by Don Mayer
Many college-aged people are deeply (and rightly) concerned about violence and militarism, here in the U.S. and abroad. Ukraine, Sudan, Russia, Israel and Gaza all come to mind in March of 2024.
What does any of this have to do with business?
The short answer is that “business” and our government will often acting together when it comes to militarism, violence, and war. This morning we leaned that, despite recent policy differences between the U.S. and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government, the U.S. would send a new round of weapons to Israel.
“The new arms packages include more than 1,800 MK84 2,000-pound bombs and 500 MK82 500-pound bombs, according to Pentagon and State Department officials familiar with the matter. The 2,000-pound bombs have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/29/us-weapons-israel-gaza-war/
This continues a decades-long practice of the U.S. providing financial and technical assistance to help Israel become a military powerhouse in the Middle East.
2,000 pound bombs? A New York Times investigation found that Israel was dropping these bombs on areas that it had declared “safe” for Gazans to be in. The Times’ video investigation focused on the use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area of southern Gaza where Israel had ordered civilians to move for safety. While bombs of that size are used by several Western militaries, munitions experts say they are almost never dropped by U.S. forces in densely populated areas anymore.
Below, we note the apparent conflict between U.S. actions in supplying arms to Israel, and U.S. laws that forbid the export of arms to nations in violation of international law.
But for background, we first note that China, Russia, and its growing number of allied nations (the BRICS, for example) have been critical of the U.S. and its “imperialist” tendencies, its control of international financial flows (the dollar being the primary reserve currency for international transactions), and its use of “the rule of law” to further U.S. interests rather than the common good of the entire world. (I am skeptical of these rather self-interested assertions, but it is true that the U.S. leads the world in the export of lethal weapons, and does seem to have a serious problem with guns and violence at home.)
From 2019 to 2023, the U.S. led the world in arms exports, at 41%. The next closest nations in arms exports were France and Russia (at 11%). China was fourth with about 5% of arms exports.
https://www.statista.com/chart/18417/global-weapons-exports/
The “international community” is reacting negatively toward the massive death and destruction in Gaza. That Hamas was guilty of gross and dehumanizing acts of terror against Israel is not in question. But, as a very wise woman (my mother) used to say “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
In international law, self-defense is a recognized right, particularly if the response is “proportionate” to the initial harm done or threatened. Can Israel “wipe out” Hamas? (As of March 24, 2024, commentators have noted that you can’t destroy an idea, and apparently, despite all the destruction in Gaza, many Palestinians still support the idea that Israel must be destroyed; but part of this may be motivated by the continuing failure of Israel’s leaders to pursue Palestinian self-determination and statehood, the so-called “two state solution.” Netanyahu has consistently rejected a two-state solution.) It is clearly not “proportional” when Palestinian women and children make up the vast majority of 30,000 who have lost their lives in Gaza.
So, back to a question for international business law: Is the U.S., and its armaments manufacturers, in some way blameworthy and/or complicit in what many are claiming to be “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity” in Gaza?
Defenders of Israel’s current approach to the conflict offer this defense, first noting the most frequently voiced criticism of its approach.
“ISRAEL HAS BEEN COMMITTING UNSPEAKABLE WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, AND ILLEGAL COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA FOR 15 YEARS. ANY COMMENT OR ANALYSIS THAT DOESN’T TAKE THIS FACT INTO CONSIDERATION TODAY IS HOLLOW, IMMORAL, AND DEHUMANIZING.”
- False! In 2005 Israel disengaged (completely left) from Gaza, removing all Jewish presence and giving land in exchange for peace with the Palestinians. Israel had legal right, under international law, to this land, having gained the land from Egypt in a defensive war against several Arab countries in 1967. Instead of peace, Israel has experienced constant rocket attacks and Hamas provoked wars over the last 15 years.
- Hamas, a terrorist organization, is the ruling authority in Gaza and has controlled the region since 2007. It, and not Israel, has committed crimes against the Palestinian people, denying them basic rights such as water, electricity, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of movement. Hamas uses schools, mosques and apartment buildings as launch pads for its rockets, using its people as human shields and knowingly and deliberately putting them in harm’s way. Hamas has placed its command and control center under Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital.
Yet all of this is much disputed; humanitarian organizations have repeatedly criticized Israel for the way it is carrying on its Hamas-cleansing operations in Gaza. Regarding that aid, Israel also appears to violate a judgment and order from the U.N.’s highest court, the International Court of Justice.
So, let’s assume for the moment that Israel is in fact committing “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity” in Gaza. If so, what are we to make of all the U.S. companies that are supplying arms to Israel? Do those companies have a responsibility to not cooperate in providing weapons for Israel’s operations in Gaza? (That would mean foregoing some fairly profitable sales, which is not exactly in the “DNA” of corporations. There’s an old saying the “War is good for business.” While the statement is only partly true: war is good for some businesses.)
