Biden admin again bypasses Congress to sell military equipment to Israel | CNN Politics
edition.cnn.com
The Biden administration for the second time this month has bypassed Congress to approve the sale of military equipment to Israel.

The Biden administration for the second time this month has bypassed Congress to approve the transfer of nearly $150 million in military equipment to Israel

Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed Congress that he has made an emergency determination to immediately approve the transfer of “155mm ancillary items including fuzes, charges, and primers that make 155mm shells functional,” a State Department spokesperson said Friday.

The spokesperson said the additional items were added to previous sales, which “increased the total value of the sale to $147.5 million.”

Earlier this month, the administration rushed forward a sale of thousands of munitions to Israel, bypassing the standard 20-day period that congressional committees are typically afforded to review such a sale. The State Department sent an emergency declaration to the oversight committees that more than 13,000 tank shells would be delivered to Israel without any “further information, details or assurances.”

  • jasparagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    72·
    10 months ago

    More info from a different article that provides context:

    Bypassing Congress with emergency determinations for arms sales is an unusual step that has in the past met resistance from lawmakers, who normally have a period of time to weigh in on proposed weapons transfers and, in some cases, block them.

    In May 2019, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an emergency determination for an $8.1 billion sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan after it became clear that the Trump administration would have trouble overcoming lawmakers’ concerns about the Saudi and UAE-led war in Yemen.

    Pompeo came under heavy criticism for the move, which some believed may have violated the law because many of the weapons involved had yet to be built and could not be delivered urgently. But he was cleared of any wrongdoing after an internal investigation.

    At least four administrations have used the authority since 1979. President George H.W. Bush’s administration used it during the Gulf War to get arms quickly to Saudi Arabia.

    AP Article Link

    As others pointed out, this appears to only apply to arms sales, not for aid packages as in the case of Ukraine.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      93·
      10 months ago

      More info from The Intercept for even more context on Bidens efforts to get weapons to israel at all cost. Note that Biden does not have a team like this for Ukraine.

      The Pentagon is working to expedite weapons exports to Israel by deploying a so-called Tiger Team of experts to facilitate the transfers, according to procurement records reviewed by The Intercept. Some of the arms sales will be carried out through a new Army initiative designed specifically for the provision of weapons to Israel.

      The Israel-specific program, called the Israel Significant Initiatives Group, is located within the Army’s Defense Exports and Cooperation office, which oversees policy for U.S. arms sales.

      The Tiger Team meets daily with the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, which executes U.S. arms sales, to overcome barriers to arms sales to Israel. The “tiger team,” a crisis rapid response team involving a diverse set of experts, is supposed to examine potential bottlenecks and delays in weapons transfers and offer advice for alleviating the issues.

      “This shows that at all levels of government, from policy to implementation, the Biden Administration is doing all it can to rush arms to Israel despite President Biden’s recent explicit statement that Israel’s bombing of Gaza is ‘indiscriminate,’ and despite extensive reporting that the arms we are providing are causing massive civilian casualties,” said Paul, who resigned from the State Department in protest of the Biden administration’s ongoing weapons assistance to Israel. “This will not be a proud moment for the Biden Administration, the State Department – or for DSCA.”

      As for the rest of your post, I think the big difference is that those countries actually buy the weapons with oil money whereas israel just gets tens of billions of free dollars from US taxpayers. These “sales” will be refunded to them in a jiffy. They’re likely using a loan to fund it anyways.

      Biden could probably approve a loan to Ukraine and then “sell” them the weapons or use some other legalese BS if he actually wanted to.

      • jasparagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        It looks like there’s some precedent for workarounds that FDR used to aid the UK when Isolationists didn’t want to help during WWII, and that Biden has already been doing a good chunk of it. Without direct cash, I do think there are fewer options, but I’m curious what will happen if an aid package isn’t passed by Congress in early 2024 once the current one runs out.

        Politico: The WWII Strategy Biden Can Use to Bypass Republicans on Ukraine

        Roosevelt’s effort to arm Britain ran the gamut from outright executive fiat (bases for destroyers, surplus transfers) to skillful negotiation with Congress (cash and carry, lend-lease). But there was a common thread running through these maneuvers: The United States never appropriated direct military assistance to the United Kingdom. It traded stuff for stuff. Allowed the British military to buy war materiel from private manufacturers and transport it on British ships. Offloaded “surplus” goods.

