“This is obscene. It is absurd,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). “Give Israel what they need to fight the war they can’t afford to lose.”
(May 8, 2024 / JNS)
House and Senate Republicans slammed U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pause an arms shipment to Israel and demanded that the administration explain why it failed to notify Congress.
Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) wrote to the Biden administration on Monday asking for answers about the frozen arms deal.
“We are shocked that your administration has reportedly decided to withhold critical ammunition to Israel,” the senators wrote.
“You promised your commitment to Israel was ironclad,” they added. “Pausing much-needed military support to our closest Middle Eastern ally signals otherwise.”
The Biden administration withheld approval of the sale of two types of precision-guided bombs, the first such delay of an arms sale since Oct. 7, Politico reported on Tuesday.
The administration informed Congress of the potential $260 million sale of “up to 6,500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions—kits that enable unguided bombs to be steered to a target” in January, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing officials familiar with the deal.
The Biden administration has not taken any action on the sale since, and the U.S. State Department is reviewing the sale, per the Journal.
The paper cited a senior administration official who said that Washington paused a shipment of weapons, including 1,800 bombs that weigh 2,000 pounds each and 1,700 bombs that weigh 500 pounds each.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed the pause during testimony at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday about the Defense Department fiscal 2025 budget request.
“We have paused one shipment of high payload munitions,” Austin said.
“We’ve not made a final determination on how to proceed with that shipment.”
Austin added that the administration continues to oppose any Israeli ground offensive in the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
He also said that the paused arms sale is not connected to the recently passed foreign aid bill, which includes billions of dollars in military aid for Israel.
https://www.jns.org/republicans-slam-biden-for-pausing-israel-arms-shipment/?
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