Glenn Greenwald explodes the illusion of the U.S. as a third-party bystander to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians:
[P]retending that the US – and the Obama administration – bear no responsibility for what is taking place is sheer self-delusion, total fiction. It has long been the case that the central enabling fact in Israeli lawlessness and aggression is blind US support, and that continues, more than ever, to be the case under the presidency of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner. The US is not some neutral, uninvolved party. Whatever side of this conflict you want to defend – or if you’re one of those people who love to announce that you just wish the whole thing would go away – it’s still necessary to take responsibility for the key role played by the American government and this administration in enabling everything that is taking place.
The ongoing illusion that the U.S. is a neutral outsider is propagated by the U.S. commercial media.
It’s just been staggering to see how tilted US media discourse is: Israeli officials and pro-Israel “experts” are endlessly paraded across the screen while Palestinian voices are exceedingly rare; the fact of the 45-year-old brutal occupation and ongoing Israeli dominion over Gaza is barely mentioned; meanwhile, every primitive rocket that falls harmlessly near Israeli soil is trumpeted with screaming headlines while the carnage and terror in Gaza is mentioned, if at all, as an afterthought.
A few American made weapons being deployed in Gaza by the IDF:
DIMEs- Dense Inert Metal Explosives: A heavy metal impregnated tungsten-carbide ceramic cylinder packed with high explosives and detonated by a ground proximity fuse at about 3 feet above the ground. Dropped from helicopters, the detonation pulverizes the cylinder into a high density dust that shreds anyone within a 30 foot radius, and embeds toxic particles deep into the skin of victims at a greater distance, triggering aggressive cancers. DIMEs are part of a new class of aerial weapon known as SDNs (small diameter bomb) that are intended to reduce collateral damage but when used against civilians in large gatherings can maximize collateral damage.
White phosphorus: designed for providing light for night operations, when fired downward into crowds cause fatal burns.
DIMEs and white phosphorus have been deployed by the IDf in GAZA since 2009.
More recently, the IDF has shown a preference for thermobaric devices. Also known as fuel air explosives, thermobarics release a flammable vapor into the air, and detonates the vapor after a short delay. This has several lethal effects. First, the explosion has all the effects of conventional explosives. Second, for anyone unfortunate enough to inhale the vapor before detonation, the flame from will force its way down their throat, bursting their lungs and literally burn them from the inside out. And, since the weapons uses available oxygen, survivors of the blast may still die from asphyxiation.
The use of weapons by the IDF against a mostly civilian population indicates their goals are not defense related. When you factor in the blockade and siege of Gaza, the IDF attacks in Gaza bring to mind the idea of “shooting fish in a barrel”. Clearly Israel’s main goal is extermination of the Palestinian people in the Gaza strip.
But Why?
in 2000, vast natural gas reserves were discovered off the shore of the Gaza strip. In addition water from the Gaza valley is used or irrigation in both the Gaza strip and in Israel.