The Biden administration has presented Congress with a plan to sell $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel as President Biden resists calls to limit U.S. arms sales to Israel over military attacks in the Gaza Strip. I am pressing you to approve it.
The State Department recently sent informal notices to two Congressional committees to begin the legislative review process for the order, the first step toward the department formally approving the transfer of up to 50 aircraft.
The F-15 order was first reported by Politico and CNN and confirmed by two U.S. officials. The deal is one of the largest U.S. arms sales to Israel in years and also includes munitions, training and other support.
The United States is rushing to procure some weapons for Israel's current operation against Hamas, but delivery of the F-15s will take at least five years, U.S. officials said.
The F-15 has a top speed of about 2,000 miles per hour and is capable of both air-to-air combat and bombing targets on the ground. Israel is already using its fleet of F-15s to attack Gaza, but the request for the aircraft is in response to regional threats including Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Iranian-backed Syrian militias, and Iran itself. This appears to reflect long-term concerns. The Israel Defense Forces will likely use the F-15 in a potential attack against Iran's nuclear program.
According to U.S. officials, Israeli officials have informed the U.S. that Israel is about to order new F-35 fighter jets.
The United States has been steadily delivering weapons to Israel as part of a 10-year agreement signed by the Obama administration in 2016 that provides $3.8 billion in annual military aid. Many of the weapons orders that have been placed since then and are currently being fulfilled have already been approved by Congress. .
But the Biden administration is also rushing two new emergency arms shipments totaling more than $250 million to Israel since the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel by Hamas, mostly artillery and tank ammunition. Congressional approval is being avoided on the grounds that it is necessary. immediately.
And if Israel's orders do not meet certain dollar thresholds, the administration does not need to notify or seek approval from Congress. As a result, some orders made after Oct. 7, perhaps more than a dozen, have not been made public, U.S. officials said.
Critics of the Israeli operation, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, say the Biden administration is using every available means to force Israel to change its approach, according to a Gaza health ministry official. argues that it should be used.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken did not specifically address the possibility of selling the F-15 at a news conference in Paris on Tuesday. But he defended the Biden administration's continued arms transfers to Israel in general, stressing that most of the recent ones are not directly related to the current Gaza conflict.
Blinken told reporters the transfers are part of an agreement that “goes back more than a decade” and involves weapons systems that could take years to manufacture. These cases “were reviewed by Congress years ago and notified years before the Gaza conflict began,” he said.
Blinken said the United States is determined to protect Israel's broader security concerns beyond the Gaza conflict.
“It's also about the threat posed to Israel by Hezbollah, Iran and various other actors in the region, each of whom has vowed to destroy Israel in one way or another,” he said.
After October 7, Israel demanded the rapid transfer of orders approved several years ago that included bombs weighing between 250 and 2,000 pounds. Israel regularly drops them on Gaza, but the U.S. military and many allies prefer not to use them in urban warfare.
A State Department official said the department generally does not confirm or deny U.S. arms transfers until Congress is formally notified. The official added that once Congress approves arms sales to Israel, they could be completed in dozens of individual deliveries over many years. These deliveries do not require separate notification to Congress.
Some U.S. officials have privately stated that slowing, reducing, or conditioning arms sales to Israel could embolden Iran and its regional allies and weaken Israel's deterrence against Iran.
But critics of Israel's military operations in Gaza are unmoved by such arguments, and the Biden administration's repeated calls for Israel to increase protections for Gaza civilians have had little effect, with no specifics. They argue that it must be enforced with certain consequences.
“The Biden administration must make better use of the tools we have, including offensive weapons transfers, to enforce President Biden's reasonable requests,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland. “There is,” he said.
Van Hollen, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “The radical Netanyahu government has ignored calls for more aid to go to the starving people of Gaza by claiming it will start delivering aid.'' “They continue to reject the Biden administration at every turn.” The invasion of Rafah occurred despite President Biden's “red lines that must not be crossed.'' ”
The F-15 was on a list of requests made by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant when he met with government officials in Washington last week, according to a U.S. official briefed on the conversations. Gallant also said Israel wants to acquire more F-35 fighter jets from the United States.
This would be in addition to Israel's recent exercise of an option on its existing F-35 order to purchase an additional $2 billion in fighter jets and equipment.
Israel already has dozens of F-35s, which are among the most advanced weapons in America's arsenal.
It also operates a fleet of F-15s, which it uses to attack Gaza, but also relies on long-range missions to places like Lebanon and Syria. In 2016, a senior Israeli Air Force official said the plane is valuable “when you want to go far with a small number of aircraft.”
An April 1 policy briefing from the Jewish Institute for National Security said Israel needs F-15 and F-35 fighter jets to “eliminate Hezbollah personnel and weapons arsenals in Lebanon.”
Yoni Tobin, an analyst at a hawkish think tank with ties to the Israeli government and military, said the jets “will also provide support to IDF ground forces in the Gaza Strip and help Israel conduct operations against hostile forces in Syria and across the region.” “We will make it possible to carry out the following.” . Tobin added that Israel needed these aircraft to maintain a decisive military advantage over its regional rivals. This is known in policy circles as “Qualitative Military Advantage” (QME).
White House National Security Press Secretary John F. Kirby told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he believes the administration's approach is working.
But some in Congress disagree.
“The United States wants Israel to accept more humanitarian aid, stop bombing civilians, and stop invading Rafah,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said Tuesday. Ta. “Prime Minister Netanyahu ignored it all. Why are we still sending him taxpayer money and weapons and expecting a different result?”
Robert Jimison Contributed to the report.