White House backs $7.4B arms sale to Israel, defying Congress
PHOTO CAPTION: An Israeli soldier holds a gun, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, February 8, 2024. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
By Patricia Zengerle
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration announced on Friday that it had approved military sales to Israel worth some $7.4 billion, despite a Democratic lawmakers' request that the sale be paused until he received more information.
The Department of Defense announced that the State Department had approved a package for Israel worth an estimated $6.75 billion that included munitions, guidance kits and fuses with Boeing Co among the principal contractors.
It also detailed a deal estimated at $660 million to sell Hellfire Missiles to Israel in which Lockheed Martin would be the principal contractor.
The announcement came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington for meetings with Trump, administration officials and members of Congress.
Representative Gregory Meeks, ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, denounced what he termed a decision to break with a long-standing precedent for congressional review of major weapons sales.
He said he had been discussing his concerns about the sale with the administration, which had failed to provide significant documentation or justification.
"I continue to support Israel’s critical military needs as it faces a range of regional threats and was engaged in close consultation with the Administration on a range of questions and concerns," Meeks said in a statement.
He said the decision showed a lack of respect for Congress as a co-equal branch of government. "In the United States we do not have kings - we are a democracy rooted in the Constitution, governed by laws," Meeks said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Former President Joe Biden's administration had notified Congress of a proposed $8 billion arms sale to Israel in January, two U.S. officials said at the time. That aligned with a long-standing practice of giving the chairs and ranking members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees the opportunity to review a sale and ask for more information before making a formal notification to Congress.
Trump began his second term on January 20.
LATEST PUSHBACK ON CONGRESS
Trump has forged close ties to Netanyahu, pledging to back Israel strongly in its war against Hamas in the Gaza strip. He shocked the world this week by saying he expected Gaza to be taken over by the United States.
Trump has faced court challenges in the first two weeks of his second term over actions that opponents say run afoul of Congress, such as taking steps to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Trump has bypassed the weapons review process before. During his first term, he angered both Democrats and Republicans in 2019 by declaring a national emergency to sweep aside human rights-related objections to the sale of over $8 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
The civilian toll of the war in Gaza has raised human rights concerns from some U.S. lawmakers.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages.
In response, Israel launched a war in Gaza that has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the enclave.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Alistair Bell and Shri Navaratnam)
