chief of the Reform Front of Iran, called the U.S. veto “shameful” and said it shows that Washington has closed “its eyes to Israel’s crimes”. Amin also defied claims by Wood, saying such remarks show that “from the viewpoint of the United States any move for a two-state solution should be done with the consent of the regime of Israel and without any pressure on it.”
With its veto, the United States even disappointed its Western and East Asian allies. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide expressed his Oslo’s “regret” that the Security Council “did not agree on admitting Palestine as a full member of the UN”.
Israel has become so arrogant that it summoned ambassadors of France, Japan, South Korea, Malta, Slovenia, and Ecuador as their countries voted in favor of the resolution to give Palestine full membership. Among these six countries, France, Japan, South Korea, Malta, and Slovenia are close allies or friends of the United States.
While the world was angry with the United States for vetoing the widely-backed Security Council resolution, the House approved assistance to Israel 366 to 58, facilitating the path for Israel to speed up its genocidal campaign in Gaza.
Funding Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, which has so far killed over 34,000 and pushed its 2.3 million to the verge of famine, has even unsettled certain American lawmakers. According to the New York Times, thirty-seven liberal Democrats opposed the $26 billion aid package for Israel because the legislation placed no conditions on how Israel could use American funding.
“Sending more weapons to the Netanyahu government will make the U.S. even more responsible for atrocities and the horrific humanitarian crisis in Gaza which is now in a season of famine,” said Representative Jonathan L. Jackson, Democrat of Illinois, the Times reported.
One day after the House approved the aid package, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel will step up its military campaign in Gaza.
The military aid also comes after the Washington Post reported on March 29 that the United States has greenlighted the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel. The new arms package includes more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general said the U.S. veto “displays a callous disregard for civilian suffering in the face of a staggering death toll”. Also, Avril Benoit, executive director of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) USA, said, “By vetoing this resolution, the U.S. stands alone in casting its vote against humanity.”
The international rights groups also released a statement saying, “By continuing to provide Israel with weapons [and] diplomatic cover as it commits atrocities, including collectively punishing the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, the U.S. risks complicity in war crimes.”
The United States is adding insult to injury by its diplomatic and military backing for Israel. There is no doubt that the U.S. has made itself an accomplice in Israel’s atrocious war against Palestinians in Gaza.
Regrettably, policymakers in the U.S. see no limit in their backing for a regime that its leaders are war criminals and are starving more than two million population in Gaza. The world is annoyed by so much unethical, unjustified support for Israel. This degree of American support for a regime that is a bone in the throat of the world is outrageous and repugnant.
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