Report- The U.S. Spent $33 Billion Backing Israel's Genocide In Gaza.

A New Report Found That The United States Has Spent 33 Billion Dollars On Israel's Genocide In Gaza.

Israel’s genocidal slaughter in Gaza is (hopefully) coming to an end with the announcement of a ceasefire agreement, but it is important to look back and recognize the fact that this two-year genocide was financed and backed by the United States government with billions of dollars.

This is underscored in a new paper published by the Costs of War project housed at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs and written by William Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, who calculated that the United States spent $33.77 billion backing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

This includes “at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza on October 7, 2023”.

Along with this, the report found that since 2023, the United States has spent an additional $9.65 – $12.07 billion on wars in the Middle East for Israel, noting, “According to a companion report by Linda J. Bilmes, the U.S. has spent an additional $9.65 – $12.07 billion on military operations in Yemen and the wider region sparked by or in support of Israeli military operations since October 7, 2023, for a total of $31.35 – $33.77 billion and counting in U.S. spending”.

The report noted that, “the U.S. provided $17.9 billion (to Israel) in the first year” of the genocide and “$3.8 billion in the second year”.

The report broke down the United States’ financing of Israel’s genocide into four categories, including:

-Foreign Military Financing (FMF), an aid program authorized by the State Department and implemented by the Pentagon that pays for U.S.-origin weapons and military services transferred to other nations’ governments;

-“Offshore Procurement”: U.S. funds given to the Israeli government that can be used to build up Israel’s own arms industry;

-Drawdowns from, and replenishing of, existing U.S. stocks to replace weapons supplied to and used by Israel, including a war reserve stockpile based in Israel;

-Special funding for ammunition procurement and arms production capacity to continue supplying weapons to Israel.

Adding the money spent on Foreign Military Financing, Offshore Procurement, Missile Defense, Replenishing Arms Delivered to Israel from U.S. Stocks, Ammunition Procurement, and Boosting U.S. Arms Production Capabilities in order to back Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the report concluded that the U.S. spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel alone since 2023.

With the addition of the $9.65 – $12.07 billion spent on wars in the Middle East for Israel since 2023, the United States spent a total of $31.35 – $33.77 billion backing Israel's genocide in Gaza.

The report documents that most weapons used by Israel in the Gaza genocide were provided by the United States, noting:

U.S. arms have been central to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel Police operations in Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond. The weapons in Israel’s existing inventory that are being used in Gaza and the broader Middle East come mainly from the United States. Israel’s entire inventory of combat capable aircraft comes from the U.S., including 75 F-15s, 196 F-16s, and 39 F-35s. Israel’s attack and transport helicopters are also all of U.S. origin, including 46 Apache helicopters and 25 Sea Stallion and 49 Black Hawk transport helicopters.

The report concluded that:

Without U.S. money, weapons and political support, the Israeli military could not have committed such rapid, widespread destruction of human lives and infrastructure in Gaza, or escalated its warfare so easily to the regional level by bombing Syria, Lebanon, Qatar and Iran.

Without U.S. support, the Israeli government would have no combat aircraft to drop bombs and many fewer bombs. An increasing share of Israel’s arsenal would be down for maintenance without U.S. government or U.S. contractor mechanics and spare parts. In addition, Israel’s government could not have built a military of its current size and sophistication without U.S. financial backing.

Hopefully, Israel is not able to sabotage the current ceasefire, and the Gaza genocide will end, but it is still important to document that both the Biden and Trump administrations spent billions of dollars backing this gencoide, which could not have been committed without U.S. weapons.

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