US President Joe Biden has spent the past 13 months tut-tutting over the death toll as Israel has committed genocide. But the flow of American weapons to the IDF has never stopped.
Regardless of the presidential election result, there’s no indication that the US will back away from its support for Israel.
An Al Jazeera investigation has revealed that over the past year the US and Britain created an air bridge to Israel, with 120 cargo planes making more than 6000 trips, including hundreds of flights carrying weapons.
The US has made more than 100 military sales to Israel since the start of the genocide, including tank ammunition, components to make 155mm artillery shells, precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters and small arms.
In August, the US announced a further $30 billion of weapons sales to Israel, including jets, missiles and mortar rounds.
And as the death toll in Gaza and Lebanon climbed, Biden last month reconfirmed “his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security” in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Zionist lobby
Why is the US so determined to stand by Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza and bombs the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Iran?
For many people, it is because of the influence of the Zionist lobby in the US.
There’s no question that Israel’s supporters are well funded and influential. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and others spent tens of millions of dollars in the recent election to support challengers running against candidates regarded as even partially pro-Palestine.
But to see the Zionist lobby as controlling US politics is to get things the wrong way round.
Pro-Israel lobbyists appear influential because the US sees Israel as an indispensable ally in a region of huge strategic importance.
The Middle East boasts 50 per cent of the world’s oil supplies. In addition, 12 to 15 per cent of global trade, including 30 per cent of global container traffic, passes through the Suez Canal.
That’s why the US has 40,000 soldiers and sailors in the region, with 19 military bases, eight of them permanent.
The US is self-sufficient in oil. But by dominating the Middle East it can control oil flows to both allies in Europe and rivals such as China, confirming its global dominance.
Israel does not always follow orders from Washington. The US was critical, for example, of the massive attack on Rafah earlier this year and the recent decision by the Netanyahu government to outlaw the UNRWA relief agency.
Netanyahu is openly contemptuous of Biden and clearly wanted Trump to win on 5 November.
But Israel’s value to the White House is that it can carry out attacks that would be politically too risky for the US. If America were to bomb Iran, for instance, it would risk provoking Russia and China, both of which have drawn closer to Tehran.
So by backing Israel, the US can send a message to the Iranian regime—the major obstacle to total American domination of the region—while minimising the possibility of escalating the conflict.
The attacks on Lebanon fit the same mould—by attacking Hezbollah, Israel weakens the influence of Iran and benefits the US agenda.
The US has other allies in the region, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia. But only Israel, as a settler colonial state that is directly dependent on the West, is guaranteed never to undergo an anti-imperialist revolution.
Narrow path
If there are tensions between the US and Israel, they come from America’s concern that Israel’s genocidal offensive might provoke unrest and potentially revolution in Arab countries.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has visited Israel 11 times in the past year to navigate the narrow path between smashing Iran’s allies Hamas and Hezbollah and avoiding regional unrest.
Millions of Arabs stand in solidarity with Palestine, putting them at odds with leaders who collaborate with Israel and the US.
As Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told Blinken in September, “Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do.”
Mass anger over Palestine can fuse with widespread discontent over falling living standards.
In Egypt, the dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi bans rallies for Palestine. At the same time he is imposing sharp cuts to fuel, bread and electricity subsidies in return for a $11.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Anger over the cuts and el-Sisi’s backing of Israel can explode, challenging the hold of imperialism and its Israeli watchdog.
That is the nightmare for Netanyahu and the new US president. And the hope for Palestine.
By David Glanz
