Washington has approved more than 100 separate military sales to Israel since its invasion of Gaza, even as officials complain Israeli leaders have not done enough to protect civilians.
By John Hudson
The United States has quietly approved and delivered more than 100 separate foreign military sales to Israel since the Gaza war began Oct. 7, amounting to thousands of precision-guided munitions, small diameter bombs, bunker busters, small arms and other lethal aid, U.S. officials told members of Congress in a recent classified briefing.
The triple digit figure, which has not been previously reported, is the latest indication of Washington’s extensive involvement in the polarizing five-month conflict even as top U.S. officials and lawmakers increasingly express deep reservations about Israel’s military tactics in a campaign that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
Only two approved foreign military sales to Israel have been made public since the start of conflict: $106 million worth of tank ammunition and $147.5 million of components needed to make 155 mm shells. Those sales invited public scrutiny because the Biden administration bypassed Congress to approve the packages by invoking an emergency authority.
But in the case of the 100 other transactions, known in government-speak as Foreign Military Sales or FMS, the weapons transfers were processed without any public debate because each fell under a specific dollar amount that requires the executive branch to individually notify Congress,according to U.S. officials and lawmakers who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military matter.
Taken together, the weapons packages amount to a massive transfer of firepower at a time when senior U.S. officials have complained that Israeli officials have fallen short on their appeals to limit civilian casualties, allow more aid into Gaza, and refrain from rhetoric calling for the permanent displacement of Palestinians.
“That’s an extraordinary number of sales over the course of a pretty short amount of time, which really strongly suggests that the Israeli campaign would not be sustainable without this level of U.S. support,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former senior Biden administration official and current president of Refugees International.
State Department spokesman Matt Miller said the Biden administration has “followed the procedures Congress itself has specified to keep members well-informed and regularly briefs members even when formal notification is not a legal requirement.”
He added that U.S. officials have “engaged Congress” on arms transfers to Israel “more than 200 times” since Hamas launched a cross-border attack into Israel that killed 1,200 people and took more than 240 hostage.
When asked about surge of weapons into Israel, some U.S. lawmakers who sit on committees with oversight of national security said the Biden administration must exercise its leverage over the government of Israel.
“You ask a lot of Americans about arm transfers to Israel right now, and they look at you like you’re crazy, like, ‘why in the world would we be sending more bombs over there?’” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, said in an interview. ”
“These people already fled from the north to the south, and now they’re all huddled in a small piece of Gaza, and you’re going to continue to bombard them?” Castro said, referring to Israel’s planned offensive in Rafah, where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians have sought shelter.
U.S. officials have warned the Israeli government against waging an offensive in Rafah without a plan to evacuate civilians. But some Democrats worry that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will disregard Washington’s pleas as he has other U.S. demands to allow more food, water and medicine into the enclosed enclave, and to dial back the intensity of a military campaign that has leveled entire city blocks and destroyed huge numbers of homes across the strip.
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said in an interview that the Biden administration should apply “existing standards” stipulating that the United States “shouldn’t transfer arms or equipment to places where it’s reasonably likely that those will be used to inflict civilian casualties, or to harm civilian infrastructure.”
Crow, also a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, recently petitioned Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, seeking information on “any restrictions” that the administration had put in place to ensure Israel was not using U.S. intelligence to harm civilians or civilian infrastructure.
“I am concerned that the widespread use of artillery and air power in Gaza — and the resulting level of civilian casualties — is both a strategic and moral error,” wrote Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A senior State Department official declined to provide the total number or cost of all U.S. arms transferred to Israel since Oct. 7, but described them as a mix of new sales and “active FMS cases.”
“These are items that are typical for any modern military, including one that is as sophisticated as Israel’s,” said the official.
The dearth of publicly available information about U.S. arms sales to Israel leaves unclear how many of the most recent transfers amount to the routine supply of U.S. security assistance to Israel as opposed to the rapid replenishing of munitions as a result of its bombardment of Gaza.
Israel, like most militaries, does not routinely disclose data about its weapons expenditures, but in the first week of the war, it said it had dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza. As the conflict drags on, Israel’s reliance on the United States to sustain the campaign has become ever more clear, said Konyndyk, the former Biden administration official.
