In Geopolitics Today - Monday, May 17th
US Approves $735M Arms Sale to Israel, Joint Indo-Pacific Military Drill Held, and Donald Trump's War with US Generals
US Approves $735 Million Weapons Sale to Israel
As Israel continues to strike at targets in Gaza, Hamas fired back using the limited means at their disposal — rockets. The latest outpouring of violence relates directly to Israel’s more than half-century military occupation and its ever-deepening grip over Palestinian life.
All the while, the Biden administration has approved the sale of $735 million in weapons to Israel. While Congress was not notified of the weapons sale until the 5th of May, President Biden has now signed off on the hefty arms deal with Boeing agreeing to handle the logistics of delivering the arms to its ally in the Middle East. That the deal took less than two weeks to go from Congress to executive authorisation should tell you how uncontroversial arms sales to Israel are to the US government.
For those appalled by the consequences of this period of escalating violence, perhaps even hoping that the US would be an effective mediator in the conflict given its past determinations to uphold ‘human rights‘ abroad, I’ve got some bad news. As this statement by the Office of the Secretary of Defence reveals, the US government has come out in full support of its ally.
And this continual support for Israel feeds into a growing concern about the political climate in the United States regarding US-Israel relations. A survey of local authorities on twitter will lead you to witness an outpouring of support for Israel. Like the state of Arkansas “stands with Israel,” or Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota “stands with Israel,” or a New York State Senator “stands with Israel.” That they’ve likely been exposed to stories which exclusively frame Israel as a victim of terror in this conflict is unfortunate, but events from the ground should be informative enough to stand with reason, which would inevitably lead to a more nuanced understanding of the conflict. After all, they’re contributing to the outcome.
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France, Japan, and the United States Hold Joint Military Drill
Dozens of Japanese, American and French troops landed from a CH-47 transport helicopter onto a grassy field at Kirishima Training Area, which is located in southern Japan. The scenario of the drill is to test the ability of participating nations at defending a small remote island from an enemy invasion. The three nations’ first joint drills on Japanese soil has been dubbed ARC21 and began on Tuesday as all participating nations seek to step up military ties amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the region.
On Saturday, the three countries were also joined by Australia as part of an expanded naval exercise involving 11 warships in the East China Sea, where tensions with China are rising around the island of Taiwan. The UK, which recently adopted a policy of deeper engagement in the region, is sending its Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier together with its strike group, which are due to arrive in the region later this year, with Germany also set to deploy a frigate in the future.
Japan is seeking to expand its military ties beyond its traditional security alliance with the United States, and hopes to include “like-minded” countries such as France, said Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi. He said that France, the only European nation with a permanent military presence in the Indo-Pacific region, is “a like-minded country that shares with Japan the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
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Donald Trump’s War with US Generals
Axios has published an interesting series which delves into the last two and a half months of the Trump administration. Yesterday it published the latest instalment, which explores how a weakened Trump was pushed and tricked into approving policies which were contrary to his own preferences and instincts.
According to the report, once Trump was in the Oval Office, his ambitions to withdraw from Afghanistan and other countries were subdued, slow-rolled, and detoured by military leaders. Trump was apparently not assertive enough to use the power of his office to accomplish his campaign promise of withdrawing from the multitude of military engagements that the US is involved in.
And as regards the frenzy and fear surrounding discussions on Trump’s supposed intentions to enact a military coup in the US, Kelley Vlahos of Responsible Statecraft comments:
This is an important read, which also includes new speculation about whether Gen. Milley was actively working against the civilian leadership in the Pentagon during this period. Interestingly, while Trump was railing about “stop the steal” he wasn’t doing what everyone had accused him of doing on the military side: he wasn’t using Macgregor, Miller, et al., to stay in office. Rather, he seemed to believe that following through with his pledge to “end forever wars” would be the ultimate revenge against Esper, Milley, and Generals H.R. McMaster and Jim Mattis. Too bad he did not achieve this one post-election fantasy.
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