It’s time for the US to ask how its bombs are being used in Gaza

With global calls for a ceasefire in Gaza growing and criticism intensifying of US President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict, his administration is sounding a tougher tone with Israel on trying to reduce civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip.

“We need do more to protect the Palestinian civilians,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on his visit to Israel on Friday. “We’ve been clear that, as Israel conducts its campaign to defeat Hamas, how it does so matters.”

With the reported death toll across Gaza closing in on 10,000 people, the question must be asked: is Israel listening?

The same day Mr Blinken was in Tel Aviv, an Israeli air strike on an ambulance near a Gaza hospital killed 15 people. Israel said the strike was aimed at Hamas. Then on Sunday, Israeli air strikes hit two refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, killing scores of people, according to Gaza health officials.

After the horrors of the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, when militants murdered about 1,400 people and took about 240 hostage, Mr Biden was quick to stress America’s “forever” backing of Israel.

But as it rushed to defend its ally, the US also said there could be no “red lines” for the Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza, where it says the Hamas leadership is hiding in tunnels under schools, hospitals and homes. Any civilians that die are therefore Hamas’s sole responsibility, goes Israel's thinking.

US President Joe Biden is welcomed by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 18. In half a century of public life, Biden has demonstrated unwavering support for Israel. Reuters

With such unequivocal support, the Israeli military appears to know it can brush off global calls for a ceasefire, or even for watered-down “humanitarian pauses”, and face few consequences from its top benefactor, America.

The Pentagon provides more than $3 billion in annual military aid to Israel, and the US is working to send much more than that in emergency funding for the Gaza campaign.

Among the weapons the US provides are artillery shells, small diameter bombs, and Joint Direct Attack Munition kits that convert dumb bombs into precision-guided explosives. None of these come with any sort of end-use monitoring or accountability, so we don't know how they are being used.

Often when the US sells weapons to foreign governments, there are requirements that they not be used on civilians. It’s the same for Britain, another significant arms supplier to Israel. It also has no conditions about how Israel uses its weapons.

Last week, a Pentagon spokesman repeated the Defence Department’s talking points when pressed on the mounting civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip. “We continue to talk [to the Israeli military] about the importance of applying the laws of war, which includes proportionality, which includes taking into account civilians on the ground,” he said.

Yet at the same time, the Pentagon is also stressing it has no conditions on how Israel uses US weapons.

The disconnect between the purported pressure on Israel to avoid civilian deaths and the reality on the ground is impossible to ignore.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walk after a meeting in Amman on Saturday. EPA

If civilians are killed with American bombs, that is just the unfortunate reality of fighting a designated terror group, appears to be the Biden administration's rationale. “I’m sure innocents have been killed and it’s the price of waging a war,” Mr Biden said in comments last month that outraged the Arab-American community.

He also sought to cast doubt on the numbers of civilians being killed in Gaza, saying he had “no notion” that the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry was telling the truth about how many people were dying.

Mr Biden, whose life has been beset with personal tragedy, was elected president in 2020 partly on the perceived strength of his common touch and compassion.

But comments such as the ones above have proven to be alienating for progressive and Arab-American voters whose support he will need if he is to beat Donald Trump, the putative Republican candidate, in the 2024 presidential election that is exactly one year away.

A new poll on Sunday showed that Mr Biden is losing ground in six of America’s most important battleground states, with Mr Trump siphoning off support on vital issues including the economy and foreign policy.

The former president, who last month criticised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called Hezbollah “very smart”, scored better by 11 points over Mr Biden on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Arab Americans may not vote for Mr Trump, given his “Muslim ban” and support for white supremacists, but a lack of turnout could prove devastating for Mr Biden’s re-election campaign.

If Mr Biden wants to show that he is serious about pressuring Israel to do more to prevent civilian deaths, he must direct the State Department and Pentagon to impose end-use monitoring of US bombs.

Only then can there be a real conversation about which targets are being struck and why.

The latest from the Israel-Gaza war – in pictures

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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