Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
In a major development US administration has approved the sale of $735 million weapons to Israel that is engaged in ongoing violence with Palestine at present.
Congress was officially notified of the proposed sale on May 5. That was nearly a week before Hamas, the terrorism-designated organization that controls the Gaza strip began intense rocket attacks against Israel that have reportedly killed at least 10 Israelis.
The rockets have been answered with ongoing Israeli airstrikes that have left nearly 200 Palestinians dead and sparked worldwide calls for diplomatic action. The crisis is the worst since a 2014 Hamas-Israeli war that lasted nearly two months.
“In the past week, the Israeli military’s strikes have killed many civilians and destroyed the building that housed the Associated Press, an American company reporting from Gaza,” a Democratic lawmaker on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said.
“Allowing this proposed sale of smart bombs to go through without putting pressure on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire will only enable further carnage,” he said.
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The administration is required to inform Congress of such sales, although official notification generally comes only after Congress has informally agreed. Once the formal notification is made, lawmakers have 20 days to object with a nonbinding resolution of disapproval.
Israel, which has purchased substantial quantities of JDAMS in the past, has said the Gaza airstrikes are precision guided to avoid hitting civilians, but charged that Hamas uses civilians in the heavily populated enclave as human shields.
