As Israel warns of wider war, US funnels more arms to Ukraine—and Tunisia
(Originally published Dec. 5 in “What in the World“) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is back in Brussels trying to Trump-proof Western aid to Ukraine before Donald Trump takes office.
Blinken met Tuesday with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Mark Rutte ahead of a meeting of the 32-member NATO foreign ministers. Rutte has joined the chorus of leaders warning U.S. President-elect Donald Trump against giving up the fight against Russia in Ukraine and leaving the defense of Europe to Europe. Rutte also said publicly what everyone already knows: that Russia has been helping North Korea improve its nuclear missiles in return for weapons and troops to use against Ukraine.
Blinken’s boss, President Joe Biden, just agreed to ship another $725 million of weapons to Ukraine (on top of the $60 billion already sent) as part of an apparently impossible vow to send it all the $7.1 billion worth of U.S. weapons still authorized by Congress before he leaves the White House. Biden is also asking Congress for another $24 billion in weapons for Ukraine as a going-away present.
Trump has criticized the cost of supporting Ukraine and the risks of sparking world war and suggested that he will push Ukraine into negotiating a ceasefire that freezes the front lines, effectively giving Russia control of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking eastern provinces and a land bridge to the strategically vital Crimea.
While NATO leaders are urging more weapons for Ukraine, they’re steadfastly refusing to bow to Ukraine’s demand for immediate NATO membership. More than just giving Kyiv a key to the clubhouse, membership would immediately trigger the NATO treaty’s mutual defense clause, forcing all 32 members to immediately and directly come to Ukraine’s defense. In other words, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, France and the rest of Europe would need to attack Russia and send troops to the front lines in Ukraine. To help forestall that, Washington has helpfully suggested that Ukraine lower its draft age to 18 from 25.
European nations are instead hedging their bets. Last year, European Union members boosted military spending by 10% to a record €279 billion ($293 billion). That’s still paltry next to the $877 billion the U.S. budgets for its military annually but does lift eight of the 23 EU nations that are also members of NATO to the 2% of GDP they are supposed to spend. No surprise, the biggest spenders on defense are mainly those closest to Russia: Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Greece (maybe not quite as close), Lithuania, and newly minted NATO member Finland.
Israel said it would widen its war against militants in Lebanon to the Lebanese nation itself if (and when) a week-old ceasefire breaks down.
The U.S.-brokered ceasefire has never really taken hold. The ceasefire was declared last Wednesday; and on Thursday Israel resumed airstrikes against what it said were attempts by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants to move weapons around. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the day before the ceasefire took effect that one reason he agreed to it was to win a $680 million purchase deal for U.S. weapons. “We will receive supplies of advanced weaponry,” he said, “that will keep our soldiers safe and give us more strike force to complete our mission.”
Israel on Tuesday said it blames Lebanon for failing to disarm Hezbollah and so would target the state if the war resumes. “If we return to war we will act strongly, we will go deeper, and the most important thing they need to know: that there will be no longer be an exemption for the state of Lebanon,” said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Israeli airstrikes continued in Gaza Tuesday, killing 23 people.
The U.S. State Dept., meanwhile, has approved the $108 million sale of Javelin anti-tank missiles to North African ally Tunisia and its authoritarian president Kais Saied. Saied in October won reelection handily with 89% of the vote against his imprisoned opponent.
For an enlightening discussion on how U.S. foreign policy masquerades as an agent of freedom and democracy to disguise its real purpose in maintaining the global dominance of American corporate and moneyed interests, read the latest piece in Foreign Affairs by the Center for International Policy’s Nancy Okail and Matthew Duss. Okail and Duss argue that this continued subterfuge has helped undermine democratic forces in the U.S. and played into the rise of populist candidates, notably Trump. “Instead of offering a genuine foreign policy for the middle class, let alone the working class,” they write, “Washington has pursued global military hegemony for the ruling class.”
Their advice:
“Putting a new coat of paint on the old liberal internationalism will not do—neither for Americans nor for most of the world’s countries and peoples, who understandably see U.S. leaders’ appeals to a ‘rules-based’ order as a thin varnish for an order ruled, and often bent or broken, with impunity by the United States and its friends.”