President Biden has, at long last, halted the immediate supply of large bombs and other heavy munitions to Israel and acknowledged that these same munitions have been used in the Israeli attack on Palestine previously. At least one shipment of these munitions was paused last week: 1,800 2,000lb bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs ‘that might be used in Rafah’.
The Biden administration is at long, long last considering the consequences of unquestioningly facilitating the genocidal actions of Israel. Australia is ‘deeply concerned’, but as yet not actually taking any positive action.
Israel has claimed, repeatedly, that is only pursuing targeted attacks on Hamas fighters and is doing all it can to avoid civilian casualties. These are self-evident monstrous lies; daily we see indisputable visual evidence of broad-scale destruction of every aspect of Palestinian existence.
The 2000lb Mk84 bombs are designated ‘general purpose’- which means, basically, ‘destroy everything within an [xxx] radius of its point of explosion’. Lethal fragmentation to a radius of 375 metres of the explosion point: 44 hectares (over 100 acres, a pretty standard minimum Lot size for ‘agricultural use’ in NSW.) 440 decent-sized suburban block homes, fatally perforated. The swathes of utter devastation of everything – people, buildings, vehicles, anything – that we see daily in the news is mostly the result of these bombs.
In nobody’s most fevered imagination could these bombs be considered ‘precision’ weapons. The results are hideously evocative of the bombings of Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo and Hiroshima/Nagasaki. All, punitive destruction of primarily civilian populations.
44 hectares x 1800: nearly 80,000 hectares. 800 square kilometres mashed to a depth of several metres.. Rafah is 64 square kilometres…
The USA has ‘paused’ sending enough Mk84 bombs to Israel to shred San Francisco 6 times over, with enough Mk82s to go back for a seventh time for anything still above ground level (which would then be some metres lower). Or close to all of Canberra, if you could care about that. Or Washington DC metro more than 4 times over – you might find that a bit more relevant?
For the support of Israel’s actions post 7 October, the USA stands complicit of treachery against the humanitarian principles accepted by the United Nations, of which the USA is, I believe, a member. President Biden is already christened in some quarters as Genocide Joe. Ultimately, it may well be the only thing he are remembered for, if Israel is allowed to continue its rampage across Palestine. Not -yet- in the Nixon/Kissinger class, but a serious contender for dishonourable mention as ‘modern’ war crimes goes. The dopey AUKUS partners trundle along behind, albeit with increasing misgivings but as yet no positive action.
Bombs that cannot be delivered to the targets are as useless as the aid the USA is proposing to send – far, far too late – to the famished, decimated, smashed Palestinians of and around Gaza.
Aid that we unquestionably see blocked by the IDF because the control of delivery will stop at the end of the temporary dock structure, even though such stoppage contravenes UN mandated assistance to a besieged population.
The Biden administration and Australia has thoughtfully ensured that use of the munitions sent to the IDF has been effective in destroying Palestine by maintaining Israel’s fighter aircraft fleet. There is no ‘defence’ action for those fighter jets – but they can deliver the Mk80 series bombs. Shame there is no plan for the delivery of humanitarian aid – but you seem OK with that.
Nobody wants those shiny new fighters to just rust away, do they? The US armament manufacturers certainly don’t, they want their money makers out there and shakin’. Which is also good news for Australian companies involved in the production of critical parts for those fighters.
Repeatedly, it is claimed by way of rebuttal, that Israelis suffered the Holocaust which we all acknowledge was unfathomably monstrous, and so should be cut some slack. Allowed to ‘defend itself in any way it chooses’.
No longer ‘fair enough’: the USA has been cutting Israel slack over its nuclear programme, its settlement incursions into Palestinian land and lives, its military build-up, its now numerous nakba/naksa incidents large and small for more than 70 years.
Many non-Zionist Jews are already expressing this sentiment, btw. But even as protesters who are demanding a stop to the genocide, they are hounded down and hunted out of Universities and other protest gathering sites in the USA and branded as ‘antisemitic’, ffs. Australia is thankfully taking a more reasonable approach though our government is evidently conflicted between social decency, international obligations and alliance-drive subservience.
The USA has walked past the standards of humanity set by the very organisation which headquarters itself in its own land. It is not just there to accessorise the USA’s self-proclamation as the doyen of the International Rules Based Order, which as we have seen is in no way ‘international’ – because the USA simply mixes and matches with whatever suits it in the circumstances. A Russian invasion is evil while an Israeli one is acceptable. How is this so? The blindfold on Justice appears to have been removed for the advancement of USA interests.
So, President Biden, when you wave through yet another tranche of offensive weaponry to Israel, answer us this:
How is the situation presented in this image from Rafah different to this image from the Warsaw ghetto?
Richard Llewellyn
Richard Llewellyn was Registrar at the Australian War Memorial from 1986 to 1995.
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