On August 26, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced that it had received over 50,000 tons in shipments of arms and military equipment from the US since October 7. Israel has used these shipments in carrying out a war that has been labeled by international bodies and nations as a genocide against the people of Gaza, with over 40,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces thus far. The weapons deliveries are “crucial for sustaining the IDF’s operational capabilities during the ongoing war,” claim Israeli forces.
It appears that the US is no closer to an arms embargo against Israel or even to conditioning aid, despite pressure from within the country itself to do so. Only weeks ago, the Pentagon announced an arms sale of USD 20 billion to Israel.
Last month, shortly before the US Congress gave visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a standing ovation in a special joint session of Congress, seven major labor unions, representing almost half of the combined unionized workforce, penned a letter demanding that the US end US aid to Israel.
This demand was reiterated by “uncommitted” delegates at the Democratic National Convention last week, as well as the thousands of protesters outside of the Convention in Chicago. Vice President Kamala Harris, formally chosen as the Democratic Party nominee in the 2024 presidential election, only firmly doubled down on her Party’s support for Israel in her acceptance speech.
“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on Oct. 7, including unspeakable sexual violence and the massacre of young people at a music festival,” Harris stated.
The conditions of genocide are only becoming more dire in Gaza. On August 16, the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that a 10-month-old baby in Gaza had been infected with polio, Gaza’s first case of polio in 25 years. This announcement raised alarms about the effects of war on conditions of disease and starvation, which could lead to upwards of 186,000 deaths, as estimated by a letter published in The Lancet last month. Organizations such as the WHO have emphasized that a humanitarian pause in the war are essential to carrying out an effective polio vaccination campaign.
