T. Belman. I do not believe that the shipment was sent because of the reason given. Rather the growing opposition and the upcoming election, brought this about.
Report: Biden administration decided to resume the weapons transfer after Israel committed to informing the United States in advance before expanding ground maneuvers in Rafah.
INN May 17/24
Despite the US administration’s threat to freeze arms shipments to Israel, due to the IDF’s ground maneuver in Rafah, the arms shipment that had recently been delayed has arrived in Israel, Kan 11 News reported on Thursday.
A US official said that the decision to resume the transfer of weapons was made after Israel undertook to inform the United States in advance before expanding the ground maneuver in Rafah.
The decision to unfreeze the shipment was made after a visit by the commander of the US Central Command, General Michael Kurilla, to Israel at the end of last week.
The shipment of weapons arrived in an American transport plane from the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which houses US troops, to the Israel Air Force Base in Nevatim.
Last week, the White House confirmed it had paused a shipment of bombs to Israel due to US opposition to a planned Israeli attack on the Gazan city of Rafah.
A day later, President Joe Biden warned that he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Speaking to CNN, Biden said that while the US would continue to provide defensive weapons to Israel, including for its Iron Dome air defense system, other shipments would end should a major ground invasion of Rafah begin.
Earlier this week, however, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration notified Congress that it is moving forward with more than $1 billion in new weapons deals for Israel.
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.
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US House passes bill requiring delivery of bombs to Israel in GOP-led rebuke of Biden
16 Democrats join nearly all Republicans to approve measure, which Schumer has pledged isn’t ‘going anywhere’ in the Senate and the president has vowed to veto
WASHINGTON — The US House of Representatives delivered a rebuke to President Joe Biden Thursday for pausing a shipment of bombs to Israel, passing legislation that seeks to force the weapons transfer as Republicans worked to highlight Democratic divisions over the Israel-Hamas war.
Seeking to discourage Israel from its offensive against Hamas in the crowded southern Gaza city of Rafah, the Biden administration this month put on hold a weapons shipment of 3,500 bombs — some as large as 2,000 pounds — over concerns about their use in populated areas. Republicans were outraged, accusing Biden of abandoning the closest US ally in the Middle East.
Debate over the bill, rushed to the House floor by GOP leadership this week, showed Washington’s deeply fractured outlook on the Israel-Hamas war. The White House and Democratic leadership scrambled to rally support from a House caucus that ranges from moderates frustrated that the president would allow any daylight between the US and Israel to progressives outraged that he is still sending any weapons at all.
On the right, Republicans said the president had no business chiding Israel for how it uses the US-manufactured weapons that are instrumental in its war against Hamas, which was triggered by the terror group’s October 7 onslaught. They have not been satisfied with the Biden administration moving forward this week on a new $1 billion sale to Israel of tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortar rounds.
The House bill condemns Biden for initiating the pause on the bomb shipment and would withhold funding for the State Department, Department of Defense and the National Security Council until the delivery is made.
The White House has said Biden would veto the bill if it passes Congress, and the Democratic-led Senate seems certain to reject it.
“It’s not going anywhere,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this week.
“It is President Biden and Senator Schumer himself who are standing in the way of getting Israel the resources it desperately needs to defend itself,” Speaker Mike Johnson said.
Biden placed the hold on the transfer of the bombs this month over concerns the weapons could inflict massive casualties in Rafah. The move underscored growing differences between his administration and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over its handling of the war.
Israel launched its offensive against Hamas with the aim of destroying the it and retrieving the hostages taken on October 7, when Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 252 captives. According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, over 35,000 Palestinians have in the enclave have died in the conflict, an unverified figure that doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants and includes some 15,000 terror operatives Israel says it has killed in battle. Israel also says it killed some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
279 soldiers have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Gaza Strip.
House Democratic leadership also worked hard to convince rank-and-file lawmakers to vote against the bill.
“The legislation on the floor today is not a serious effort to strengthen the special relationship between the United States and Israel,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
He added that he supported the effort to “decisively” defeat Hamas while also advocating for a goal of “Israel living in safety and security side by side with a demilitarized Palestinian state that allows for dignity and self-determination amongst the Palestinian people.”
With the general election campaign coming into focus, the speaker has mostly turned to advancing partisan bills, including legislation on immigration, local policing and antisemitism, that are intended to force Democrats into taking difficult votes.
Ahead of voting on Thursday, several Democrats who have been openly critical of Biden’s hold on the bomb shipment came out in opposition to the House bill.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat who signed onto the letter criticizing the pause, said she was voting against the bill because it threatened to defund US national security programs.
Still, the 16 Democrats who voted for the bill showed a willingness to defy the president’s handling of the US relationship with Israel.
“The administration has been wavering so I’m going to vote for the bill when it comes to the floor,” Representative Ritchie Torres, a New York Democrat, said this week.
Another Democrat who has criticized the pause on the bomb shipment, Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida, said this week he was also considering the messages being sent to the Jewish community in the United States.
“My community right now is worried,” he said. “Things don’t happen in a vacuum.”
Historically, the US has sent enormous amounts of weaponry to Israel, and it has only accelerated those shipments since the October 7 attack, which Biden has called the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. But some progressives are pushing for an end to that relationship as they claim Israel’s campaign into Gaza amounts to genocide — a characterization that the Biden administration has rejected.
Israel News Pulse
Political heat including from Democrats and Haim Saban (huge Israeli-American Democrat Donor) helped move the shipment held. Biden is all politics and he sways as the wind blows and poll numbers dip.
Hi, Ted
1.
I think you’re giving Biden too much credit for being a reasonable man. The Bible describes him more accurately:
James I (KJV)
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
2.
“16 Democrats” = good news
“Schumer” very bad news — yet another case of “Israel vs. Israel”
However this turns out, I think Israel can win this bout without outside interference.
3.
Biden represents the US, the way a cat burglar represents the home’s residents.
This is akin to providing blankets and helmets to the Ukrainian soldiers at the front.
I have to wonder about the naivety of this move. If the administration wants to slow down or stop the delivery of the “interesting” parts of the promised munitions, there are a thousand ways to accomplish that even with this bill endorsed and in place.
How do these progressives define the Pali attack on Israel on October 7? Attempted suicide?