US at Crossroads: Cut Military Aid to Israel or Continue Subsidizing War in Gaza

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While President Barack Obama is expressing deep concerns about the growing number of civilian deaths in Gaza, the United States goes on providing the Israeli state with sophisticated weaponry used by Jerusalem in its war against Palestinians.

While President Barack Obama is expressing deep concerns about the growing number of civilian deaths in Gaza, the United States goes on providing the Israeli state with sophisticated weaponry used by Jerusalem in its war against Palestinians. Experts claim the White House should significantly diminish its military aid to Israel in order to break the vicious circle.

According to David Miliband, former UK Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Jerusalem buys up to 95 percent of its military requirements from the US, the British Ampp3d tabloid reports. It should be noted that Israel has always been one of the largest recipients of the US's international aid.

Indeed, since the Middle Eastern state's founding Washington has spent more than 121 billions of American taxpayer dollars on the Israeli military programs, notes Eli Lake, the senior national-security correspondent for The Daily Beast. And "that subsidy has increased even as Israel's economy has experienced a growth spurt and the country has discovered stores of natural gas," stresses Eli Lake. The Israeli is economy is flourishing. In 2000, the country's GDP amounted to $124.9 billion. In 2013, in almost tripled and reached $291.3 billion.

As tensions in Gaza grow and the death toll among Palestinians has mounted over 1000 in the recent weeks, the US is faced with a moral dilemma, whether to cut the military aid and reduce arms supplies to Israel or to continue subsidizing the war in Gaza. Surprisingly, "even as the US government claims to want to broker a ceasefire, it continues facilitating weapons exports to Israel," reveals Truthout, an American non-profit news organization, "On July 14, the same day President Obama vowed that "We're going to continue to do everything we can to facilitate a return to the 2012 ceasefire," the State Department approved a possible $544 million sale of AIM-9x sidewinder missiles and associated support services to Israel." Richard Falk, a former UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, insists that the international community should impose an arms embargo on Israel in order to prevent further escalation of the conflict in Gaza, Truthout reports.

Meanwhile, the US Congress is not rushing to blame Israel for the increasing number of civilian deaths in Gaza. Even the Associated Press pointed to the blatant hypocrisy of the American law-makers, posting on its Twitter: "As much of world watches Gaza war in horror, members of Congress fall over each other to support Israel."

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