Biden’s Secrecy on Arms Transfers to ‘Israel’ Unnerves Some Democrats

By John Hudson | WP

President Biden faces growing pressure from allies in Congress to publicly disclose the scope of US arms being funneled to ‘Israel’, as the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza draws international condemnation and increasingly unsettles Democrats.

Contrary to its military aid program for Ukraine, which saw the Pentagon release recurring fact sheets about the volume of US arms transfers, the administration has not made public the quantities of weapons it is sending to ‘Israel.’ The administration is also pushing for the authority to bypass notification requirements to Congress that apply to every other country receiving military financing.

“I do not support the administration’s request to write into law waivers of congressional notification of foreign military financing, including for ‘Israel’,” Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (N.Y.), the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat, told The Washington Post. “There is no reason we cannot both ensure needed US assistance is provided to ‘Israel’ in an expeditious manner and ensure Congress is able to fulfill its constitutional oversight duty.”

A White House official defended the effort, saying it would enable the State Department to “immediately provide emergency assistance to ‘Israel’ in lieu of having to wait more than two weeks for congressional approval.”

Meeks, a strong supporter of aiding ‘Israel,’ rejected the notion that Congress can’t review the US assistance fast enough. He is also not alone among Democrats in questioning the administration’s attempt to forgo the same transparency it provides for the expansive support supplied to Ukraine.

In just one month of fighting, the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 10,000, according to Gaza’s ministry of health. On Wednesday, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, said the number of lives lost is probably “higher than is being cited.”

“At a time when thousands of civilians are being killed by weapons provided by the US government, the American people deserve to be fully informed about what is being provided to other ‘countries’, including ‘Israel’, with their tax dollars,” Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), told The Post. “The Biden administration should provide the same transparency around arms transfers to ‘Israel’ that it has for Ukraine and other countries.”

Much of ‘Israel’s’ arsenal derives from the United States, which provides it $3.8 billion every year, making ‘Israel’ the world’s largest cumulative recipient of US aid. The Biden administration has asked Congress for an additional $14 billion in assistance for ‘Israel’ as a part of the White House’s $106 billion foreign aid request, which also includes proposed funding for Ukraine and Taiwan. The massive package has yet to pass amid differing views between House and Senate GOP leadership.

Members of Congress are allowed to slow foreign weapons sales and military financing as they assess justifications for their transfer. In the text of the pending request to Congress, the Biden administration says it can “waive” notification requirements to lawmakers “due to ‘Israel’s’ urgent need.”

Josh Paul, who recently resigned from the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, called the move unprecedented. He also questioned why the administration would need such authority for ‘Israel’ but not Ukraine, which has received tens of billions of dollars in US military assistance since February 2022.

“It has never requested such an authority for Ukraine despite the urgency of that situation,” he said.

Paul, who worked in the bureau for 11 years, resigned last month, citing frustration over the lack of tolerance for debate on issues related to ‘Israel.’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he regularly seeks diverging views, though he does not have visibility on all of the debates within the department.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said scrapping notifications for Congress would break with long-standing precedent. “We should not make exceptions to this practice — it’s our duty to review these funds and ensure their use is in the best interests of the American people and in alignment with US policy,” he said in a statement.

Throughout the war in Ukraine, the Biden administration has released and distributed detailed accounting of the types and volume of rocket and missile systems, tanks, and artillery that are being shipped to the war zone. Not so with ‘Israel’s’ war. Thus far, the administration has been vague about the weapons transfers beyond saying that they have included small diameter bombs, ‘Iron Dome’ interceptors and munitions.

Elias Yousif, a research analyst at the Stimson Center, said greater transparency is essential, “especially as human rights organizations look to assess the conduct of hostilities.”

“To date, US government reporting on arms transfers to ‘Israel’ has been sporadic and without any meaningful detail,” Yousif concluded in a recent report.

A White House official said that while the Biden administration has not released as much information on ‘Israel’ weapons transfers to the public, it has fully briefed lawmakers in private.

“We will continue to stay closely engaged with members of Congress on this,” said the White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.

That’s not acceptable, said Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), noting that weapons transfers to Ukraine are made public, even though Kiev is facing a more daunting adversary in Russia, “a regional superpower with a much more powerful military.”

“This is particularly concerning, given the wanton killing of civilians, and constant reports of war crimes and human rights abuses, likely using US weapons,” she said.

The Biden administration has acknowledged the profound increase in civilian deaths in Gaza and has said it is asking ‘Israel’ “tough questions” related to its conduct in the war, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a recent news briefing. Other officials say those questions cover a range of military matters, including where ‘Israel’ has conducted missile strikes, such as the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp, where at least 50 people were killed last month in an ‘Israeli’ strike.

‘Israel’ said it had targeted and killed a senior Hamas official, Ibrahim Biari, while Hamas denied that any senior commanders were at the camp.