The United States affirmed this Wednesday, April 4, that the shipment of weapons to Israel is due to a long-standing commitment to the defense of the Jewish State and denied that it is related to the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip.
According to various media, the Joe Biden administration would be considering approving the sale of up to 50 F-15 fighter jets to Israel, in a deal worth $18 billion, despite pressure to cut arms shipments to that country over deaths in Gaza .
Weapons to Israel would take years to arrive, says the US
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press conference that many reports in the media about arms sales to Israel correspond to packages that “They would take years to be delivered, long after the Gaza conflict has ended.”
“We have had a relationship of long journey with the State of Israel, which is prior to this Administration and prior to the current Government in Israel. That has been true during Democratic and Republican administrations in Washington,” he stated.
Miller stressed that the United States is committed to guarantee Israel's security against “the large number of adversaries in the region that seek its destruction.”
At the same time, he stated, the United States “constantly” pressures the Israeli authorities to “fully comply with international humanitarian law” and to investigate them and seek accountability when they make “mistakes.”
A group of 80 Arab and Muslim organizations in the United States, along with other allies, asked Biden in a letter this Wednesday to correct his policy towards the Gaza war and stop sending new weapons to Israel.
An American soldier has started a hunger strike in front of the White House to protest the Joe Biden Administration's support for the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip until “a real change” occurs in their country's foreign policy.
Larry Hebert, 26, is part of the corps of the United States Air Force and last Monday at midnight he decided to start a hunger strike – limited to water – because he believes that doing nothing means sending “the wrong message to the public.”
“I'm not going to continue doing my job as long as it means harm the civilian population“said the soldier in statements, who confessed that on his fifth day without food he is “weaker” and without the “adrenaline” of the first days.
