State Department Announces $7 Billion Arms Sale To Israel, Circumventing Review

The State Department on Friday announced a $7 billion arms sale to Israel, circumventing the congressional review process, according to Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The announcement, which includes thousands of Hellfire missiles and bombs, comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met President Donald Trump and other top administration officials in Washington, DC. Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to meet with Trump at the White House in his second term.

During the standard congressional review process, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are notified of the arms sale and given time to raise concerns and ask questions. But even with questions outstanding from Meeks, the administration pushed forward with the sale.

“This move is yet another repudiation by Donald Trump of Congress’ rightful and legitimate oversight prerogative,” Meeks said in a statement Friday. “Furthermore, (Secretary of State Marco) Rubio has failed to provide adequate justification or documentation for bypassing the Congressional Committee review process.”

A congressional aide said the move from the Trump administration left them “shocked, but not surprised” that the White House fails to respect the role of Congress. The aide pointed to Trump’s rapid dismantling of USAID as another indication of the White House’s disregard for congressional oversight and authority.

The multibillion-dollar foreign military sale is the first arms sale to Israel under the Trump administration, but Israel received billions in weapons sales from the US under the previous White House.

Last summer, the Biden administration approved a massive $20 billion arms sale to Israel, which included more than 50 F-15 fighter jets.

On Tuesday, Trump falsely claimed that he ended a “de facto arms embargo” on Israel from the Biden administration. In reality, former President Joe Biden had a hold last year on one shipment of 2,000-pound bombs over concerns that their potential use by the Israeli military in Gaza endangered Palestinian civilians.

Even after the Biden administration had paused the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs, the White House was working on another $1 billion sale to Israel.

Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department in 2023 over Biden’s Gaza policy, said circumventing the congressional review process “has essentially given the middle finger to those members and to Congressional oversight.”

“In light of President Trump’s comment just this week, in which he talked about Gaza being a hell and a demolition site, these are the weapons that made it a hell and a demolition site,” said Paul, who founded A New Policy, which advocates for changing US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflictState Department announces $7 billion arms sale to Israel, circumventing review process

Source:- CNN

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