This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, November 1st,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown. As the human toll of war between Israel and

Hamas mounts, what's the role of all those U.S. weapons that appears

to be contributing to bloodshed on both sides?

Cato's Jordan Cohen has studied weapons transfers from the United States and argues that assuring U.S. is a long-term overdue for a reckoning. I think no matter which side you take, if you take a side in the

fight between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and in Israel, what's come out of there is just, it's horrific.

And there's no way to look at this war that is unfolding there and not think this is just

a horrible tragedy.

And for the US, when thinking about policy, of course,

there have been people standing up and suggesting,

hey, look, we stand with Israel.

There are people who have stood up and said,

look at all the civilian casualties in Gaza,

and couldn't this have been avoided? And the United States, for its part,

there are weapons being used on both sides of this conflict

that are US weaponsS. weapons.

And so you would think, and you and I were discussing this, you know, offline last week that

shouldn't that cause some sort of reckoning for US policy makers when it comes to what we do with the weapons that the United States transfers abroad?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, to a certain extent it's not surprising Israel uses U.S. weapons.

They are one of the top weapons recipients year after year and it makes sense

especially when it comes to missiles and some of the air defense that it uses as well

...