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[Celerity]

70. Biden plans to send $8bn arms shipment to Israel - 4 January 2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpvne94v1rdo

The US Department of State has notified Congress of a planned $8bn (£6.4bn) arms sale to Israel, an American official has confirmed to the BBC. The weapons consignment, which needs approval from House and Senate committees, includes missiles, shells and other munitions.

The move comes just over a fortnight before President Joe Biden leaves office.

Washington has rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza.

In August, the US approved the sale of $20bn in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel. The latest planned shipment contains air-to-air missiles, Hellfire missiles, artillery shells and bombs, the US official said.

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https://www.cfr.org/articles/us-aid-israel-four-charts



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Are there any conditions or restrictions attached to the aid?

Transfers of U.S. military equipment to Israel, as to other foreign governments, are subject to relevant U.S. and international law. The president must notify Congress [PDF] before selling foreign powers major weapon systems or services valued above a certain dollar threshold, and lawmakers are allowed a period to review the sale. For transactions with Israel (and other close U.S. allies), the threshold that triggers a fifteen-day congressional review ranges from $25 million to $300 million, depending on the defense articles or services.

Congress can block a sale through a joint resolution, although this has never happened. In special cases, the president can bypass congressional review if they deem that a national security emergency exists. President Biden used this expedited waiver process for both Israel and Ukraine, and President Trump used it for Saudi Arabia in his first term and Israel in his second. For smaller transactions that don’t meet the dollar threshold, no congressional review is required.

The United States cannot provide security assistance to foreign governments or groups that commit gross human rights violations, a red line enshrined in the so-called Leahy Law. Some legal scholars and other critics have alleged that the United States has not applied the Leahy Law with regard to Israel as it has with other Middle Eastern countries.

Any military aid that the United States provides to recipients must only be used according to agreed-upon terms and conditions, and it is incumbent on the U.S. government to monitor the end use of the equipment it provides. For instance, the Ronald Reagan administration banned transfers of cluster munitions to Israel for several years in the 1980s after it determined that Israel had used them on civilian targets during its invasion of Lebanon.

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