The State Department has formally notified Congress of its plans for a massive arms sale to Israel worth over $7 billion, including thousands of missiles and bombs, the Associated Press reported on Friday. This follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington DC this week and Donald Trump’s announcement that the US will “own” Gaza after it is ethnically cleansed of its indigenous Palestinian population.
Per the State Department, Congress was notified of two separate sales, one is worth $6.75 billion. This first sale includes 2,800 500-pound bombs and 166 small-diameter bombs, along with thousands of guidance kits, fuses, bomb components, and other equipment. Deliveries of these bombs would begin later this year. The other package, worth $660 million, includes 3,000 Hellfire missiles and related equipment. Deliveries for this second arms sale are expected to take place by 2028. According to the AP, the use of these missiles will require the IDF to receive supplemental training by the US military.
Officials from the Joe Biden administration informally made Congress aware of the sale last month, at the time they said some of the weapons could be sent from current Pentagon stockpiles but most of the arms would take at least a year, or more likely several years, to deliver.
This comes as a fragile ceasefire in Gaza is still holding, despite the IDF killing dozens of Palestinians in Gaza since it was implemented and amid hostage exchanges on both sides. Israeli officials indicate that the increased military aid and arms sales are meant to compel Netanyahu to see the ceasefire deal through to its second and third phases, following the current 42-day truce. Last month, Trump released a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs that the previous administration had paused over a dispute regarding the Israeli invasion of Rafah last year.
Earlier this week, Trump asked leaders in Congress to approve another $1 billion arms transfer, financed with US military aid, that includes 4,700 1,000-pound bombs worth over $700 million and $300 million worth of armored bulldozers. The bulldozers are infamously used to carry out violent assaults and home demolitions in the occupied West Bank.
The news of the additional arms sales comes as Trump is talking up his plan for Gaza to be ethnically cleansed before the US takes over the Strip and begins a huge real estate development project there. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the IDF to prepare for the “voluntary departure” of the Palestinians from Gaza in accordance with Trump’s plan. He said the Palestinians should be sent to Western countries like Ireland, Norway, and Spain which have recognized the state of Palestine and been highly critical of Tel Aviv’s genocidal onslaught.
Initially, Trump had insisted that nearly 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza could be sent to Egypt and Jordan but the proposal was sharply rejected by Cairo and Amman along with the Palestinians themselves.
Therefore, in order to pursue this forced displacement plan, the Israelis will have to restart their genocidal campaign in Gaza where, according to a recent study in the British medical journal The Lancet, approximately 70,000 people have been killed as result of Israeli military action.
Scores of American doctors, nurses, and surgeons, who have spent hundreds of weeks combined volunteering in Gaza, wrote in an open letter to the White House last fall that tens of thousands more Palestinians had been starved to death as a result of the US-backed siege and Israel’s consistent blocking of vital humanitarian aid.
Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.
"The Prisoner" must be rolling in his grave
Israeli officials indicate that the increased military aid and arms sales are meant to compel Netanyahu to see the ceasefire deal through to its second and third phases, following the current 42-day truce.
So, is phase 4 when the resort gets built and The Palestinians get to move into their brand new homes in their brand new countries?
Was that put in writing by any chance and who signed it? Did BiBi and Trump/Musk also sign it? ?
So giving Israelis more weapons is supposed to somehow make them more inclined to peace? On what planet would that make sense?
It doesn't make much sense, but a promise to deliver something big over years suggests the threatened possibility of not following through with delivery. Trump is such an inconsistent wild card, maybe he would use such leverage eventually on his pal Bibi. If he wanted something enough, promises are made to be broken and everyone might be subject to slapping around.
Trump hasn't been an "inconsistent wild card" when it comes to Israel. His first term might look mild compared to his second as far as gifting Israel is concerned.
Quite true so far. I just mean that like most everything with Trump, it's a transaction not a principled choice. If stabbing Bibi in the back will serve Trump better than not, he will.
Just look at how Hezbollah caved in. They took one look at Gaza and said, "Ah, maybe we don't need to keep firing missiles at Israel."
That's how the world works.
That's a waste of money.
And life.
Careful now — I voted for ending these stupid wars — not escalating them.
So did you vote for Oliver or Stein?
You have got to be bloody kidding me!!!…….
The bought US government is a complete sham. Allowing the likes of AIPAC and nefarious doners to determine where tax payer money is spent…on a country( Israel ) that has proven since its inception that terror, deception, and murder is their religion/right of passage. This kind of heresy will not last forever.
This is a crime. The Americans involved must be punished, both those who do it, and those who advocate and defend it. Monsters, like those who did or defended the Nazi death camps. They can never be forgiven, and prosecutions must follow them forever.
Nice fantasy, not going to happen.
Crime? No, the US is helping an ally. Israel is by law a "major non-NATO ally."
And since you mention the Nazis, how about the fact that Hamas is part of the Nazi-trained Muslim Brotherhood, and that the Hamas charter including popular Nazi-used documents?
