As Israel continued its relentless genocide on steroids of Palestinians in Gaza with hundreds killed in past weeks, imprisonment without charges of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and destruction of the hospitals, universities, schools (8 UNRWA schools bombed in the past 10 days), cultural centers and indiscriminate bombing of markets, soccer fields and “safe areas” to where residents of Gaza have been forced, an assassination attempt was made on former President Donald Trump and NATO finished its gala 75th anniversary celebrations in Washington, D.C.
Biden Says “U.S. Politics Should Never Be a Killing Field,” While He Is Complicit in Israel’s “Killing Fields” in Gaza
As the genocide continued and a few days after the end of the NATO celebrations, an assassination attempt on former President Trump caused President Joe Biden to address the nation and orate that “political violence has no place in America and U.S. politics should never be a killing field.”
The statement of no political violence and no killing fields in America rings hollow as the Biden administration and NATO countries fuel the Israeli killing fields in Gaza with more than 90 Palestinians killed and 300 wounded by multiple Israeli rocket attacks in Khan Younis on Saturday, July 12, and 140 Palestinians killed in the past 24 hours of July 13 in several refugee camps.
NATO Members Fuel the Genocide of Gaza by Selling/Sending Weapons to Israel
Heads of 32 NATO member states and ten NATO “global partners”—Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Colombia, Mongolia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan—met in Washington, D.C., at the 75th anniversary Summit of NATO.
Some of the NATO members and partners are the same countries that are aiding and abetting the Israeli genocide of Gaza.
Office for the State of Israel Located in NATO Headquarters
NATO has a long, close and relatively unknown relationship with Israel that resulted in the establishment of an Israeli office in NATO headquarters in Brussels in 2016. Underscoring the importance to Israeli association with NATO, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said upon the opening of the office, “This is an important step that helps Israel’s security. It is further proof to the status of Israel and the willingness of many organizations to cooperate with us in the field of security.”
The invitation from NATO for Israel to have an office in NATO headquarters was a result of pressure by other NATO members on Turkey to end its objections to the invitation. The invitation arose through a new NATO partnership policy beginning in 2014 but Turkey objected to the invitation until 2016.
Behind-the-scenes negotiations between Turkey and Israel in 2015 warmed the chilly relationship that had been essentially severed between the countries in 2010 over Israeli commandos killing ten Turkish activists and wounding more than 50 participants on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship bound for Gaza as a part of the seven-ship Gaza Freedom Flotilla.
According to NATO documents, NATO and Israel have worked together for almost 30 years, cooperating in science and technology, counter-terrorism, civil preparedness, countering weapons of mass destruction, and women, peace and security. To strengthen NATO naval interoperability, NATO brought on Israel as a partner for NATO’s Operation Sea Guardian. Israel’s military medical academy now serves as a “unique asset” for NATO’s Partnership Training and Education Centers community.
Israel is not officially integrated into NATO but is part of the Mediterranean Dialogue, a program sponsored by NATO in cooperation with seven countries of the Mediterranean.
Only 4 of 32 NATO Members do NOT Sell Weapons to Israel or Buy Weapons from Israel
NATO’s long-standing working relationship with Israel has translated into NATO countries selling weapons to Israel, and other countries buying weapons from Israel’s big weapons industry.
With the exception of Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium, all other NATO members continue to sell/send weapons to Israel as it conducts genocidal operations on Palestinians in Gaza. Due to a court case, Denmark may suspend export of F-35 fighter jet parts to the U.S., because the U.S. sells the jets to Israel.
Even Latvia sold weapons to Israel, while Lithuania bought weapons from Israel. Greece, Albania, Slovakia, and many other NATO countries have purchased military equipment from Israel.
The Action on Armed Violence has a comprehensive worldwide listing of weapons sales and transfers to Israel.
The U.S. Is the Mammoth Supplier to Israel, Providing an Estimated 68% of Israel’s Foreign-Sourced Weapons
Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding in 1948, having received about $310 BILLION in economic and military assistance. Since October 7, 2023, the U.S. has passed legislation that has provided at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which included $3.8 billion from legislation in March 2024 and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriation in April 2024.
Since October 7, only two of the more than one hundred military aid transfers to Israel have reportedly met the congressional review threshold of $250 million to be made public, and since the records for the other weapons transfers have not been made public, we cannot be sure.
Additionally, the Israeli military received expedited deliveries of weapons from a strategic stockpile of weapons that is normally used to replenish weapons for U.S. units in the Middle East. The U.S. has maintained massive warehouses to stockpile a huge variety and amount of weapons since the 1980s.
