Lebanese Americans Sue Boeing, Lockheed, and Rubio Over Weapons Fueling Israel’s War

I want you to sit with a number for a second. Twenty-seven years. That is how long the Leahy Law has been on the books, and in that entire time, the State Department has never, not once, found a single Israeli military unit ineligible for U.S. assistance. Not one. In 27 years.

Now, I am just a mom who reads things and asks questions, but if a law exists to stop our tax dollars from funding military units that commit gross human rights violations, and that law has never once been applied to one of the biggest recipients of our military aid on the planet, does the law actually exist? Or is it just something they put on paper so we feel good while the checks keep clearing?

Florida House of Representatives (Public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

Here is what happened this week. A group of Lebanese Americans from Michigan and the Arab-American Civil Rights League in Detroit filed a federal class action lawsuit. They named Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Caterpillar as defendants. They are arguing that these companies and our own government kept shipping weapons to Israel knowing full well those weapons were being used to destroy Lebanese towns, villages, and apartment buildings. The proposed class covers U.S. citizens and permanent residents who have had property in Lebanon since April 2024.

Let me tell you what I see when I read this complaint. I see Boeing, the largest munitions supplier by volume to Israel, raking in contracts like that $3.8 billion Apache helicopter deal. I see Lockheed Martin providing aircraft platforms. I see Caterpillar’s heavy equipment being used to flatten places where families live. And I see Marco Rubio, our Secretary of State, sitting on what the lawsuit calls “abundant credible information” that human rights violations, including genocide, have occurred, and doing what? Nothing. That is what the plaintiffs say, and I have to tell you, it is not hard to believe.

Even Donald Trump said it out loud in June. “You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody, because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah.” That is the President of the United States acknowledging what is happening. When the guy signing the checks says maybe we should not be knocking down apartment buildings full of civilians, and the State Department still has not flagged a single unit, what exactly are we doing here?

Adam Moreira (AEMoreira042281) (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

The plaintiffs describe it plainly. They say they “continue to suffer the indefinitely prolonged threat of death and grievous bodily injury” to themselves, their families, and their communities. Property destroyed. Land taken. Mental and emotional suffering that does not end because the bombs do not stop.

I have four kids. I know what it feels like to worry about their safety. I cannot imagine what it feels like to watch from here while the country you came from gets leveled with weapons my government paid for and my representatives approved. And then to be told, year after year, that everything is fine, that the law is working, that nobody has done anything wrong.

Balon Greyjoy (CC0) via Wikimedia Commons

Twenty-seven years. Not one unit found ineligible. If that does not tell you the system is rigged, I do not know what will. These families from Michigan are doing what Americans are supposed to do. They are standing up in court and demanding answers. They are asking for the manager. And the manager, as usual, hopes nobody is paying attention.

Well, I am paying attention. And I have questions.