So, you think the United States shouldn't help a Us ally fight against a Nazi-trained enemy dedicated to their destruction? Sure, that makes sense.
People were hanged in the 40s for "helping an ally."
What a dumb comment. Who was hanged in the 1940s for helping an ally? No one, because by definition, there are no laws against helping allies. Duh.
Hamas is only a reflection of the repressive nature of the OCCUPIER Israel!
What clueless nonsense.
Hamas is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has held anti-Western and openly anti-Semitic views since the 1930s, when it got financial and ideological support from the Nazi government.
Read the Hamas charter, which includes statements that would make Mel Gibson blush, such as citing "The Protocols from the Elders of Zion" as factual.
https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/880818a.htm
Plus, Israel left Gaza in 2005; then it was illegally occupied by Hamas after a violent coup against the Palestinian Authority. Even Egypt doesn't recognize Hamas (they closed their borders with Gaza).
Israel allowed billions of dollars in aid to reach Gaza; however, Hamas – true to its word – used that money to buy weapons, not help its people. Israelis let down their guard; Israelis living near Gaza even tried to help people in Gaza with work and medical care.
Israelis who tried to help Gazans feel differently now, after seeing their wives, children, grandchildren, and babies butchered by Hamas, doing exactly what they said they would do, encouraged. So, now they believe them – even if useful idiots still don't get it.
Meanwhile, Palestinians living in Israel have much more freedom and more rights than those in any Arab country.
Learn some facts, before embarrassing yourself with such uninformed bumper sticker comments (unless you are a professor at Harvard or Columbia, in which case, you'll get tenure soon).
This is an example of enabling evil that ought to be shunned and punished.
Those are bumper stickers, not intelligent comments.
Helping an ally after a mass murder terrorist attack is not "evil". That is what happens. That is why no one did anything – not Egypt, not the Palestinian Authority, not any Arab or Muslim country.
The world knows – even if you (and your professors at Harvard or Columbia) do not, that Hamas clearly states its objectives, which are the extermination of all Israelis and the conquest of "every inch" of Israeli land. It's all there in their rabidly anti-Semitic charter – including Nazi-approved documents, such as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", which clearly state that Jews are responsible for all wars, and that they are a secret cabal that seeks world domination.
https://embassies.gov.il/holysee/AboutIsrael/the-middle-east/Pages/The%20Hamas-Covenant.aspx
It's that simple. Yet, you are defending the murderous Nazi-trained, Nazi-inspired enemy of a US ally.
If you are in the US, and you want the oil-rich Middle East to be taken over by anti-American forces, such as Russia and China, and you don't mind paying $15/gallon for gas, and watching the US economy crash – well, suit yourself. That's your prerogative.
Please include EVERYONE he met with during his 6-7 day visit.
The genocide of the little Gaza strip is pretty expensive. After the genocide who will pay the cleanup to build a profitable Riviera?
Destroying, as expensive as it is, is still cheaper than building.
Of course the European tax payers better pay, who else? Trump will do as always, passing the basket for donations around, he is not about to pay a dime, the stingy b*a*s*ta*r*d.
Far the cheapest would be to get rid of Israel, a criminal country run by the Jewish Himmler.
most of the arms would take at least a year, or more likely several years, to deliver.
This is because almost all of the Pentagram's reserve ammunition has been sent to Ukraine while manufacturing has only increased a minuscule amount.
Sure, if by “increased a miniscule amount” you mean things like “more than doubling, and possibly more than sextupling, production of 155mm artillery rounds between the beginning of 2022 and the end of 2024.”
Of that one item, we now produce (IIRC) as many in a year as Russia produces in three months. For other items like armored vehicles, RPGs, and pretty much any kind of missile production has increased by anywhere from 10-40% (with corresponding drops in quality in many cases), and it’s taken them three years to do that much. The West is utterly unable to sustain any sort of large conflict for more than a couple of weeks, since what should be going into replenishing reserves is instead being funneled into the bottomless pits of Ukraine and Israel. We’re still the world’s largest weapons exporter, but that’s mostly because the dollar cost of our weapons is so much higher than anyone else (and also because Russia is using much of what they’re producing).
From an absurdly tiny number to a small and hopelessly inadequate number. It takes hopeful imagination to hide that, "possibly more than sextupling it," which is simply untrue.
Give, give, give…Take, take, take…!
”It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!”….
Arms are meant for hugging!…
https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/best-peace-songs/
Isra Hell needs a "peace song" shoved up its . . . . !
Ah the Sixties and early Seventies. "The Age of Aquarius", "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Peter, Paul adn Mary", the "Beatles" and many others who planted seeds of peace, unity, love; but life took over and we were not strong enough to keep the seeds growing, the vibes continuing. The war machine was more powerful adn still is.
More like an Arm Giveaway…
$7 Billion Arms Sale? Doesn't USA give $8 billion in aid to Izrael.
Where is all this money coming from? And all other projects envisioned by Trump that call for large scale purchases, redevelopment, annexations, or reversal of past deals outside US. A mystery.