A report published in Newsweek on Monday reveals that President Obama secretly sold 55 deep-penetrating bombs to Israel in 2009, while publicly pressuring Israeli leaders to pursue concessions with Palestinians.

The Israelis first requested the bombs in 2005, only to be denied by President Bush out of concern that Israel was sharing advanced military technology to China. Bush went forward with the sale in 2007, scheduling delivery for 2009, when Obama executed the transaction.

In addition to the self-defense and general mayhem for which the bombs can be used, they would be well-suited for any military strikes against underground Iranian nuclear sites. –ARK

The Daily Beast:

In an exclusive story to be published Monday on growing military cooperation between the two allies, U.S. and Israeli officials tell Newsweek that the GBU-28 Hard Target Penetrators—potentially useful in any future military strike against Iranian nuclear sites—were delivered to Israel in 2009, just several months after Obama took office.

The military sale was arranged behind the scenes as Obama’s demands for Israel to stop building settlements in disputed territories were fraying political relations between the two countries in public.

… James Cartwright, the Marine Corps general who served until August as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Newsweek the military chiefs had no objections to the sale. Rather, Cartwright said, there was a concern about “how the Iranians would perceive it,” and “how the Israelis might perceive it.” In other words, would the sale be seen as a green light for Israel to attack Iran’s secret nuclear sites one day?

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