#US / U.S. signs off on more bombs, warplanes for Israel
The #Biden administration has authorized the transfer of billions of dollars in bombs and fighter jets to Israel despite concerns about an anticipated military offensive in southern Gaza. The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs. The continued arms transfers have been criticized by some Democrats who argue that the U.S. has a responsibility to withhold weapons in the absence of an Israeli commitment to limit civilian casualties and ease restrictions on humanitarian aid.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.):
[…] “The Biden administration needs to use their leverage effectively and, in my view, they should receive these basic commitments before greenlighting more bombs for Gaza […] We need to back up what we say with what we do.”
"The Biden administration can't credibly push to increase humanitarian access to Gaza, while simultaneously sending the same weapons that the #Netanyahu government is using to indiscriminately kill innocent Palestinians. Wrong on every level."
[cont'd] #Netanyahu (in a meeting with Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron on Thursday) emphasized the need for #Israel to be self-sufficient in producing its own defense capabilities. Regarding the defense budget, Netanyahu stated, "We understand that we need to adapt it to the needs that have emerged in this war, [...] We need to be more independent in the production capabilities of our defense forces." More specificaly, Netanyhu clarified that Israel needs to be "protected from
external pressures, as we need to make our own decisions."
[…] The 2,000 pound bombs, capable of leveling city blocks and leaving craters in the earth 40 feet across and larger, are almost never used anymore by Western militaries in densely populated locations due to the risk of civilian casualties.
@oatmeal What does it take Israel to understand this? An accident with one of their own bombs inside Tel Aviv?
For perspective, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was estimated to have an explosive yield of a bit over 5,500 pounds of TNT, less than three of these 2,000 pound bombs.
That was ONE bomb-and it damaged or destroyed a total of 324 buildings, something like 5 were totalled. Worst of all was the Fascists who detonated it put it right under the Murrow Building's day care center, which would be a war crime even if the building was Gestapo headquarters in 1943.
Now for the math: the fragment danger zone from a single 2,000 pound (about 800 kilos)bomb according to a formula published by mine removal website https://www.mineactionstandards.org/standards/10-20-01/
comes out to 1, 932 meters or well over a mile.
Formula: range in meters is 634 times the 1/6 power of the total weight of the explosive device or devices
Dropping 2,000 pound bombs into a city is thus like throwing fragmentation grenades into a crowd, hugely scaled up.
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