Genocide Joe has been sending billions of dollars in weapons and aid to Israel for years, why worry now?
You know what I can’t figure out?
We all saw (or read) about “Genocide Joe” Biden’s confusion and inability to address various issues in the debate with Trump. Now, many who back the Democrats are calling for him to step aside before the November election. Is there time, some ask. Will the electorate vote for Kamala Harris, others ask?
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F4d56a58b-6ea1-4257-899c-4d234ed16e55_900x900.jpeg)
Now, I’m sympathetic to people with disabilities, be they mental or physical or both – as it seems in Biden’s case, and I’d say also in Trump’s. But frankly, Biden has been running the US for just about four years now. And aside from never seeing a war he didn’t want to support (on the pro-imperialist bullies’ side)—how has four years of Genocide Joe as President contributed to Israel’s war on Gaza?
In fact, his tenure in the White House has helped Israel greatly.
$12.5 billion of aid from the US government to Israel just since Oct 7
$3.8 billion of military aid to Israel every year for at least a decade
The US supplied 69% of all weapons to Israel from 2019 to 2023 (see chart below)
Doing the bidding of the US military-industrial complex:
Raytheon supplies Tamir interceptor missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome
General Dynamics sells weapons, robotic combat vehicles, Merkava tanks, weapons systems for F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, artillery systems, aircraft guns, and cybersecurity systems—much of it to Israel. In 2022 General Dynamics total sales were $30.8 billion for the “defense” sector including Israel. Since then, GD has also sold Israel fighter jets and armoured tanks which have been “repeatedly been used against Palestinian civilians, resulting in numerous casualties as well as mass destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and water and electric systems.”
As recently as June 4, 2024 Lockheed Martin inked a deal for another F-35 squadron for Israel. The cost is $3 billion plus for 25 advanced stealth fighter jets—killing machines. .
Less than a month after Oct 7, the Israel Ministry of Defence asked for an accelerated order for D9 bulldozers made by Caterpillar in the US. Israel refitted the D9s for military use through the Israeli company Zoko Enterprises. According to the Who Profits Research Centre website
“D9s have been extensively used in the Israeli military attacks on Gaza and for operational tasks such as large-scale demolitions, land-clearing missions and arrests operations across the occupied Palestinian territory.” Some of the D9s have been altered to ensure they can be used as unmanned for “autonomous” use.
According to some analysts the intensity of the assault on Gaza would not have been possible without “the continued supply of American bombs, shells and other munitions.” As Dan Sabbagh reports in The Guardian,
“An analysis from the conservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in Washington DC, suggests that Israel, which last year spent 5.3% of its GDP on defence (more than two and a half times the Nato target) would have to lift budgets to between 7% and 8% “to reduce (not eliminate) its reliance on foreign governments for the weapons Israel most needs”. It is not clear if that is sustainable.”
I know Biden didn’t win the big debate, but neither did Trump. However now most people even his good friends such as The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman are kicking him to the curb.
Arming Israel to the teeth, or Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians and the 40,000 murdered by Israel are neither argued nor examined in high up US government circles. Clearly no hard questions will be asked about the US’s near 100% support for Israel’s genocide in Biden’s next term — if there is a next. And it certainly won’t be asked if Trump wins.
This just in from the Land of Narcissists:
Dateline Hollywood: “The Sopranos star Drea de Matteo has claimed that she is considered an “outcast” by Hollywood due to her outspoken support for Donald Trump.
“Nodding to a famous plotline involving her character Adriana La Cerva, she joked: “They’re going to take me out into the woods and shoot me for not endorsing Biden.” from The Independent in the UK
Image at the top: Young boy with ride-on toy, the face of children in Rafah, Gaza. (Credit: AFP, in Al Jazeera)
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Judy Haiven is a writer and activist living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Formerly, she was a professor in the Management Department of the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University and is a specialist in Industrial Relations. Judy Haiven is a founder of Equity Watch, a human rights organization dedicated to fighting bullying and discrimination in the workplace.
Contact: jhaiven [at] gmail.com
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