The US Sent $17.9 Billion to Israel Since October 7

According to a report released today by Brown University’s Costs of War project, the US has sent 17.9 billion dollars in military aid to Israel since October 7, 2023. This accounts for the largest amount of military funding ever granted to Israel in a single year. The report analyzes US military funding of Israel from October 7, 2023 to September 30, 2024, during which Israel has been carrying out a genocidal rampage first against Gaza, and now against the rest of the occupied territories and neighboring countries like Lebanon.

Israel’s genocide would not be possible without the without the bankrolling, supplying, and political backing of the US. While the vast majority of people in the country support an arms embargo on Israel, the US political class shows no sign of staunching its flow of military aid to Israel. 

Israel’s recent escalation into Lebanon would not have been possible without the United States, which supplied the 2,000-pound bunker buster bombs used to kill Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as well as civilians in Beirut.

“We all must ensure nothing like the horrors of October 7 ever happen again. I will do everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated, that it is never again able to govern Gaza, that it fails in its mission to annihilate Israel, and that the people of Gaza are free from the grip of Hamas,” read today’s statement by Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris is once again pledging the US government’s commitment to eliminating Hamas’ power in the region, despite the political party being a chief negotiator in the ceasefire deal the US claims to also badly want.

“I will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorists like Hamas. My commitment to the security of Israel is unwavering,” Harris added, ensuring that the US is no closer to the arms embargo demanded by the majority of her constituents.

While never hesitating to fund Israeli genocide or other imperialist wars abroad, Congress failed to allocated hurricane relief funds to the bankrupt FEMA ahead of hurricane season, leaving Hurricane Helene victims stranded.

Taher Dahleh, activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement and rank-and-file leader within the Communications Workers of America told Peoples Dispatch at a pro-Palestine rally in New York City on October 5 that from the perspective of the labor movement, which has led the call for an arms embargo within the US, “Americans have become clear within their unions that the genocidal plans of the United States ruling class don’t serve us in any way. It’s our children that go to die, it’s money that could be invested in our jobs, in our healthcare, in our wellbeing, that’s being directed to fund the destruction of all of Gaza.”