We prayed Tuesday about President Biden’s decision to withhold weapons from Israel. That same day, Biden approved a new weapons deal. God is answering our prayers!
From The Wall Street Journal. The Biden administration notified Congress on Tuesday that it was moving forward with more than $1 billion in new weapons deals for Israel, U.S. and congressional officials said, a massive arms package less than a week after the White House paused a shipment of bombs over a planned Israeli assault on Rafah.
The latest weapons package includes the potential transfer of $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the officials said. There are still additional steps before the weapons would be approved and delivered.
The decision to proceed with the approval process underscored the Biden administration’s reluctance to deepen its rift with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Rafah operation by restricting longer-term weapons deals with its closest Middle East ally. …
President Biden said last week he would consider withholding additional weapons if Israel assaulted what he called population centers in Rafah. He added that he would continue to provide weapons that the country could use for self-defense—a policy echoed by his top advisers. …
Israel has carried out airstrikes and sent forces into Rafah over the past week in what it calls a targeted operation to pressure Hamas into a deal that releases hostages in return for a temporary cease-fire. Many of the more than one million Palestinians who were sheltering in the city have relocated in recent days. …
Seth Binder, an expert on U.S. weapons sales with the Middle East Democracy Center, a policy institute in Washington, said the White House decision to proceed with a large new weapons package for Israel only days after halting a pending shipment weakened its own attempt to pressure Netanyahu to rethink the conduct of the war.
“This is just another example of them muddying their message and undermining any real strength behind the hold,” Binder said.
Even though it could take years for the weapons in the latest package to be delivered, Binder said Israel could interpret the administration proceeding with these deals as a sign that munitions expended in the war in Gaza would be restocked, despite the sharp disagreement over Rafah. …
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(Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Joe Biden, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)