Phyllis Bennis: Israel's flotilla massacre: Made in the USA

(ISTANBUL)--When Israeli commandoes launched their pirate-style assault on the unarmed flotilla of ships carrying hundreds of humanitarian aid workers and 10,000 tons of supplies for the besieged Gaza Strip, killing at least nine activists and injuring scores more, part of the operation was labeled "Made in the USA."

  Decades of uncritical U.S. support—including, most recently, the Bush-initiated and Obama-implemented commitment of $30 billion of U.S. tax money in military aid to Israel over a decade--has ensured that Israel's military power (nuclear and conventional) remains unchallengeable. A U.S. pattern of using UN Security Council vetoes to protect Israel from accountability for its crimes has ensured that Israel can do whatever it likes with those U.S.-provided weapons, regardless of which U.S. domestic or international laws may be broken. So U.S. complicity in the recent massacre at sea is beyond question.