Quietly, the State Department notified Congress on May 5 of its intention to grant Boeing a license to sell Israel $ 735 million worth of attack munitions and bombs.
And prompted the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip to increase the anger of a number of members of both houses of Congress over their country's position in unconditional support for the Israeli positions.
Many members of Congress expressed the passage of the deal under the Arms Export Control Act, while the American media focused on the casualties of innocent Palestinian civilians with weapons that Israel obtained from the United States.
Many human rights organizations, led by the "Democracy for the Arab World Now" organization, have expressed their refusal to pass the deal, at a time when the State Department refuses to confirm or deny whether it has actually approved the sale of weapons, which raises fears that it will be passed without supervision from Congress.
And American press reports indicated that the opposition in Congress had diminished with the reaching of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and that the deal would pass as scheduled.
In the form of a question and answer, Al-Jazeera Net sheds light on the fate of this deal, and lists with information and details the size of the annual American military support to Israel, the size and quality of what Israel buys annually of American weapons.
Does Israel receive special American treatment with regard to military aid? Why?
Yes, Israel is the largest recipient of US military aid since World War II.
Guided bombs at an air base in Virginia, USA (Reuters)
Successive Republican and Democratic administrations, in cooperation with the two houses of Congress, have provided aid to Israel without much public disapproval.
The American political elite believes that helping Israel serves America's interests in the Middle East, especially in light of the strong domestic support for Israel, and the need to preserve its security.
Washington’s support for Israel dates back to its founding in 1948, and Washington claims that common strategic goals and mutual commitment to democratic values support this proposition.
How much military aid has Israel received so far from the United States?
Until 2020, the United States provided Israel with $ 146 billion in military aid (without entering the inflation rate, according to Congressional Research Service data), and some experts estimate the total value of the aid, adjusted for inflation, to reach $ 236 billion.
The American aid provided to Israel is divided as follows:
Military aid: $ 105 billion.
Economic aid: $ 34 billion.
Missile program aid: $ 7 billion.
Total: $ 146 billion
Currently, almost all American aid to Israel is in the form of grants to buy weapons.
Israel receives $ 3.3 billion annually from foreign military financing programs.
It also receives $ 500 million for research, development, and deployment of missile defense systems such as Iron Dome between the United States and Israel.
Nevertheless, these anti-missile systems would almost fully benefit Israeli military needs.
In the year 2021, Israeli aid amounts to 59% of the total US military aid provided under the foreign military financing program, and the rest of the world absorbs 48% of total US aid.
In addition to the military aid, Israel received billions of dollars in economic aid from 1971 to 2007.
How does the American preferential treatment of Israel appear regarding the issue of buying weapons?
The issue of providing military aid to Israel has never been widely criticized. On the contrary, Congress proposes the ideas of providing the latest American weapons to Israel (free of charge as you pay for them from the military aid programs).
Israel was the first country in the world to acquire the operation of the F-35s (F-35), which represent the fifth generation of the most powerful advanced combat aircraft ever.
So far, Israel has purchased 50 such aircraft, funded by American taxpayer funds, and Israel intends to acquire 50 additional aircraft of the same type.
Does Washington pursue any other policies to support Israel militarily?
Yes, Congress has adopted several legislations that guarantee the continued Israeli military superiority over the combined Arab armies, through a bilateral strategy, and the introduction of the latest types of weapons - produced by US military technology to Israel - was the first method of this strategy.
Netanyahu (right) during his 2018 visit to an American guided missile destroyer in the port of Ashdod (Reuters)
On the other hand, and to ensure the Israeli military superiority, Congress enacted laws guaranteeing the qualitative military superiority of Israel. Congress does not pass any military deal to the countries of the region without carefully reviewing it.
In many cases, the United States compensates Israel with more arms deals if Washington sells advanced weapons to Arab countries.
In many cases, Congress obstructed the granting of licenses to export advanced weapons to the Arab allies.
Among the most famous of these cases is the attempt by Congress to block the AWACS planes deal to Saudi Arabia in the 1980s, which prompted Republican President Ronald Reagan for a long confrontation with Congress despite his party’s control of the majority of both houses.
Has the Congress’s view of providing military aid to Israel changed in recent years?
Yes, members of Congress have begun to discuss the rationale behind granting Israel a "blank check" regarding American weapons, especially with regard to those weapons that some of them are used against Palestinians living under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which is a violation of US laws.
For example, Representative Betty McCollum presented a bill on April 15, with the participation of 17 members, to ensure that Israel does not use US aid against Palestinian children, or in the forced displacement of Palestinians through home demolitions, evictions, and the illegal annexation of Palestinian lands.
In response, Representative Ted Deutsch issued a letter on April 22, signed by more than 300 members, opposing "reducing funding or adding conditions to military aid to Israel."
And what has changed in light of the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip?
A number of senior progressive Democratic members called on President Joe Biden's administration to place values in its policy toward Israel, and to reach a peace process that brings together the Israeli and Palestinian parties.
An increasing number of Americans support initiatives to restrict military aid to Israel because of its human rights violations.
Many human rights organizations, led by the "Democracy for the Arab World Now" organization, have expressed their refusal to pass the deal, at a time when the State Department refuses to confirm or deny whether it has actually approved the sale of weapons, which raises fears that it will be passed without supervision from Congress.
And American press reports indicated that the opposition in Congress had diminished with the reaching of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, and that the deal would pass as scheduled.
What agreements govern the provision of military aid to Israel?
Since 1999, US military aid to Israel has been placed in Memoranda of Understanding between the two countries.
These 10-year terms of reference include promises of aid requests within the president's annual budget proposal, and Congress has yet to allocate actual amounts of aid annually.
In practice, Congress complies with the president's budget requests without changes.
The last Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2016, pledging $ 33 billion in military financing and $ 5 billion in missile defense financing during the period from 2019 to 2028.
This is despite the fact that Israel itself has become one of the largest arms exporters in the world, selling nearly $ 11 billion in arms in 2020.
Do not US laws impede arms exports to Israel?
The US law is clear. All countries that receive US aid must meet standards for respecting human rights, and countries that violate these standards are subject to sanctions and are ineligible for US military aid.
The Foreign Assistance Act (PL 87-195) regulates all forms of US aid to foreign countries.
It states that no assistance may be provided to a country that "is engaging in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights."
The Arms Export Control Act (PL 90-629) regulates US military aid and sales to foreign countries.
It states that the United States can supply weapons to foreign countries "only for the sake of internal security, and for legitimate self-defense."
And there is the Leahy Act, which obliges the State and Defense Ministries to examine individual military units and personnel before they are eligible to receive American equipment or training, and the State Department version of the law states that no form of assistance can be provided "to any unit of the security forces that" commits "a violation. Serious human rights. "
The Ministry of Defense version states that no training or equipment can be provided to a military unit that has "committed a gross violation of human rights."
Does Washington impose any conditions on the aid provided to Israel?
Washington imposed conditions on some countries, such as Egypt, with regard to receiving bombs and fissile material launchers.
For example, in the 2021 budget, $ 225 million of the $ 1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt was withheld until the US State Department certifies that Egypt is "taking sustainable and effective steps" to promote human rights.
However, when it comes to Israel, no additional conditions apply and general human rights laws are almost completely uncompromising.
Moreover, the flow of arms to Israel is much less transparent than the flow to other countries, which makes the implementation of these laws more difficult.
Also, Israel is the only country in the world that the United States does not have tracking mechanisms to identify weapons that go to specific military units.
This blackout makes it nearly impossible for the State and Defense departments to properly implement the Leahy Law examination requirements.