Karishma Manzur, Ph.D., is a member of the NH Coalition for a Just Peace in the Middle East, which includes NH Veterans for Peace, VT/NH. Jewish Voice for Peace, NH Conf. of United Church of Christ, NH Peace Action, NH Program of the American Friends Service Committee, and several other organizations. She lives in Exeter.

At present, we are bracing for the possibility of a broader regional conflict in the Middle East being urged on by the right-wing members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

We all know that such a war will be devastating, with countless lives being lost, potentially including the lives of U.S. service members. Financially, such a war will be an immense economic burden on American taxpayers. But sadly, it will be a boon for U.S. weapons manufacturers.

Over the last ten months, our government has allocated a massive $39.8 billion ($39,800,000,000) package for the sale and transfer of weapons to Israel. This includes an annual $3.8 billion as part of a Memorandum of Understanding, $16 billion approved in April, and another $20 billion approved in August.

Our taxpayer funds are being used to purchase jet fighters, heavy lift helicopters, aerial refueling tankers, armored bulldozers, AI-based facial recognition software, and other types of munition from over two dozen U.S.-based manufacturers, as well as limited purchases from Israel-based manufacturers. The weapons include 30-mm MK44 Stretch cannons (from Northrop Grumman), 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs (from General Dynamics), Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles (from Lockheed Martin), guided air-to-surface missiles for F-16 fighter jets, cluster bombs, and bunker-buster bombs (from RTX/Raytheon).

Tragically, the conflict in Israel and Palestine has been highly profitable for U.S. weapons manufacturers. Since October, Northrop Grumman’s stock price has increased 19%, General Dynamics’s stock price increased 33%, Lockheed Martin’s stock price increased 40%, and RTX/Raytheon’s stock price increased 67%.

Regardless of whether one supports or disapproves of the military funding to Israel, every American taxpayer is paying for these military weapons, and we must ask: What is the firepower of a single bomb as it hits a target?

Whether they are “dumb bombs” or “laser-guided smart bombs,” all of these weapons cause mass death and indiscriminate destruction and severely violate human rights.

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Let me give an example. Imagine that the Israeli military was targeting a building in an area of Gaza, claiming that a militant was in the building, and dropped an American-made 2,000-pound MK-84 bomb.

The detonation will create an instantaneous fireball that will lash out at temperatures exceeding 8,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The explosion will carve a crater 50 feet wide and 35 feet deep and hurl 10,000 pounds of rock and dirt debris at supersonic speed. The lethal radius will be a quarter-mile wide and will kill all the people within that area. But the destruction will not stop there. The bomb will rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wider blast radius. The blast waves will be felt up to half a mile away, rupturing lungs and tearing off limbs.

A single bomb will destroy entire city blocks.

Let us take a moment to think about the destructive power of such a weapon.

Let us contemplate that over 500 such 2,000-pound bombs have been dropped in Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, since October.

Such destructions are contributing to the undercounting of Palestinian casualties, as it is difficult to track the number of people killed when bodies are being incinerated or buried under thousands of pounds of rubble.

As Americans, we have a moral obligation to contact our elected officials at the state and federal levels and tell them to stop supporting the manufacturing, sales, and use of such weapons. We should urge them to stop funding militaries that kill and injure non-combatants and children in direct disregard of the statutory provisions in effect under the so-called ‘Leahy Law.’

We should ask how taxpayer funds could be spent to improve the lives of Americans instead of purchasing weapons of mass destruction. To put $39,800,000,000 of military weapons into perspective, let’s consider alternative ways the federal fund could be spent at a town or city level in the U.S. A brand-new community playground can be built for about $500,000. A brand-new, energy-efficient, 50-officer-strong police station can be built for about $20,000,000. Upgrading New Hampshire’s outdated drinking water infrastructure built after World War II, with aging pipes that fail and sewer systems that overflow, will cost about $56,000,000.

As Americans, we should stand up to the intense lobbying power of the weapons manufacturers and tell our elected officials to invest our hard-earned money in our families and our communities instead of funding death and destruction in foreign lands.

We should not allow corrupt politicians and war profiteers to manipulate us into believing that the massive military spending is increasing our safety and security.

Centuries of conflict reflect that violence leads to more violence.

There are no military solutions to the current crisis, only diplomatic ones, starting with an immediate ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. As a nation, we should work towards respecting humanity and the needs of all people and urgently work to bring peace and security to the Middle East.