Elevating US-Israel alliance, Obama hails his role
WASHINGTON – Israel is now officially a strategic partner of the United States, a classification held by no other nation, according to a bill signed into law by US President Barack Obama on Friday.
The United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 took more than a year to draft in Congress, and became an omnibus bill for the US-Israel relationship, reinforcing cooperation across industries with a focus on defense.
Signing the law, the president hailed its bipartisan support and said it “reflects the importance placed by my administration on strengthening and deepening US-Israel bilateral cooperation and ties.”
“It reinforces critical defense and security programs, which have reached an unprecedented level under my administration,” Obama said. “It also lays the groundwork for increased trade and cooperation across a range of cutting-edge fields, including energy, water, agriculture and technology.”
Recommitting the US to maintaining Israel’s “qualitative military edge” over its neighbors in the Middle East, the act expands authority for the forward deployment of US-made weapons stockpiles in Israeli conflicts.
It is the policy of the United States, the bill reads, “to reaffirm the unwavering support of the people and the government of the United States for the security of Israel as a Jewish state.”
The law expands cooperation on energy policies in significant ways.
Both countries are committed to “leveraging natural gas to positively impact regional stability,” it reads, urging engagement with the private sector on regulatory provisions, deep-water exploration and alternative transportation fuels.
Absent from the bill, however, is any commitment by the US to incorporate Israel into the visa-waiver program in the near future, as long sought by Jerusalem. Israeli border policies require adjustment before the country qualifies, the State Department said.
That provision held up progress on the bill for months, as organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied for its incorporation.
Ultimately, the law included a provision that states Israel “shall be” included in the program “when Israel satisfies, and as long as Israel ments for inclusion in such program specified in such section.”
Members of Congress Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida), Ted Deutch (D-Florida), Ed Royce (R-California), Eliot Engel (D-New York) and Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) authored the law.
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US Congress passes bill increasing weapons in Israel by $200 million
The US Senate has unanimously passed a bill supplying Israel with military equipment that would enable it to execute an air strike on Iran. The bill, titled the US-Israel Strategic Partnership Act, includes the sale of advanced aerial refueling tankers, which refuel fighter jets in midflight – necessary for Israeli fighter jets to reach targets in Iran. This is particularly noteworthy since the Bush administration had refused to provide Israel with refueling tankers.
The sale of the refueling tankers follows a 2013 arms sale to Israel that included V-22 Ospreys. Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution stated shortly after the sale that Ospreys are "the ideal platform for sending Israeli special forces into Iran."
The bill, which was also passed in the House earlier this year, expands the US weapons stockpile in Israel by a value of $200 million, to a total of $1.8 billion. Israel used weapons from this stockpile during its most recent military operation against Gaza, "Operation Protective Edge." Israel also used the stockpile during its 2006 invasion of Lebanon.
The bill has generated concern among experts. Mike Coogan, legislative coordinator at US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, told us that the air refueling capabilities, expanded satellite cooperation, and access to US satellite data that the bill would grant Israel "sounds quite dangerous."
"It sounds like a formula for attacking Iran."
The bill may also be in violation of the Leahy Law, which prohibits US weapons exports to military units responsible for consistent human rights violations. Israel's most recent major military offensive, "Protective Edge," would seem to have violated elementary human rights.
File photo of US V22 Osprey aircraft
Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on Palestinian rights and professor of international law at Princeton, at the time of the operation remarked, "the evidence that I'm aware of suggests the commission of serious crimes against humanity and war crimes in the course of this operation."
The UN high commissioner for human rights likewise suggested that there was "a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes." The UN secretary general condemned the high civilian death toll Israel inflicted upon the Palestinians: "I condemn this atrocious action. Israel must exercise maximum restraint and do far more to protect civilians." Amnesty International called on the UN to "impose an arms embargo on Israel/Gaza."
Andrew Feinstein, former minister of Parliament for South Africa and arms industry expert, told us that the bill is "in flagrant violation of the International Arms Trade Treaty, which the US supported and which prohibits the export of weaponry to countries engaged in conflict or where conflicts are likely to be extended or intensified by such exports."
"It is further proof of the heinous role that the US plays as the biggest seller of weapons globally and reminds us again of US complicity in the continued occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, which violates numerous international laws, conventions and UN resolutions. Israel continues to act as a shop window for US weapons at the cost of the lives of thousands of innocent Palestinians."
Coogan was also critical of the expanded access to weapons stockpiles that the bill would afford Israel. He said, "it's morally, financially, and legally problematic to continue to give Israel access to the weapons stockpiles, particularly in light of how they used them in their war on Gaza this summer."
"It looked like, for a time, the Obama admin actually suspended a shipment of weapons to Israel – specifically, hellfire missiles – but then apparently started to resend those. But the thought behind the original suspension was that Israel was using it in violation of international law and US law."
"I think it was shown by numerous human rights organizations that Israel was using ammunition stored in those forward-deployed stockpiles in clear violation of US and int'l law. So it's a mystery to us why a country of laws – purportedly – would continue to give Israel access to weapons that it uses in flagrant violations of those laws."
Retired political science professor and Israel expert Norman Finkelstein told us that the significance of the bill is that, "for all the bad blood between Obama and Netanyahu, nothing fundamental has changed in the US-Israel strategic relationship."