        …

        Biden faces a similar set of circumstances. To sustain America’s support of Ukraine, he will need to find creative ways to bypass the handful of GOP congressmen who currently enjoy functional control of the House. He already enjoys some leeway. Last year, he signed into law a latter-day version of the Lend Lease Act, patterned after the original law, that allows him to lease military equipment to Ukraine on a five-year basis. He might also look for ways to use NATO or other allies as a middleman in the transfer of arms.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          44·
          10 months ago

          Yep there we go, good job for finding it out.

          The “Biden can’t do it” is just plausible deniabilty bullshit. Biden is a Zionist that likes doing Nazi shit more than doing something morally correct.

          • jasparagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            Israel received $3.18B in FY 2022 compared to $11.8B for Ukraine.

            USNews - US Aid history

            Edit to add a quote from the link:

            In 2021, U.S. obligations to Israel amounted to $3.31 billion, a figure that saw Israel returning to the top spot among aid recipients that year. But in 2022, the U.S. committed $12 billion to Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion, far exceeding Israel’s $3.18 billion that year. While some figures are still considered “partial,” total U.S. aid globally for 2022 currently adds up to more than $60 billion, a level not seen since 1951.

            It’ll be interesting to see what that chart looks like for 2023 and 2024. And hopefully there’s less genocide all around, eh?

              • jasparagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                10 months ago

                I found more up-to-date numbers that suggest it’s more like 23x the aid (Ukraine:Israel):

                How Much Aid Has the U.S. Sent Ukraine? Here Are Six Charts.

                In any event, the US appears to have sent substantial aid to Ukraine, and it’s in jeopardy only (to my knowledge) if congress can’t get more through in early 2024. My understanding is that the war-specific funding (so far) requested by the Biden administration for Israel has been more to the tune of $14B requested for 2023 (e.g. this article), concurrent with a roughly-quadruple $60B+ request for Ukraine (this article).

                It seems to me that the Biden administration is strongly in support for Ukraine, and is making (and, historically, getting through) requests for continued aid far in excess of those to Israel (which receives multi-billion-dollar aid from the U.S. every year and under every administration). Biden’s only non-standard “funding” here is authorizing sale of arms to Israel, which is in place of any congressional funding due to the unpopularity of the Israel war in the USA (which is unpopular for a variety of, in my opinion, very good reasons).

                To be clear: I’m not suggesting that the U.S.A. should blindly fund genocide. I’m simply arguing that continued (substantial) funding for Ukraine hasn’t been in jeopardy until recently, and that it is still not a guarantee that extraordinary measures (beyond what Biden has already done with the lend-lease-style “loaning” of US Arms to Ukraine, etc.) will be necessary or helpful, given the broad support in the US Congress (to date) for the war in Ukraine. My expectation is that the Democrats in congress will make some concessions to the Republicans in congress, and a Ukraine funding package will pass early in the new year.

                TL;DR: equating the funding of Ukraine to the funding of the war in Israel and using it to suggest the Biden administration hasn’t adequately attempted to fund Ukraine doesn’t make a ton of sense to me.

                • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
                  24·
                  10 months ago

                  Ukraine has been at war since the beginning of 2022. Israel started their genocide only three months ago. Biden is doing everything in his power for israel right now, not for Ukraine. He removed all weapons restrictions for israel on civilian casualties because normally the US wouldn’t even be able to give weapons to such a genocide.

                  The three aircraft carriers next to israel to protect them aren’t even counted under their aid package. Nor is America defending israel against attacks from Yemen. Nor is the direct amount of American intelligence israel is receiving.

                  Israel has barely taken any damage so far and already they are getting 14.3 billion to bombard Gaza with. And israel is getting the high tech stuff not the hand me downs like Ukraine.

                  If a large scale war would develop because of retaliation against israel, there is no doubt Biden would drop Ukraine in a heartbeat and send everything to israel.

                  Currently though Ukraine is fighting a world superpower called Russia with a population of 140 million and a massive gas field economy, while israel is “fighting” Hamas, a group of 30.000 members in a population of 2 million on a small strip of land with zero economy.

                  And they are getting 1/4 the budget for it, direct military aid and priority over Ukraine. Ukraine’s budget seems to also go down by the amount given to israel.