The Gaza and Lebanon Wars Are Consuming Tens of Billions of U.S. Tax Dollars

The Biden administration’s decision to send a THAAD missile defense system and 100 U.S. personnel to operate and support it marks the latest upsurge in U.S. support for Israel’s multi-front war in its region. The costs of that support are mounting rapidly, and the deployment of U.S. troops to Israeli soil increases the risk of direct U.S. involvement in the conflicts.

The human costs of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon are heart-wrenching—40,000 dead in Gaza, many of them women and children; millions of people displaced; and lack of access to health care and clean water, just for starters. These casualties of war are the most devastating consequence of the conflicts and underscore the need to end the U.S. arms transfers to Israel that are fueling the war.

But there is another category of cost that has received less attention—the billions of U.S. tax dollars that are subsidizing the Israeli war effort and the ongoing U.S. buildup of troops, ships, and aircraft in the region. In a new report for the Brown Costs of War project, which I co-authored with my colleagues Linda Bilmes and Stephen Semler, we estimate that U.S.-subsidized weapons for Israel and related military operations in the region have cost at least $22.76 billion since the start of the Gaza War. 

In addition, the Biden administration has announced over $20 billion in arms sales that could be delivered to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the years to come. Those sales are being challenged by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who have brought resolutions of disapproval to block various aspects of the deal, which includes the potential transfer of F-15 fighter jets, artillery shells, and guided bombs. But if the sales do go through, it is likely that at least part of the cost will be paid for through future U.S. military aid.

The cost of U.S. military operations related to the current wars—from the deployment of aircraft carriers and additional troops to the missile wars with the Houthis in Yemen and the firing of U.S. missiles to blunt Iranian attacks on Israel—are also likely to rise as the conflicts drag on. The greatest cost would come if the Biden administration follows the Netanyahu government’s urging to bomb nuclear sites in Iran—an act of escalation that would no doubt spur tit-for-tat retaliations that could wreak unprecedented devastation to the region.

All of this comes on top of the multi-billion dollar costs of stationing roughly 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, stationing the 7th Fleet in Bahrain, and maintaining major air bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

An indirect cost of current U.S. policy could flow from the recent designation of the UAE as a “major defense partner” of the United States, a move that will no doubt open the door to more arms sales and military collaboration with that nation. This is a risky move given the UAE’s record of destabilizing actions in the Middle East and North Africa, from arming rebels in Sudan and Libya to assisting government bombing in Ethiopia’s Tigray province. And that’s not to mention the UAE’s partnership with Saudi Arabia in a brutal war in Yemen that caused direct and indirect deaths in the hundreds of thousands. During that war, the UAE transferred U.S.-origin equipment to extremist militias and ran a series of secret prisons where prisoners were routinely tortured. The UAE has never been held accountable for any of these actions. Pressing for closer military ties now is both incredibly reckless and remarkably ill-advised.

The more than $22 billion expended on U.S. arms transfers and military operations since the start of the Gaza war is relatively small compared to a total Pentagon budget that is soaring toward $1 trillion per year. But it is a huge sum compared to other urgent needs—more than the budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency combined. 

Senator Sanders and his colleagues are to be commended for attempting to block more arms for Israel. But it’s time for an all-hands-on-deck effort by the public at large and a larger cohort in Congress to cut U.S. arms transfers to Israel and press for a peaceful end to the escalating conflicts in the region. Ultimately, we all lose if the current wars spiral even further out of control.

William D. Hartung is a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Image: Anas Mohammed / Shutterstock.com.