Democratic Leaders Greenlight Significant Arms Deal with Israel

Congressional Support Paves the Way for Crucial Military Supplies.

A massive arms sale to Israel has been approved after two key Democrats removed their opposition, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, yielded to pressure from the White House and Israel advocates, ending months of delay in the Committee’s authorization. Similarly, Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), a prominent Israel supporter on the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, immediately backed the deal, having previously stood with Meeks in a show of collegial solidarity.

From the outset, Republicans on these committees had supported the arms sale. The approved package includes essential items such as JDAM kits, which convert simple bombs into precision-guided weapons, tank ammunition, armored vehicles, and mortars, valued at nearly a billion dollars. Additionally, the deal encompasses the future sale of 50 F-15 fighter planes, a multibillion-dollar commitment expected to be fulfilled over several years.

Meeks expressed his desire for the White House to push Israel for significant improvements in humanitarian efforts and to limit civilian casualties, seeking assurances on the usage of American weapons. However, Hamas’s own admissions of using civilian locations as shields for military operations complicate these concerns. Hamas embeds command centers, rocket launchers, and terror tunnels in civilian areas, making them legitimate military targets under international law.

Hamas claims 37,000 Gazan deaths, a figure disputed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who estimates that 14,000 Hamas fighters and 16,000 civilians have died in the eight-month conflict. Military experts have praised the IDF for maintaining a combatant-to-civilian death ratio of slightly over one-to-one, an unprecedented achievement in warfare.

Prime Minister Netanyahu recently stressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken the urgent need for more weapons, criticizing the recent halt in U.S. supplies. Netanyahu argued that withholding arms supports Tehran and its proxies, prolonging the conflict and increasing regional instability. In response, Blinken assured that the administration is working to remove obstacles to the arms supply.

Israel’s ongoing fight highlights its strategic reliance on U.S. support to maintain security and stability in a volatile region. 

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