Senate Republicans called on the Biden administration to expedite arms deliveries to Israel, accusing the White House of slow-rolling weapons sales to the Jewish state.
“We write once again to protest your administration’s partial arms embargo against Israel,” wrote the 48 Republicans on Friday, led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “The actions of the Biden-Harris administration run counter to our long history of robust military cooperation with Israel and cast doubt upon the reliability of the United States as a long-term security partner.
“Your actions also violate the will of Congress, as expressed in the recent supplemental that funded emergency military support to Israel,” the senators added. “Your administration must stop accommodating Iran and its terrorist allies now.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has previously taken positions opposing U.S. aid to Israel, was the lone Senate Republican not to sign the letter.
The letter alleges that the Biden administration is “deliberately delaying” 120-millimeter tank ammunition, 120-millimeter mortar ammunition, light tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, F-15s, F-35 engines, joint direct attack munition kits, 2,000-pound bombs, rifles and guided missile systems.
The Biden administration has repeatedly insisted that the only weapons shipment that it paused is the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs, which it argues are likely to cause excessive civilian casualties in densely-populated Gazan cities. U.S. officials have also held up the delivery of M4 and M16 rifles, intended for the Israeli National Police, per the Wall Street Journal.
“We urge you to use every available emergency authority to expedite the physical delivery of all weapons and ammunition to Israel that have been approved by Congress,” the 48 senators wrote.
In a June 20 letter, Cotton accused the administration of using Washington’s complicated and lengthy foreign military sales process to play a “bureaucratic sleight-of-hand” with arms sales to Israel, allowing the White House to slow-walk a broad variety of weapons while claiming to have only formally paused a single shipment of bombs.
“The Arms Export Control Act requires the administration to notify Congress before sending weapons to a foreign country,” Cotton wrote in June. “Your administration has manipulated this requirement by withholding this formal notification to Congress of approved weapons sales.”
“Your administration can then claim that the weapons are ‘in process’ while never delivering them,” he added.
Speeding up the delivery of U.S. aid and arms sales to Israel was also a centerpiece of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress in July.
“Fast-tracking U.S. military aid can dramatically expedite an end to the war in Gaza and help prevent a broader war in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said.
“In World War II, as Britain fought on the frontlines of civilization, Winston Churchill appealed to Americans with these famous words: ‘Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job,’” he added. “Today, as Israel fights on the frontline of civilization, I too appeal to America: ‘Give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster.’”
