US Sen. Chris Murphy on US arms supplies to Israel

Connecticut’s Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, 2021:

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are important partners, but our recent dizzying pace of arms sales to these nations has not made the United States or the region safer, and that is why the Biden Administration's decision to pause sales is a wise one. Too often over the last decade, the Saudis and the Emiratis have used U.S. made weapons to bomb civilians in Yemen or have illegally transferred them to extremist militias in Yemen and Libya. The pace of sales to the Gulf has also fueled an arms race with Iran that is terrible for U.S. interests. (1) [my emphasis]

Connecticut’s Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, later the same year (2):

Connecticut’s Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, 2024 (3):

Key U.S. Senator: Halting American arms sales to Israel unlikely to change Netanyahu’s Gaza strategy

Sen. Chris Murphy, an influential Democratic lawmaker who chairs the Senate subcommittee dedicated to the Middle East, said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would not be likely to alter Israel's Gaza strategy - even if the United States were to temporarily halt arms sales. [my emphasis in italics]

To be fair, Murphy has been one of the Senators that has been outspoken in demanding that the US should insist that Israel follow the requirements of not using US arms to violate international humanitarian law. And he has criticized President Biden for bypassing Congress on arms provided to Israel.

But at the same time as his Netanyahu-not-likely-to-change comment, he said, “every moment that this nightmarish humanitarian condition continues inside Gaza, is a day that the United States is less safe because we bear global responsibility side by side with Israel.”

So he seems to actually be saying - in a polite Senatorial way - that Bibi Netanyahu is such a hardcore war criminal that he would keep the war against Palestinian civilian going as long as he can, even in the face of a temporary cutoff of US arms.

Still, it’s an odd argument to make. If Netanyahu doesn’t need US arms supplies to keep the war going, why are we sending Israel arms at all in the face of what his government is doing in the war itself?

This is another reminder that Netanyahu’s pre-October 7 policy of “mowing the grass,” i.e., conducting recurring but short wars against Hamas Palestinians, had the advantage that most people outside Israel, especially Americans, didn’t have a lot of time to see one claim by the Israeli government after another - and another, and another - turn out to be lies or cynical obfuscations.

After six months and still continuing in the current war, people who have been following the news - and that’s a lot of people - already know that when the daily revelations come out of the Israeli Defense forces (IDF) deliberately killing civilians, Netanyahu’s government and the IDF will (1) lie about it, and (2) justify it.

Gideon Levy is blunt and bitter in his criticism of all those who condone the kind of war crimes we’re seeing the IDF commit day after day after day, with particular reference to the murder of the World Central Kitchen workers this week:

The term "terrorist" is the most flexible one in Israel's lexicon. In the kill zones, it means any individual. Thus self-righteousness has come to Israel too. The prime minister has regretted the killing of the aid workers – why is he suddenly regretful, and about what exactly? The IDF chief of staff says that an error occurred – what error, with the firing of three rockets at three fully identified cars? And the IDF has investigated with the speed of light.

Topping them all was, oddly enough, food critic Ruti Rousso. Opinionated and very active in this war, giving aid to dislocated Israelis and the families of the hostages, Rousso had worked with the World Central Kitchen people who also operated in the Gaza border communities. "I am crushed," she wrote on X, and that of course is heartbreaking.

But the crushed Rousso is the very same person who wrote exactly three years ago on Twitter: "They are all Hamas. No one is uninvolved (apart from the animals there)."

What more can we say? If no one in Gaza is uninvolved, apart from the animals, it's good the IDF also killed Rousso's friends from the WCK. Or maybe their foreign blood is thicker than the thin, inferior blood of the Palestinians, and their race is superior?4 [my emphasis]

Notes:

(1) Murphy Statement On Biden Administration Freezing U.S. Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates 01/27/2021. <https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-statement-on-biden-administration-freezing-us-arms-sales-to-saudi-arabia-united-arab-emirates> (Accessed: 2024-04-04).

(2) Sirota, Sara & Ahlman, Austin (2021): The Intercept 12/07/2021. <https://theintercept.com/2021/12/07/senate-chris-murphy-missile-sale-vote/> (Accessed: 2024-04-04).

(3) Samuels, Ben (2024): Haaretz 04/04/2024. <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-04/ty-article-live/idf-says-it-will-draft-more-reservists-into-air-defense-command-amid-iran-threats/0000018e-a6d1-dfed-ad9f-aedbfc6c0000?liveBlogItemId=1974372385#1974372385> (Accessed: 2024-04-04).

(4) Levy, Gideon (2024): For Israel, Foreign Aid Workers' Blood Is Thicker Than Palestinians'. Haaretz 04/03/2024. <https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-04-03/ty-article-opinion/.premium/for-israel-foreign-aid-workers-blood-is-thicker-than-palestinians/0000018e-a4ec-dd6b-abae-f7efc0020000> (Accessed: 2024-04-04).