While US officials say they oppose Israel’s growing bloodshed in Gaza and even urge Israel to stop killing so many Palestinian civilians, Washington is still the biggest arms provider to Tel Aviv.
Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted back on October 7, US officials have uttered words that in many cases stay in sharp contrast with their actions regarding Washington’s involvement in the conflict. This has created the evidenced-based idea that the US is in fact playing a hypocrisy game in the Israel-Hamas battlefield in favor of the former.
This past Sunday, the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attended the Reagan National Defense Forum in California where he expressed his discontent with the Israeli constant airstrikes in Gaza and even urged Tel Aviv to protect Gazan civilians during its campaign against Hamas.
Austin noted that shielding civilians in the densely populated and besieged Gaza is necessary for victory in the urban fight and Isr4ael should take this into account. He stated that he had “learned a thing or two about urban warfare” while fighting in Iraq and leading the campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS). “The lesson is that you can only win in urban warfare by protecting civilians,” Austin stressed. “If you drive [Gaza’s civilians] into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat.”
Austin then hailed his country for sending aids to Gazans. “This week, a U.S. Air Force C-17 airlifted more than 54,000 pounds of U.N. medical supplies, warm clothing, and food to the people of Gaza—and we expect more such flights in the days ahead,” he said. Austin’s comments came two days after fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed following a week-long truce, with Israel killing hundreds of Palestinians in less than 48 hours. On Saturday, the Gaza Health Ministry reported Israeli bombing had killed 700 Palestinians in just the past 24 hours.
US is the biggest arms provider to Israel amid Gaza war
While US top officials such as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have asserted many times since October 7 that Israel should protect civilians in Gaza amid attacks against Hamas, the US is ironically the biggest arms provider to Israel.
Since October 7, the US has provided Israel with more than 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells, literally helping Israel to kill well above 20,000 Palestinians in less than two months, the majority of whom being women and children.
Even reports from inside the US have confirmed the hypocrisy as the Wall Street Journals, for example, issued a report on this Friday, revealing that the US military continues to provide Israel large amounts of lethal weapons.
“The US has provided Israel roughly 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells since 7 October. This includes some 100 BLU-109, 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs, which Israel used to kill 100 Palestinians in just one strike in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza last October,” the report said.
Closing eyes on the war crimes that Israel has committed in Gaza in the past two months, however, Austin only defended US support of Israel and Ukraine and said that “the world will only become more dangerous if tyrants and terrorists believe that they can get away with wholesale aggression and mass slaughter.”
“You’ll hear some people try to brand an American retreat from responsibility as bold new leadership. Make no mistake: It is not bold. It is not new. And it is not leadership, it’s what we do to protect democracy” he also noted.
