The Obama Administration has halted missile shipments to Israel and a huge new diplomatic row, which some officials are calling a “very serious rupture” is emerging tonight, after the Wall Street Journal revealed Israel was taking US weapons to use in Gaza without the permission of the White House.
According to US officials, the Israeli Defense Ministry was getting arms directly from the Pentagon stockpile in their country without asking either the White House or the US State Department’s permission. This was done in spite of the arms coming concurrent with direct US-Israeli talks on another $225 million in US funding for their Iron Dome system.
“We were blind-sided,” noted one US diplomatic, while others said they were particularly concerned that Israel took artillery instead of precision-guided arms to use during their bombardment of civilian areas of Gaza.
It was particularly galling that Israel took the arms without asking the White House, since the billions of dollars in annual US aid has essentially bankrolled the entire Gaza War, and having burned through all their US-provided arms and ammo, they simply went to the Pentagon warehouse and grabbed some more.
Pentagon officials are trying to downplay the incident, saying that Israel didn’t need the permission of the White House or State Department to take the arms. Whether or not that is strictly true is unclear, but doing so was clearly irksome to the administration.
In addition to stopping the shipments, the State Department announced a new “review” of all arms shipments to Israel, though they insisted the timing of this was coincidental, and was simply a function of concerns about the invasion of Gaza.
Yeah whatever. In a word, bullsh*t!
Obama not knowing what's going on in "his" administration seems to be the rule.
As of late the Pentagon is acting more like the US branch of the IDF than part of the USG.
Is there anything israelis aren't allowed to do to and against the "US" government?
The Israelis are not permitted to attack our ships at sea and attempt to murder the entire crew…ups, they already did that and nothing happened. Let´s see, I´ll think of something. We must all agree, that our government and congress are very obedient and know their place when it comes to Israel, isn´t that a good thing? Genuflecting to a foreign government and its leaders is something new for us, and something our leaders are getting very, very good at it,
So they take arms from us, after all we do have a mutual defense treaty with Israel…ups, we don´t have that either. Wait a while, I´ll come up with something they are not allowed to do, to and against the US government, hang on….
"Permission? We're Israeli Zionists. We don't need no stinkin' permission."
There is no way any President could possibly know everything going on in their administration. Do you really think Bush was in the know of…err…anything?
Of course they can't know everything. But relations with foreign nations should be one of the few things they know, especially if some country thinks it can just walk away with US weapons. Bush didn't know anything either, but that's beside the point.
I fully agreed with bro!!
I would expect Obama to be in the dark as to what is happening in the bureaucracy. He is completely dependent on his "advisers" who were probably selected for him. He probably has few loyal followers deep in the bureaucracy to inform him.
Since he's never spent any serious time in DC, there are likely few people who owe him favors. He is at the top of the machine, but almost completely powerless. Like Reagan, Obama is truly an actor playing a role written by someone else.
Well what dies this act by Israel tells you! It tells me that Israel is in charge of pentagon and not the commander in chief, nor the pentagon chief. No wonder Paul Wolfowitz and people like him could become the secretary, under secretary and in between the secretaries and advise presidents and USG as where Zionist interest are.
Bibi's already warned the U.S. not to second guess. Can't wait to see how this plays out. A little feigned outrage followed by calls for increased aid to make up for the arms that Israel was" forced" to use would be my first guess.
Political butt covering at its most obvious. If the weapons weren't for the Israeli taking, then (1) what were they doing warehoused in Israel, and (2) how were the Israelis able to walk into the warehouse and just take stuff without any paperwork specifying what they were to take? Come on, I was in the US military, we never got a damned thing without paperwork.
"Paperwork?" Netanyahu doesn't have to ask Obama's permission on anything, he talks directly to AIPAC who then tells Obama what's need to be done. Notice how Kerry was treated like garbage during the "peace process?" Did Obama publicly reprimand Netanyahu for his criticism,? the WH keep using the term "downplay" which indicates that its business as usual.
You my brother is not a Zionist sad to say.
If it is true that Obama did not know that Israel was being supplied by the Pentagon then either he is grossly incompetent or the soldiers issuing the armaments were committing treason. One or the other should be in jail, and my choice would be Obama
Words mean things. "Treason" in particular has a definition that's only applicable to times of declared war — which is why the only treason prosecutions in the US since World War II have been for acts which took place DURING World War II.