“The U.S. cannot maintain that, on the one hand, Israel is a sovereign state that’s making its own decisions and we’re not going to second guess them, and, on the other hand, transfer this level of armament in such a short time and somehow act as if we are not directly involved,” he said.
John Hudson is a reporter at The Washington Post covering the State Department and national security. He was part of the team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He has reported from dozens of countries, including Ukraine, China, Afghanistan, India and Belarus
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Comments
18 responses to “U.S. floods arms into Israel”
‘… Israeli leaders have not done enough to protect civilians.’
This is not about protecting civilians. This is to take over the whole of Palestine ‘The Greater Israel Project’
Also why is it that everyone only mentions October 7, never what Israel has done before Hamas attack? Last year IDF and Israeli attacks on Palestinians, in their homes, at work, in streets and places of worship, increased. The raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Israeli white supremists have stolen Palestinian land, killed and tortured Palestinians, and lied about it for over 75 years. The white supremists have murdered millions.
There is no doubt that the present Democrat administration with full GOP participation, will go down in history as one of the most murderous in world history. Additionally, besides Gaza also consider for a moment the US war against Russia fought in Ukraine with full NATO support, that so far has left a country utterly destroyed with close to a million dead, many more millions in a massive exodus that some European countries are beginning to expel as undesirables as reported in the news. I dare to say that Operation Ukraine itself is clearly a crime against humanity. I repeat again, this shows that contrary to popular belief there is no God, otherwise America should be erased from the face of the earth. What else?
Annairam, it’s much worse because in murdering people in Gaza, Israel is only enforcing its illegal occupation there, which is against international law. Thus,Israel does not have the “right to defend itself” here. And why isn’t the media, along with virtually all commentary sites such as this one, International Clearing House, and this writer, making this crystal clear?
Anyone not beyond outraged by the IDF Genocide and not fully committed to the defense and establishment of a 1967 borders Palestine State does not deserve to be called ‘human’.
Not on ly the establishment of 1967 Borders Palestine State, but total eradication of IsraHell..to return to full Palestine State….Period
I think the UN should rescind Israel’s membership, or at least have a vote on it. Surely this rogue state has violated enough of the rules. The Jews keep thumbing their nose at international law and get away with it without sanction. I realize that the USA, Israel’s lapdog, will veto much legal action against Israel, but surely a count of hands on how the world regards the Jewish Sate should be seen by the world.
Israel dominates American foreign policy.
The United States is no longer an independent country; it has become a vessal state, controlled by Israel. AIPAC and American Jews control the U.S. Government, and they do whatever Israel wants. It no longer matters what the American people want, doesn’t matter who the President is, the result is the same, it has been for a long time, only now it is more obvious.
Jack, here’s the data to support your comments. Spread the word. It’s a list of Jewish organizations, the leaders of which make up the Jewish Lobby in the USA and EU. This is the organized, political arm of world Judaism, many decades in the making.
https://articlebiz.com/article/1052218096-the-jewish-lobby
Israel and USA are catching up with Hitler’s genocide.
Germans didn’t murder nearly many people as the US of Israel has murdered, not even close.
I really hate to say this, but a gas chamber may be more merciful than much of what the Jews are doing in Gaza now.
I’ve been saying the same all along for years in these pages with full details and figures. The problem is that for Americans, is a pill too hard to swallow due to brainwashing from cradle to the grave, and that is not an exaggeration.
Be not surprised…they $pon$ored Ado£f…ye o£de Ang£o-$axons being fe££ow TeutoniKKK white supremacists bent on maintaining the Brutish Vampire ‘upon which the sun never sets’, a.k.a. Fu££ $pectrum Dominance’ under Nato’s jacKKKboot$.
The wehrmacht were just the proxy fodder to fulfil £ord Pa£merston’s 19th century project to carve up Russia, repulsed in the 1850’s Crimea fiasco.
When Barbaro$$a was stopped at Stalingrad Normandy was mobi£i$ed for the race to Berlin.
The beat goes on.
OK, ok, ok…we did send a few guns to Fort Zion….but we also airdropped a picnic ba$KKK€t to the Gazans….and we wrapped it in recipes for nourishing snacks on $hrapn€£ mixed with toxic rubble.
Now where did I leave my ice lo££y.
So while arming these lot, the US also wants to help the Gazans?
Rothschild taught his minions well
This is the world preview of 15 minute cities.