All of the Israeli Air Force’s manned aircraft that are bombing people in Gaza are American-made, with the exception of a single helicopter built by France’s Airbus Helicopters. Israel is the first international operator of the U.S. F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most technologically advanced fighter jet ever made, and had taken delivery of 36 of 75 F-35s by the end of 2023, paying for them with U.S. assistance.
In 2016 the U.S. and Israel signed a third ten-year Memorandum of Understanding covering the 2019-2028 period providing for $38 billion in military aid, $33 billion in grants to buy military equipment and $5 billion for missile defense systems. Israel received 69% of its military aid from the U.S. in the 2019-2023 period, according to a March fact sheet issued by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Israel ranks 98th in the world in population, with 9.4 million inhabitants, only 0.11% of the world’s population, and ranks 154th of all countries in land mass. However, despite its small population and land mass, SIPRI’s study ranks Israel as the world’s 15th largest weapons importer, receiving 2.1% of all imports, according to available data from 2019-2023. Conversely, Israel is the world’s 9th largest weapons exporter, responsible for 2.4% of all exports.
Germany Is the Second Largest Weapons Provider to Israel, Providing Approximately 30% of All Foreign Weapons to Israel.
Germany is the second largest weapons provider to Israel, providing approximately 30% of all foreign weapons into Israel. In 2023, Germany approved military equipment and arms exports to Israel worth $353.70 million, a ten-fold increase compared with 2022, This includes four submarines. according to the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action data and data submitted to the International Court of Justice in Nicaragua’s case against Germany for complicity in the genocide of Gaza.
In April 2024, Nicaragua argued that Germany had breached the UN Genocide Convention by sending military hardware to Israel, thereby aiding and abetting genocide and violating international humanitarian law in Gaza.
Remarkably, after the International Court of Justice called on nations and citizens to do more to prevent the genocide, the ICJ ruled against issuing emergency orders to stop Germany’s arms sales to Israel.
As a slap-in-the-face to reality, after denying the emergency request to halt German weapons to Israel, presiding Judge Nawaf Salam had the gall to say that the court “remains deeply concerned about the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities to which they have been subjected.”
He added that the court “considers it particularly important to remind all states of their international obligations relating to the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict, in order to avoid the risk that such arms might be used” to violate international law.”
The dissenting opinion in the ICJ ruling noted that the German government was not honest in its case:
“Indeed, since the closure of oral hearings, Nicaragua has brought to the Court’s attention information from the German Government concerning the export licences granted for Israel in 2024. These include war weapons and other military equipment, apparently not for training or test purposes, as Germany had suggested in respect of certain earlier licences. Licences granted in 2024 concern, among other things, ammunition for machine guns; propellant charges; items falling within the category of warships (surface or underwater), specialized naval equipment, accessories, components and other surface vessels; and, most ominously, an item falling into the category of chemical agents, biological agents, irritants, radioactive substances, associated equipment, components and materials. It is also worth pointing out that the Court dealt with ‘other military equipment’ as exclusively relating to non-lethal equipment. This was an oversimplification dealt with summarily by the Court since, under German law, certain lethal weapons may fall under the ‘other military equipment’ category.” [Emphasis in original.]
In April 2024, citing international law and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, human rights lawyers asked the Berlin administrative court to suspend the German government’s decision to send 3,000 anti-tank weapons to Israel, according to Reuters. An export permit application for 10,000 rounds of ammunition to Israel had yet to be approved.
The United States, Which Provides Israel with Twice As Much Weaponry As Germany, Does Not Recognize the ICJ’s Compulsory Jurisdiction.
The U.S., which provides Israel with twice as much weaponry as Germany, does not recognize the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction.
While the United States initially accepted the general compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ, it withdrew consent in 1985, after the ICJ issued an unfavorable jurisdictional decision in a case relating to U.S. military intervention in Nicaragua.
Subsequently, ICJ jurisdiction over the United States became contingent on specific treaty provisions—creating a limited exposure that the United States has generally sought to avoid, particularly in more recent years. In 2005 and 2018, the United States responded to another series of unfavorable ICJ decisions by similarly withdrawing from the Optional Protocol for the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR).
German Parliamentarian Sevim Dagdelen Opposes German Weapons Sales and Transfers to Israel
Member of the German Parliament Sevim Dagdelen spoke in Washington, D.C., on July 6, 2024, at the NO to NATO; YES to PEACE symposium and on July 7 at the rally for peace outside the White House.
