State Department greenlights $7.4bn arms deal with Israel
The US State Department has signed off on the sale to Israel of $6.75bn in bombs, guidance kits and fuses, in addition to $660m in Hellfire missiles, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
“The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability,” the DSCA said.
Over the past 15 months, critics of Israel’s war on Gaza have repeatedly called on the US government to cut off weapons transfers to Israel, alleging they make the US complicit in the destruction of the coastal enclave.
New US arms sale to Israel signals ‘continuity’ with Biden administration
In fact, this particular package of weaponry was first approved by the Biden administration in January, one of the last arm transfers it asked Congress to approve, and it wasn’t approved by the time the Biden administration left.
So this was basically a bit of paperwork for the incoming Trump administration from the defence security corporation of the Pentagon, but the State Department wants to transfer these weapons to Israel. It’s a package of weapons that the Biden administration wanted to put forward but it was put on a hold by members of the Senate and the House foreign affairs committee.
But this is continuity with Biden. It isn’t new, but it’s certainly something that Netanyahu wanted to get reassurance from Trump that he would resubmit this request to Congress.
Having said that, Trump has already also asked for $1bn in weapons to go to Israel. That request went this week. And that includes 4,700 1000-pound bombs, worth more than $700m, and armoured bulldozers by the company Caterpillar, $300m of that.
What we are watching is how determined the opposition may be to try and stand in the way of Trump, because of their general anger at him being in power and some of his other policies, now that it’s him who’s supplying the genocidal government in Israel and not Joe Biden.
Pro-Israel groups provide names of Palestine supporters to US immigration: Report
Pro-Israel groups in the US are compiling lists of pro-Palestine activists to hand to immigration authorities for deportation, according to a new report by The Intercept.
The US outlet investigated groups attempting to assist President Trump’s recent executive order demanding “the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws”.
The order – issued in response to pro-Palestine college campus protests across the US in 2024 – is intended to “quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities”.
The Intercept report says that Betar US, Mothers Against College Antisemitism, the Chicago Jewish Alliance, and the Shirion Collective have taken steps to compile lists of pro-Palestine supporters to share with immigration authorities, or harass them directly with a “bounty system”.
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