Op-ed by Tommy Johnson
Twice in the month of December, President Biden, the head of the US imperialist state, has bypassed Congress to sell arms to the genocidal Israeli occupation of Palestine. Biden’s decision, which was announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinkin on December 29th, follows a similar decision announced December 9th, amid international protest of the crimes being committed by the Israeli state. Both weapons sales amount to more than $251.5 million.
As Congress has delayed Biden’s attempts to provide a $106 billion “aid package” to Ukraine and Israel, the decision to bypass lawmakers to sell arms under “emergency” pretext represents the trend of presidential absolutism growing with the reactionization of the state. Biden, like the Bush and Trump administrations, bypasses Congress when there is fear that weapons sales could be reduced or blocked. The president does not want conditions which might impede genocide to be imposed on his shady dealings, and especially seeks to avoid delays seen in the so-called “aid package.” The package in question seeks to send your tax money to prop up foreign wars, in which the US state fights via their proxies in Ukraine and supports the genocide of Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli puppet state—and on top of all this, the aid package is to increase militarization on the US-Mexican border.
The US working class is fighting to show solidarity with the Palestinian people, along with the workers of the world who see in their just cause a common struggle against oppression. So what is the “emergency” faced by the state of Israel, already militarized, subsidized, and well armed? The threat of a popular National Resistance in Palestine, which fight heroically against Israel’s attempt to eradicate even the memory of Palestine.
The US imperialists via the State Department have made it clear: “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to ensure Israel is able to defend itself against the threats it faces.” US national interests means nothing but the financial interests of the US ruling class, whose interest is plundering the world; it is not in the interests of the common people to “defend Israel.” It is not Israel who will come to the defense of the worker who is unjustly fired or the Black man being gunned down in US streets. US interests means ruling class interests and it could not be more clear.
Who Profits from these Weapons Sales?
Through both imperialist parties, the US has spent over $3 billion dollars “defending” Israel every year over the past 50 years. On what does Israel spend this unbelievably large sum? Weapons, most of which they buy from privately-owned manufacturers in the US. The money which Biden, and any other president, gives to Israel is spent then on products made by his corporate political backers, who are getting filthy rich off of war—exploiting workers here and killing them abroad.
92% of Israeli weapons come from the US; it is a completely dependent puppet state through which politicians can dump massive amounts of tax payer money and secure the business interests of the capitalists who profit from war, a very lucrative business. This includes over 2,000 hellfire missiles, 36,000 rounds of tank ammunition, white phosphorous and all other kinds of death-bringing devices. Within his first term, Biden has already surpassed the amount of weapons sold by his predecessor Trump. This is why the big arms magnates got behind him in the 2020 election.
Biden’s allies know well that he will make sure their weapons are being sold, and that US tax money will find its way right back into the pockets of the most war hungry imperialists, themselves who are given big tax breaks. Among the biggest arms manufacturers in the world getting rich off genocide with Biden’s help are: Lockheed Martin, one of the largest Lockheed stock holders, Marillyn A Hewson is worth about $117 million, and its CEO Jim Taiclet makes almost $25 million a year; Raytheon, whose CEO Gregory J. Hayes has an estimated net worth of about $97 million and is bringing in over $22 million a year; Northrop Grumman, whose CEO Kathy Warden brings home over $20 million a year on top of owning over $75 million of the company’s stock; and Boeing, whose CEO David Calhoun makes about $22 million a year and last year got an extra “bonus” of $7 billion.
These are just some of the people who represent “US Interest” in the Israeli Zionist land-stealing project, and it is into their wallets where your tax money is going. And Biden does not need Congress to make this happen. In common parlance, such a man would be called a gangster or mafioso, but with all the sense of law and order and the worship of the ruling class and its state, we are asked to call him president, and will be asked to re-elect him. Remember this next November, as we heed the call of revolutionary workers to boycott the 2024 elections!
photo: Protestors block an arms shipment destined for Israel at the port of Oakland, California in November 2023, Middle East Monitor
