Report: Biden Considers $18bn Arms Transfer to Israel

Date: 02 April 2024 - 21:18

News ID: ۱۲۵۸۴۶

WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing whether to go ahead with an $18bn arms transfer package to the Zionist regime that would include dozens of F-15 aircraft, according to the Reuters news agency.
The sale of 25 F-15s has been under review since the U.S. received the formal request in January 2023, Reuters reported, citing one of five sources familiar with the plans, long before Israel’s six-month-old carnage in Gaza. This sale would boost that number to as many as 50 F-15s.
Accelerating delivery of the aircraft was among the top requests from Zionist war minister Yoav Gallant, who visited Washington last week and held talks with U.S. officials including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, a second source said.
Biden faces pressure from foreign partners, human rights groups and some of his fellow Democrats in Congress to impose conditions on arms transfers to rein in the occupying regime’s genocide in Gaza where health officials say at least 32,845 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians.
Meanwhile, U.S.  Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller on Monday defended recent arms transfers to its ally, which included fighter jets and 900kg bombs.
“I do not agree with that at all,” he said when asked whether the weapons transfers damaged the “credibility” and “sincerity” of U.S. statements slamming the killing of too many civilians in Gaza.
“We have been very clear that we want to see Israel do everything it can to minimize civilian casualties. We have made clear that they need to operate at all times in full compliance with international humanitarian law,” Miller said.
The official also reaffirmed the U.S.’s “long-term commitment” to what he called “Israel’s right to self-defense” despite growing concerns about rights abuses in the Gaza Strip.
Critics say the U.S. policy of arming Israel violates American laws prohibiting military aid and weapon sales to regimes engaged in rights abuses.
Several progressive lawmakers have called on President Joe Biden to end his unconditional support for Israel.
On Sunday, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley stressed that the U.S. is complicit in the atrocities committed in Gaza.
“We must also recognize that America is complicit in this tragedy by resupplying Israel with bombs and failing to use America’s leverage to increase aid delivered into Gaza,” he wrote in a series of social media posts.
“Reflecting on the admonition to feed the hungry and assist the stranger, and ‘blessed are the peacemakers,’ let’s push Team Biden to do better. More aid. No bombs.”
Israel launched a war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli intensified violence against Palestinians.
Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.
Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 32,845 Palestinians and injured nearly 75,392 others.