The U.S. Friends Service Committee (a Quaker group that does its best to promote peace) has compiled a list of U.S. companies that benefit from the current Israel-Hamas-Gaza conflict:
https://afsc.org/companies-2023-attack-gaza
Let’s consider just one of these: Lockheed-Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer. Lockheed-Martin is a well-respected company with a major facility near Denver:
- Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb Gaza. Israel also uses the company’s C-130 Hercules transport planes to support the ground invasion of Gaza.
- Lockheed Martin manufactures AGM-114 Hellfire missiles for Israel’s Apache helicopters. One of the main weapon types used in aerial attacks on Gaza, these missiles have been used extensively in 2023. Some 2,000 Hellfire missiles were delivered to Israel sometime between Oct. 7 and Nov. 14.
- Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky manufactures the CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter, to used to transport Israeli soldiers into and out of Gaza. On Jan. 8, Sikorsky was awarded $18.3 million from U.S. taxpayers’ money for continued work on the CH-53K aircraft it has provided to Israel.
- On Dec. 28, Lockheed Martin was awarded a $10.5 million contract for continued support for Israel’s fleet of F-35 warplanes.
- On Dec. 11, the Israeli Air Force used a Lockheed Martin C-130-J Super Hercules aircraft to drop approximately seven tons of equipment to Israeli soldiers engaging in ground attacks in Khan Younis, located in the southern Gaza Strip. This was the “first operational airdrop” that Israel has carried out since the 2006 Lebanon War.
- On Nov. 9, an Israeli missile hit journalists sitting near Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The missile was reportedly a Lockheed Martin–made Hellfire R9X missile, a version of the Hellfire that was developed by the CIA for carrying out assassinations. Instead of exploding, the missile shreds its target using blades, allowing for a direct hit without collateral damage. The target in this case was not a military one.
- The Israeli military also uses Lockheed Martin’s M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). Used to fire Elbit Systems’ high-precision AccuLAR-122, the weapon was used by Israel for the first time, since the 2006 war in Lebanon, on Oct. 6, according to the Israeli military.
- On an Oct. 17 call with investors, Lockheed Martin CEO, Jim Taiclet, “highlighted the Israel and Ukraine conflicts as potential drivers for increased revenue in the coming years.”
Robert Reich, in substack, wrote on March 26th that the U.S. should start withholding arms exports to Egypt, given that Netanyahu intends to go ahead with an assault on Rafa.
Reich writes: Biden has warned that an Israeli attack on Rafah — a city in the southern border of Gaza now inhabited by 1.4 million people and the last relatively safe haven for Palestinian civilians — would cross a “red line.” Netanyahu says he intends to press ahead with the attack nevertheless. “We’ll go there. We’re not going to leave them. You know, I have a red line. You know what the red line is? That October 7 doesn’t happen again. Never happens again.”
Biden’s warnings to Bibi notwithstanding, Israel is asking for more U.S. weapons and U.S. military aid, funded by U.S. taxpayers.
“Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, who met yesterday with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, reportedly pressed for expedited approval of requests for F-15 fighter jets worth billions of dollars and for a large batch of GPS-guided munitions kits.” Reich asks, “Why should the U.S. provide more military aid to Israel, especially if Israel defies Biden and attacks Rafah?
Biden issued a memorandum in February laying out standards of compliance for all countries receiving U.S. weapons, including adhering to international humanitarian rules of law. Israel has not adhered to those rules. Israel may also be violating a section of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which bars the United States from providing arms or other aid to a country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.”
When it comes to Israel, the Palestinians, and the Middle East generally, there are not just “good guys and bad guys” –– usually, there are plenty of moral mistakes to go around. There is no doubt that in dedicating time, talent, and resources to destroying Israel and refusing to make peace, many anti-Israeli actors have passed up opportunities for compromise and peace.
The following is not “fact-checked,” but seems credible: the ClubZ website, which provided the rebuttal (above) to the charge that Israel was engaged in war crimes, makes the following list of peace proposals rejected by the Palestinians.
1947 UN Partition Plan
1949 UN Resolution 194
1967 UN Resolution 242
1978 Begin/Sadat Peace Proposal
2000 Camp David Peace Proposal
2001 Taba Peace Proposal
2008 Olmert Peace Proposal
2014 Kerry’s “Contours for Peace”
2019 Trump’s “Deal of the Century
If both sides are dedicated to the destruction of the other, there will never be peace. But the complete destruction of Hamas, Netanyahu’s stated goal, is not a realistic approach to peace, either. There are alternatives, as Secretary of State Blinken pointed out to Israel’s Defense Minister on March 25th. Blinken stressed that “alternatives exist” to a major invasion of Rafah that would both better ensure Israel’s security and protect Palestinian civilians.
So, in the midst of it all, many U.S. companies seem to have no hesitation in providing massively destructive weaponry that is killing thousands of innocent women and children. Protesters are few, as in the photograph that accompanies this post. If you’re managing Lockheed Martin and profiting from the Israel-Hamas war, continuing to profit makes sense (certainly, it makes dollars and cents.) So, if the U.S. government supplies weapons to Israel in violation of its own laws, Lockheed Martin is not directly responsible for those legal violations. Which ––what else? –– makes all of those profits “perfectly legal.”