The question of the bottomless supply and aid and weapons flowing from the United States to Israel has gained new attention following the Israeli killing of seven World Central Kitchen aid workers, one of them being a US citizen.
The Pentagon claims that it could not say whether the weapon used to kill the aid workers were US-made, although it is a likely possibility, considering that Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign military aid out of any other country.
Rather than any slowing of military aid to Israel, the response of the United States to the slaughter of one of its own has been to double down on its support for Israel.
Although Biden claims to be “outraged” by the killing of aid workers, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US wouldn’t leverage its extensive military aid, or anything else for that matter, to “hang some sort of condition over [Israel’s] neck.”
Since November, Biden has bypassed Congress to send over USD 254 million in so-called emergency transfers of military aid to Israel.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlined recently why it is so important for the United States to keep funding Israel—Israel serves a key strategic purpose in the West Asia region, to do the dirty work in fighting against Israel’s so-called enemies.
“The security relationship we have with Israel is not just about Gaza” and the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7,” said Blinken during a Tuesday press conference in Paris. “It’s also about the threats posed to Israel, by Hezbollah, by Iran, by various other actors in the region—each one of which has vowed one way or another to try to destroy Israel.”
Biden himself has stated multiple times throughout his decades in political power that if there was no Israel, the United States would have to “invent” one. In recent years, he’s softened this statement to mean that Israel provides a home for Jewish people. “I think the security and safety of Jews worldwide is anchored in the… continued vibrance of the State of Israel,” he said in October. However, in his earlier political career, he was far more honest about Israel’s strategic value to the United States, saying in 1986 that, “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”
