Infographics: What You Need to Know About the Israeli Army Interactive News

Last month, when Israel bombed the besieged Gaza Strip for the fourth time in 12 years, the United States agreed to allow Israel to accept $ 735 million in weapons. Acceptance was criticized by congressional lawmakers and several Democrats has submitted resolutions Blocking the sale of precision-guided missiles by Boeing.

Israel’s 11-day military campaign killed at least 253 people, including 66 children, in Gaza. Rockets fired at Gaza by armed groups in Palestine have killed at least 12 people in Israel. The The UN Human Rights Council has set up a table the investigation into war crimes and two human rights groups has been renewed by Amnesty International call To stop the US from selling its weapons to Israel.

Gaza is said to be the largest open-air prison in the world. Since 2006, Israel has imposed a land, sea and air blockade on 2.1 million people. Israeli forces continue to militarily occupy East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where they have built hundreds of illegal settlements.

Maintaining Israel’s regional military hegemony is a key element of U.S. Middle East policy. This has been achieved while US funding and the Israeli arms industry are growing.

Here’s what you need to know about the Israeli military and arms industry.

How much does Israel spend on its army?

Israel uses an extensive military apparatus that requires military service for citizens over the age of 18 by 2020, when the country spent $ 22 billion on its military service, according to a database by the SIPRI research institute focusing on conflict and armaments. Israel spent about $ 2,508 per capita and spent 12% of its total government spending on defense.

Displayed, the combination of these metrics shows the amount above the disarmament of Israel compared to some of the largest military in the world, including five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Israel is a major supplier of advanced weapons, including drones, missiles, radar technology and other weapons systems. In 2020, it was the 12th largest arms supplier in the country, with sales of more than $ 345 million to 16 countries, according to the SIPRI database.

How much does the US spend on the Israeli army?

The U.S. is the largest provider of military aid provided by Israel, giving the country $ 3.8 billion in 2020 as part of a record $ 38 billion deal within a 10-year period signed in 2016 by former U.S. President Barack Obama. Previously, Israel also received significant economic support from the United States along with military supplies. As Israel became richer, economic aid, which began in 1951, disappeared and was almost eliminated in 2007.

The US sets the conditions for how aid, especially military aid, can be used. For example, the Leahy Act prohibits the export of U.S. defense articles to military units that are complicit in human rights violations. However, no Israeli moment has been punished under this law. Similarly, historically U.S. economic support to Israeli institutions, such as universities, was to be used in Israel’s pre-1967 borders. This condition was waived in the Trump administration.

In comparison, the U.S. allocated $ 19 million in 2020 to support the Palestinians in all forms of aid, according to USAID, after the Trump administration suspended most funding to the Palestinian Authority because its government promoted the so-called “peace plan” the Palestinians denounced. as unilateral.

Since the PA was formed in 1994, it has been provided by the US A total of $ 5 billion in support. Unlike Israeli aid, Palestinian aid has many conditions. For example, Taylor Force Act, financial aid can be suspended if the Palestinian Authority makes a “payment that sparks terror”. The Biden administration has stated that it will provide support to the Palestinians again, although the totals will remain a part of what Israel has provided.

Washington, too, under internal laws like the 2014 U.S.-Israel Strategic Cooperation Act, is forced to protect Israel’s so-called “qualitative military edge,” which means Israel should maintain military dominance over its region’s neighbors. The law guarantees Israel access to advanced U.S. weapons. U.S. officials regularly discuss regional defense sales with Israel to ensure their ally is not at a military disadvantage.

US support for Israel began in 1948 when the latter declared independence, and the US was one of the first countries to recognize Israel. Soon after, the U.S. began providing economic aid and, to a much lesser extent, new aid to the new state.

However, military support Israel grew a lot after the 1967 Six Day War When Israel defeated the surrounding Arab armies and began occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. This means that it has been replaced by distortions of military funding since 1967 almost 80 percent Among all the aid provided by the US.

U.S. lawmakers have long seen Israel as an ally to help protect U.S. strategic interests in the Middle East. Initially, there was a hold of Soviet influence in the region. According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service, ongoing factors in military support Israel includes shared strategic interests, “United States support for Israel,” and “mutual commitment to democratic values.”

