United States Delivers Massive New Weapons Shipment to Israel, Confirmed by Pentagon, Says Amnesty I

[bemildred]

(New York) -- Amnesty International today revealed that the United States has sent a massive new shipment of arms to Israel -- about 14,000 tons worth -- despite evidence that U.S. weapons were misused against civilians in the Gaza attacks. The unloading of the shipment in Israel was confirmed by the Pentagon. The human rights organization called on President Obama to suspend future arms shipments to Israel until there is no longer substantial risk of human rights violations.

Amnesty International said the Wehr Elbe, a German cargo ship, which was chartered and controlled by the U.S Military Sealift Command, docked and unloaded its cargo on March 22 at the Israeli port of Ashdod, about 25 miles north of Gaza.

The Pentagon confirmed the successful unloading of the ship, which left the United States for Israel last December 20, a week before the start of Israel's attacks on Gaza. Reportedly, the ship carried 989 containers of munitions, each of them 20 feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tons.

"Legally and morally, this U.S. arms shipment should have been halted by the Obama administration given the evidence of war crimes resulting from military equipment and munitions of this kind used by the Israeli forces," said Brian Wood, arms control campaign manager for Amnesty International. "Arms supplies in these circumstances are contrary to provisions in U.S. law."

AI

[mike_c]

1. stop supporting apartheid and genocide with my taxes!

eom

[oberliner]

4. Israel is purchasing these weapons from the US nt

[varelse]

9. Doesn't look like a purchase to me.

a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to Amnesty International that "the unloading of the entire U.S. munitions shipment was successfully completed at Ashdod on March 22." The spokesperson said that the shipment was destined for a U.S. pre-positioned ammunition stockpile in Israel.

Under a U.S.-Israel agreement, munitions from this stockpile may be transferred for Israeli use if necessary. A State Department official told Amnesty International that Israel's use of U.S. weapons during the Gaza conflict are under review to see if Israel complied with U.S. law, but a conclusion has not yet been reached.

[oberliner]

10. Looks like you are right

My mistake!

[IndianaGreen]

13. No, this is FMS

US lends Israel money to purchase our weapons. Israel never pays back.

[GoesTo11]

14. Stop paying taxes if you feel that way about it.

[ensho]

2. probably some of this stuff is what Israel is selling to India re: my thread

yesterday about India signing contract with Israel for missal stuff

[classysassy]

3. Where is the justice?

America will be held accountable for the aide we are suppling Israel so they can maim and kill innocent people.

[oberliner]

5. Yes we need those weapons to main and kill innocent people ourselves!

We've got plenty to be accountable for independent of who we send aid to.

[azurnoir]

6. Are these weapons part of the "deal" made with Bush?

or America gives Israel money which Israel uses to buy American made weapons, I think the amount this year is something like 2.7 bln, Obama needs to "renegotiate" this deal but he really can not just stop it, if he did any agreement anywhere with anyone now or in the future could be seen as only good for the lifetime of that administration

eta this is not approval on my part, just reality and another part of the Bush legacy that needs to be dealt with

[bemildred]

7. This is the ship that the fuss was made about in Greece a while back.

These are "pre-positioned assets", mainly ammunition I gather, and theoretically it remains in US posession, probably at one of our "secret" facilities in Israel.

[azurnoir]

8. My question was based on comment #4

your comment adds an interesting twist though

[Igel]

11. The article's a bit squirrelly.

This will do as an example. There are a few places where they tacitly change definitions (if only by changing the referents) of words mid-stream.

Under a U.S.-Israel agreement, munitions from this stockpile may be transferred for Israeli use if necessary. A State Department official told Amnesty International that Israel's use of U.S. weapons during the Gaza conflict are under review to see if Israel complied with U.S. law, but a conclusion has not yet been reached.

Quick: What's the antecedent for "U.S. weapons" in the second paragraph? Right: "Munitions from this stockpile". Crucially, there's no claim that munitions from the prepositioned stockpile were used. If none were released to Israel or used by Israel (two different things, to be sure), then the concern over the prepositioned weapons is based on a hypothetical. All the discussion of misuse of WP and other weapons apparently deals with weapons that were sold by the US (or, in some cases, probably produced in Israel).

While the latter concerns are real, the reason for this report is the prepositioned stockpile. They haven't shown that it's a problem, so as far as I can tell the article gets us worked up over a problem already discussed by trying to get us worked up over something that quite probably isn't a problem. Now, it may be a problem, perhaps prepositioned weapons in the US stockpiles were accessed by Israel. That would be news, and should be made very explicit, instead of being buried in the rules of English discourse implicature.

[bemildred]

12. True.

If you didn't read the whole thing, you could get inaccurate impressions. Noticed that myself. But one gets so used to these botched headlines.

[rateyes]

15. And, the beat goes on...

when will the US learn that this shit isn't helpful to the peace process?

[ProgressiveMuslim]

16. Take Action! Ask Secretary Clinton Why the US Continues to Deliver Arms to Israel

Despite strong evidence of the misuse of U.S. weapons against civilians in Gaza, Amnesty International recently revealed that the United States sent a massive new shipment of arms to Israel. The Wehr Elbe, a ship controlled by the U.S. Military Sealift Command, docked and unloaded several thousand tons of arms on March 22 at the Israeli port of Ashdod. Ask State Department officials why the United States would deliver these arms to Israel. » Background Information

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=11787

[CRojas]

17. Diplomacy

Don't we believe in diplomacy?! What happen with our convictions of peace and build bridges with another countries?