{"id":1483603,"date":"2024-08-14T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T20:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1483603"},"modified":"2024-08-14T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T20:45:00","slug":"us-approves-20bn-in-weapons-sales-to-israel-as-wider-war-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/us-approves-20bn-in-weapons-sales-to-israel-as-wider-war-looms\/1483603\/","title":{"rendered":"US Approves $20BN In Weapons Sales To Israel As Wider War Looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">US Approves $20BN In Weapons Sales To Israel As Wider War Looms<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>After already having given over $3 billion in annual foreign aid to America&#8217;s number one ally in the Middle East stretching back years, the State Department has approved a series of potential <strong>weapons sales to Israel worth over $20 billion<\/strong>. This is the military-industrial complex&#8217;s bread and butter: give allies huge amounts of foreign aid, and those dollars eventually return to line the pockets of the big US defense firms.<\/p>\n<p>The sales are expected to include some <strong>50 F-15 fighter jets and tank munitions<\/strong>, advanced air-to-air missiles, tactical vehicles, and on top of all this\u00a050,000\u00a0high-explosive 120mm mortar rounds.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/israelifighters.jpg?itok=oDhrOJXp\"><em>F-15s, Israeli MoD<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Some of this might be purchased with the $3.5 billion in military assistance recently released to Israel in the form of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/about-us-office-of-security-assistance\/\">Foreign Military Financing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While it will take years before 50 F-15s and many of the heavier, more sophisticated weapons would be delivered to Israel, it comes at a moment of deep global divide related to Israel&#8217;s ongoing military operations in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Hamas sources have said that nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began last October, or about 2% of the total population. Much of this <strong>killing is being done by US-supplied weaponry courtesy of the US taxpayer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The State Department in announcing the huge package said it is &#8216;vital&#8217; to <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/israel-gaza-20-billion-weapons-us-aid-b6a99129c88a5dcc4a4753e20b5e19ec\">American interests<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is <strong>vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel<\/strong> to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Currently, there&#8217;s a growing divide within Israeli leadership over a path forward in the war, particularly after yesterday <strong>Fitch downgraded Israel&#8217;s rating from A+ to A<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Opposition leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday warned Israel is heading for an economic disaster under the policies Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The finance minister and prime minister both issued statements yesterday in which they said that the lowering of Israel\u2019s credit rating is a result of the war,&#8221; Lapid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/lapid-israel-heading-for-economic-disaster-netanyahu-and-smotrich-are-lying-to-the-public\/\">said<\/a>. &#8220;That is a lie. Both of them are lying to the public.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Some US allies are starting to grow increasingly vocal in criticism against Israel on human rights in Gaza&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Wow, even South Korea &#8211; who normally always align with the US &#8211; is now publicly denouncing Israel at the UN:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was Israel&#8217;s 8th bombing of a school sheltering civilians so far in August alone. We are all aware that civilian infrastructure should not be targeted, this is all\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6X3h33G69l\">https:\/\/t.co\/6X3h33G69l<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RnaudBertrand\/status\/1823624958313930840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 14, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Already by\u00a0last July, months before the war, rating companies issued a negative forecast for the Israeli economy, and said that if the reckless mismanagement of the economy continued, the rating would be lowered,&#8221; Lapid continued. He further warned that without &#8220;a responsible government that will pass a responsible budget&#8221; the rating will continue to drop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Wed, 08\/14\/2024 &#8211; 12:45<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/us-approves-20bn-weapons-sales-israel-wider-war-looms\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/us-approves-20bn-weapons-sales-israel-wider-war-looms<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US Approves $20BN In Weapons Sales To Israel As Wider War Looms After already having given over $3 billion in annual foreign aid to America&#8217;s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1483604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1483603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1483603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1483604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1483603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1483603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1483603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}