• @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Point of order, we are not legally bound to sell weapons to anyone. The Leahy Law actually bans the sale of weapons to countries or organizations credibly accused of war crimes. The creator of the Leahy Law has publicly said Israel should have been cut off by that law. Former civil servants have said that Israel gets a special vetting process that requires several political appointees to agree Israel is problematic. In contrast to any other country getting a single civil servant.

    We are in fact taking great pains to send them weapons illegally.

    • @lutillian@sh.itjust.works
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      08 months ago

      We’re not bound to sell weapons but we’re bound to provide aid by a combination of Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement (1952) which I can’t find the text of from my phone… Need to wait till I’m near a computer to try again and Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (1991) which I linked elsewhere in the thread.

      https://www.dsca.mil/programs/excess-defense-articles-eda Does explicitly allow the sale of arms to a list of nations from my understanding. This is a huge rabbit hole of laws and then exceptions to laws.

      whether I personally agree any of this is right is a different story here

      • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        None of that matters if they’re committing war crimes. That was the entire point of the Leahy Amendments and later the Leahy Law.

        • @lutillian@sh.itjust.works
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          08 months ago

          Yes. That’s a question that has been raised by the US department of state that we might see an answer to in our life times of we’re lucky.

          • @Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            38 months ago

            Not likely. The Department of State has been shielding them from Leahy for decades. They setup a special committee just for Israel. To shield them from accountability for things like shooting protest medics on purpose; continuing to settle the West Bank in blatant violation of international law; holding thousands of Palestinians without charge; and just so much bombing of civilians.