US as Israel's indispensable partner and accomplice in Gaza genocide

By Elham Abedini

In the aftermath of the Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza that began on October 7, 2023, mass demonstrations across the United States shattered any remaining illusions about Washington’s ironclad relationship with Israel.

Protesters openly condemned US economic and military assistance to the Israeli regime, the extensive trade between the two, and Washington’s all-encompassing and unconditional political support for Tel Aviv.

This is an issue the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has repeatedly highlighted in recent years.

In his most recent speech, he reminded the world that “without a doubt, the United States is the principal partner in the Gaza war.”

He has previously referred to the US and the Zionist regime as a “criminal gang,” describing Washington as a definitive accomplice to Israel’s genocidal crimes.

This statement reflects a broader historical pattern: Washington’s deep and evident complicity in Israel’s wars—military, financial, political, intelligence-based, and even in shaping the narratives.

It is important to examine the various aspects and layers of this partnership.

Military partnership

Since the launch of the genocidal war on Gaza over two years ago, Washington has acted not as a neutral mediator but as a direct military partner of Israel.

According to ABC News, the United States has provided at least $21.7 billion in military assistance to Israel since October 2023.

In May 2025, Israel’s ministry of military affairs confirmed that 90,000 tons of weapons and equipment had been delivered from the US via 800 cargo flights and 140 ships, a supply line that sustained the bombardment of Gaza.

Israel remains one of the world’s largest aggregate recipients of American arms.

As of April 2025, it held 751 active Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases with a total value of about $39 billion, and it alone enjoys a special exemption allowing the use of US grant money to buy from Israeli rather than American contractors.

Before the latest war, American aid constituted roughly 20 percent of Israel’s military budget. Both sides also co‑finance $500 million annually in joint missile‑defense projects—Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow I‑III, Iron Beam—at every stage from research and development to production. Lockheed Martin’s participation in Iron Beam epitomizes this fusion. 

Only days after the genocidal war began on October 7, 2023, American carriers Gerald R. Ford and Dwight D. Eisenhower moved into the eastern Mediterranean.

During the twelve‑day war of aggression imposed on Iran, US naval and air‑defense assets even intercepted missiles aimed at the Zionist entity, expending 20 percent of America’s THAAD stockpile—nearly $800 million in cost.

Israel Hayom confirmed hundreds of aerial refueling missions performed by US tankers to sustain Israeli fighter jets attacking Iran, while over 30 additional KC‑135 and KC‑46 aircraft were redeployed from bases in Europe and the US to that theater.

At the same time, the Al‑Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the biggest American military base in West Asia, functioned as a command‑and‑control hub transferring early‑warning data from its AN/TPY‑2 radars directly to Israeli systems. 

Economic reinforcement

Economically, Israel has long been the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid, surpassing $300 billion (inflation‑adjusted) in total assistance.

After the events of October 7, 2023, US Congress adopted three packages worth $16.3 billion in additional support. These included the April 2024 supplemental of $8.7 billion and annual $3.8 billion tranches under the 10‑year MOU framework, of which $6.7 billion funded missile systems.

US has also offered $9 billion in sovereign loan guarantees, facilitating Israel’s issuance of $5 billion in “war bonds”—purchased by US state and municipal investors—at below‑market rates to finance operations in Gaza. 

Meanwhile, through USAID and the US Department of Energy, Washington intensified joint ventures in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and defense technology, effectively underwriting Israel’s economic and tech sustainability.

Political patronage

Politically and diplomatically, the US has provided a protective shield to the child-murdering regime, wielded its veto in the UN Security Council at least six times (most recently September 2025) to block calls for ceasefire, humanitarian access, or accountability. This ensured Israel’s strategic freedom of action. 

When the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former military affairs minister Yoav Gallant in November 2024, Washington imposed sanctions on five ICC judges and prosecutors (February 2025) and later warned member states against executing the warrants, threatening economic retaliation.

Trump administration simultaneously withdrew US funding from several UN bodies—including the Human Rights Council, UNESCO, and UNRWA—under the pretext of “anti‑Israeli bias,” while pressing Arab and Muslim governments to normalize ties with Israel under the so-called Abraham Accords framework.

One of its first acts was rescinding sanctions on violent settler groups in the occupied West Bank.

Intelligence collaboration

Immediately afterthe events or October 7, Pentagon sent US Special Operations units and intelligence officers to the occupied territories to assist in missions to rescue captives and targeted killings of top Hamas leaders like Yahya Sinwar.

During the twelve‑day war on Iran, Israeli intelligence officers were reported inside the Pentagon command center itself, participating in classified briefings and, according to Tucker Carlson’s October 2 2025 broadcast, even issuing directions to American personnel—an extraordinary breach of protocol.

Throughout the war, US intelligence sharing intensified, providing Israel with real‑time surveillance, satellite imagery, and SIGINT.

The private sector also joined in: Microsoft confirmed delivering AI and cloud‑computing services to Israel’s ministry of military affairs as “limited emergency support.”

Media and narrative warfare

Despite the Israeli-American war resulting in nearly 60,000 fatalities in Gaza, and even the UN confirming it's a genocide, American officials and media figures persist in exonerating Israel, whitewashing its horrendous war crimes.

On CBS 60 Minutes (October 2025), Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner denied that the Gaza bombing campaign constituted genocide—illustrating continued moral cover for Israel’s actions.

In the early days of the war, major US media outlets disseminated fabricated atrocity claims, including the infamous story of “40 beheaded babies.”

Then US-president Joe Biden himself echoed false allegations that Hamas rockets caused the Al‑Ahli Hospital explosion—statements later disproved.

Through repetition of such false narratives, Washington’s political and media elites built a moral firewall around Israel’s conduct, transforming deliberate mass violence into the rhetoric of “self‑defense.” 

Across all dimensions—military, economic, political, intelligence, and media—the evidence is overwhelming. US is not a neutral actor but a principal architect and enabler of Israel’s genocidal aggression.

Its resources sustain the war machine, its vetoes erase accountability, its intelligence sharpens the targeting, and its narratives neutralize outrage.

The direct financial commitment in the past two years alone is quantified at over $21.7 billion in direct military aid, supplemented by sovereign guarantees of $9 billion and diplomatic insulation that has prevented any meaningful international intervention or sanctioning mechanism from taking hold.

The structural integration is so deep that the cessation of US support would necessitate an immediate and dramatic operational pause by the Israeli occupation forces due to supply chain dependency on American components.

In moral, political, and legal terms, Washington stands shoulder to shoulder with Tel Aviv, as an indispensable accomplice in war crimes.

Elham Abedini is a Tehran-based international relations analyst.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

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