US funding for Israel has usually been and continues to be a partisan affair, as it is provided by Democrat and Republican administrations. For the past two decades, the U.S. has been supporting the Israeli military has increased Although military campaigns in Israel in Gaza in 2008/2009, 2012 and 2014 have killed more than 3,500 Palestinians. About 100 Israelis have been killed in three wars.

Regarding the rise in U.S. military aid in 2003, Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, noted that the rise is “part of the overall increase in U.S. transfers to the Middle East and U.S. military spending.” Al-Qaeda attacks the US in 2001, the US-led war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq.

“Israel’s support for the U.S. has always been a way to advance Israel’s perceived U.S. strategic goals, not about Israel’s security needs,” he told Al Jazeera.

With regard to the increase in US military aid in 2000, Zunes stated that the US had agreed in the 1998 Wye River Memorandum to promote aid to Israel. ” [relatively minor] Israeli concessions in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ”.

“Since the budget was presented last year, it was the budget after that meeting, and so it was probably the result of that,” he said.

Israel is the largest recipient of total US foreign military funding (FMF) – a program that provides grants and loans to US allies to acquire “U.S. Defense Equipment, Services, and Training.” Over the past two decades, 55% of all U.S. FMFs have been dedicated to Israel, more than worldwide, according to Security Assistance Monitors, according to the Center for International Policy, which is based in Washington DC.

These numbers do not reflect other indirect military aid. For example, the U.S. military maintains a large “emergency” weapons depot in Israel. It is currently valued $ 3.4 million, The Israeli military can use the cache in emergencies.

South Korea has a similar organization. These arrangements were originally designed to facilitate the rapid deployment of U.S. troops. In practice, for Israel, they serve as an additional layer of defense and allow the Israeli army to quickly enter ammunition and weapons in a conflict. Unlike other FMF recipients, Israel is allowed to use FMF funds to buy from local companies until 2028, according to the latest US-Israel MOU for defense.

Israeli military imports and exports

Historically, Israel’s arms imports have been much more than exports. However, the SIPRI database has shown that exports have begun to eclipse imports over the last decade.

According to Neve Gordon, a professor at Queen Mary University in London, Israel has used Palestine, Lebanon and Syria as “a showcase for products developed by Israel’s military-industrial complex”.

“This is very important for the export industry because it can be said that producers of weapons and surveillance systems have been used in real combat situations and tested for their effectiveness,” Al Jazeera said.

Israel only imports weapons from western countries, and 83% of imports come from the US between 1950 and 2020. In contrast, 23% of exports went to India and exported far away. Israel continued to controversially export to apartheid government in South Africa.

Both countries signed a secret defense agreement To avoid the global trade embargo imposed on South Africa by apartheid policies in 1975.

According to the SIPRI database, the main markets for Israeli arms exports from 2015 to 2020 were India (43 per cent), Azerbaijan (16 per cent), Vietnam (10 per cent) and the USA (4 per cent). India was Israel’s largest arms buyer in 2020.

Relations between the two countries have flourished since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014. Since then, an Indian diplomat has been recorded advocating the use of the “Israeli model” in Indian Kashmir, citing Israeli settlements. He occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Rights groups have denounced Kashmir’s abuses by the Indian military, including fear, torture, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests in Kashmir. In 2019, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for a formal investigation into these allegations.

“Not a dollar” – an appeal against the arms embargo

If they have Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists long called Arguing that Israel’s international arms embargo could lead to foreign cooperation with foreign governments and companies is helping Israel maintain its occupation of the Palestinian territories.

According to the Palestinian-led Boycott, Disinvestment, Punishment (BDS) movement – a movement led by non-violent people has called for pressure from Israel to end the occupation and give Palestinians equal rights and the right to return. the military force “to maintain the regime of illegal occupation, colonialism and apartheid.”

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on US President Biden to regain final approval to sell arms amid Israel’s “daily violation of human rights and international humanitarian law”.

Several progressive U.S. lawmakers have also called on the Biden administration to condition U.S. aid on Israel. U.S. lawmaker Betty McCollum introduced a bill banning Israel from using U.S. aid to arrest Palestinian children, destroy Palestinian property, and continue to annex Palestinian occupied lands.

“Not a single dollar of U.S. taxpayer funds should be used to violate human rights for Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation,” he told Al Jazeera earlier last month.