Yup, words mean things. Here are three–"War on Terror".
The fact that words mean things doesn't mean that people — especially criminals and politicians, but I repeat myself — don't lie.
If you look at the "authorizations for use of military force" passed by the US Congress, you'll find that not only are they not declarations of war, they go out of their way to specifically note that they aren't declarations of war.
The US is not, in any legal sense whatsoever, at war, nor has it been at any time since World War II.
I don't know about "any legal sense whatsoever" since the government does use the war on terror as a basis for all sorts of (il)legal actions and decisions, including the notion that the Constitution somehow isn't in effect "in times of war". Congress has long ago stopped exercising its authority. All decisions regarding war reside now with the executive.
Rick,
That's kind of my point. Pretty much everything done pursuant to the "war on terror" is illegal. The state exercises the prerogatives of war without first meeting the legal standards that activate those prerogatives.
It's a weird kind of back-and-forth between Congress and the executive. Congress doesn't want to FORMALLY give the executive the powers that come with an actual declaration of war, so they look the other way, or at most gripe a little, when the executive INFORMALLY exercises those powers. And if it ends up in the courts, they end up deferring to the executive in most cases, turning those informal exercises of power into the formal prerogatives that Congress was trying to avoid in the first place.
Since it's all "legal" in the eyes of the government, then it should also take legal responsibility. And the charge of treason as Alex Bell suggested is entirely appropriate under the very conditions we find ourselves in as set by the government. Sure, we can fight all this by claiming it's all illegal but that isn't going to get us anywhere since the legal system is part of the government. It might be more productive to fight them on their turf. Alright, let's assume we're "at war." The US is fighting this "war" breaking every "rule of war" so let's go after them on those grounds. It's a start.
Stopping shipment when the massacre is over. My hero.
Btw, Obama also refuses to stop arming the Egyptian dictatorship, which Amnesty just reported is using rape as a weapon, just like mubarak did. Obama, on tv, refused to call mubarak a dictator. “I don’t like to use labels for folks.”
Interesting, since he has labeled countless other people dictators and terrorists, and has not only NOT sent them weapons, but has executed them, all without trial.
this has happened in every major attack israel carried out.
"The War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) program is run by the United States European Command (EUCOM) and includes missiles, armored vehicles and artillery ammunition.
The equipment was transferred to Israel "for use by the United States and, with U.S. permission, for use by Israel in emergency situations."
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-us-is-stockpil…
it is simply more free handouts for israel with the slightest bit deniability.
Not again the Zionist dictate to America and Prez Obama has to stand in line to kiss nettanhu`s ring this is a undisputed fact.
When you play with the dogs you get bitten by the fleas.
Well maybe now someone in the Administration gets it that the Israeli Government and its IDF are thieves.
Oboomer sounds like a parent whose child takes a gun from a cabinet
and goes on a shooting spree in the neighborhood. He tells his
neighbors he didn't know his kid had taken the family's gun, and even
if it was loaded
This man throws his Israeli cohorts under the bus; but, he is equally
complicit with the Gaza Strip massacre. It's time for this guy to step
up and take his fair share of the responsibility for this heinous crime
Come on, you don't believe Obomber was unaware of arms tranfers to Israel. He is a WORLD-CLASS LIAR. When he and Kerry get in front of cameras and repeat over and over that Israel
has the right to defend themselves against the imprisoned Gazans, doesn't that tell you that they
approve and know damn well US weapons are being used.
In effect Israel gets the "green light" from the USA to do whatever they want including perpetrating
the most EGRegious war crimes on an OCCUPIED and IMPRISONED ethnic group, the Palestinians
egiuos WAR Crimes against
It will quickly be covered up as many past incidents such as the attack on the Liberty ship,and the theft of weapon grade Uranium.
Allow the Arab League to donate to political campaigns like AIPAC does so we can stop this madness.
What's wrong with all you left wing nuts? Israel has every right to replenish it's arsenal that it rightfully used to kill terrorists trying to harm her. In fact, the USG is stockpiling arms in Israel to be used by both (Israel and the US when ever required).