In her talks, she said that, while from 2019 to 2023, 30% of weapons into Israel came from Germany, in 2023, the percentage of weapons sent to Israel dramatically increased to 47% from Germany while the U.S. supplied 53%.
Dagdelen spoke of three myths concerning NATO:
First myth: That NATO is a defensive alliance abiding by international law.
Dagdelen said that “over the last quarter century, NATO has waged unprovoked, illegal wars of aggression against Yugoslavia and Libya; and the United States, the leader of the alliance, invaded and occupied Iraq, in a catastrophic adventure—to name three notorious examples.”
Second myth: That NATO stands for democracy and the rule of law.
“The reality is that NATO has never had a problem with counting military dictatorships or fascist regimes among its members. Portugal, one of NATO’s founding members, murdered thousands of Africans in its colonial wars and tortured hundreds to death in concentration camps. That was never a problem for this particular collective of shared values, just as Erdoğan’s Türkiye, with its support for jihadist terrorist groups in Syria, poses no particular ethical problem for it today.”
Third myth: That NATO is a community of shared values and stands for human rights.
“In reality, the wars conducted by the United States and its Allies over the last 20 years alone have killed four and a half million people, as calculated by researchers at the esteemed Brown University. The torture and detention camp at Guantánamo Bay Naval Base is still in operation to this day. The journalist Julian Assange was tormented nearly to death for 14 years because he had published evidence of U.S. war crimes. Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government continues to receive American and European support in the form of arms deliveries for its onslaught against Gaza, which cannot credibly be justified by recourse to the right of self-defense.”
Italy Is the Number 3 Provider of Weapons to Israel; UK Still Grants Export Licenses for Weapons to Israel; and France Still Provides Weapons to Israel
According to SIPRI, from 2019-2023, Italy is the third-highest weapons seller to Israel, providing 4.7% of foreign weapons.
In 2023, Britain granted export licenses to sell at least $52.5 million of military equipment to Israel—mainly munitions, unmanned air vehicles, small arms ammunition and components for aircraft, helicopters, and assault rifles.
The UK government does not give arms directly to Israel but, rather, licenses companies to sell equipment components into U.S. supply chains, such as for F-35 jets.
The most recent shipment of war equipment to Israel from France was electronic equipment for drones from the French firm Thales. The shipment took place on May 26, 2024.
Not Just NATO Members, but Many of NATO’s Partners Sell Weapons to Israel
South Korea’s weapons trade with Israel has grown significantly over the past decade. South Korea sold weapons to Israel over the past ten years worth $47 million and the Hyundai Corporation has sold equipment to Israel that is used to demolish Palestinian homes for Israeli settlements.
Penny Wong, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, has said her country has not supplied weapons since the start of the Gaza conflict, yet “data from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade [DFAT] shows that in February 2024 alone Australia directly exported over $1.5 million in ‘arms and ammunition’ to Israel….At a recent [Australian] Senate Estimates hearing, the Chief Economist of DFAT acknowledged that…Australia has exported $10 million worth of ‘arms and ammunition’ to Israel over the past five years.”
Of the larger NATO partners, Japan and New Zealand have stopped selling weapons to Israel during the genocide period.
NATO’s Washington Final Statement Includes No Mention of the Genocide in Gaza and Only a Brief Reference to the Middle East
While NATO members are deeply complicit in the Israeli genocide of Gaza, the final statement of the NATO summit in Washington mentioned nothing about the Israeli genocide of Gaza, the deaths of almost 39,000 Palestinians, the wounding of more than 100,000 and the destruction of housing, hospitals, schools, universities, religious buildings and UN facilities for 2.1 million Palestinians.
Instead, NATO included only a brief reference to the Middle East, referring to the region as the “southern neighbor.”
The paragraph on the Middle East concludes that the NATO Secretary General will designate a Special Representative for the southern neighborhood, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has agreed to have a NATO Liaison Office located in Amman, the NATO-ICI Regional Centre will continue in Kuwait and “based on the request of the Iraqi authorities, we have broadened the scope of our support to the Iraqi Security Institutions and will continue our engagement through the NATO Mission Iraq (NMI).”
- Note; Since this article was first written, things have gotten even worse with many more Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombing of schools. The Hamas chief negotiator was also assassinated by Israel in Iran, and Hezbollah’s senior commander was assassinated by Israel in Lebanon. This week, a large number of activists will be outside the Democratic National Convention protesting the Gaza War and Democratic Party’s complicity in it. We shall see what impact they have.
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About the Author
Ann Wright is a retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official.
She was one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Since that time Colonel Wright has been a dedicated peace activist.
Ann can be reached at annw1946@gmail.com.
