TEHRAN- The administration of US President Joe Biden has provided Israel with another carte blanche to press ahead with its war of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Washington approved more than $20 billion in weapons transfers to Israel.

According to US media, the package includes up to 50 F-15 fighter jets, up to 30 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, tactical vehicles and large numbers of tank cartridges and high explosive mortar cartridges. 

The fighter jets could take years to deliver. But other weapons including tank shells and explosive mortar cartridges could arrive in Israel soon.

The State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken okayed the arms sale.

"The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to U.S. national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives," it said in a press release on the sale.

The statement has stressed that the weapons are aimed at increasing Israel’s “self-defense capability”.

Israel has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians including more than 16,400 children since declaring war on Gaza on October 7. The Israeli army has used American weapons in the strikes that it has carried out across the Gaza Strip. 

Nonetheless, in the eyes of US politicians the slaughter of Palestinian civilians amounts to self-defense. In other words, Washinton condones the massacres that Israel continues to perpetrate against Palestinian people. 

Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, the US has given Israel huge amounts of weapons despite growing calls for stopping arms deliveries to the Tel Aviv regime. This is in addition to $3.8 billion in annual military aid to Israel under a 10-year agreement. 

US complicity in genocide 

A US-based advocacy group has made a map of the more than 70,000 bombs that Israel has dropped on the Gaza Strip since launching the Gaza onslaught.  

Jewish Voice for Peace said the Israeli army has bombarded nearly every inch of Gaza with US-made bombs.

“With the US as its collaborator, the Israeli military is carrying out the goal of Zionism: the complete and total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land,” the group said, according to Al Jazeera. 

It added, “The US isn’t just allowing the Israeli government to commit a genocide, it’s actively assisting it. It’s well past time for a weapons embargo. We demand a complete end to US funding, arming, and backing of the state of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.”

 The US has already turned a blind eye to similar calls for halting arms deliveries to Israel. 

The approval of the $20 billion arms package is the second major gift to Israel for its carnage in Gaza in less than a month. 

Addressing a joint session of the United States Congress in Washington on July 24, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was applauded 79 times, 58 of which were standing ovations. This was a big prize for Netanyahu whose regime does not scruple to kill defenseless Palestinian civilians. 

The Congressional applause for Netanyahu, who is butchering Palestinians, and the US military support for his regime’s genocidal war on Gaza will undoubtedly go down in history as an appalling tragedy.