United States: The White House has moved to permanently lift nearly all restrictions on Tel Aviv’s use of US stockpiles of weapons in Israel. The move is aimed at enabling a smoother weapons pipeline to Israel, which has paused weeks of its devastating bombing of the Gaza Strip.
The White House asked the United States Senate to scrap the restrictions in its latest supplementary budget request on October 20. If granted, the move would allow Israel to access more high-powered US weapons at a reduced cost with less congressional oversight.
The request calls for changes to policies governing the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), an Israel-based US weapons stockpile that has smart bombs, missiles, and military vehicles, as well as other ammunition and equipment.
Established in the 1980s, the stockpile provides the Pentagon with strong weapons that can be utilized in the case of regional conflicts. Israel, the US’s principal ally in the Middle East, has also been able to receive some weapons from the reserve in emergency cases and buy them at a reduced cost. However, it has been able to access only certain classes of weapons classified as “obsolete or surplus.”
The White House’s new move would eliminate these conditions, enabling the US to transfer all “defense articles” from its stockpile to Israel. The US already sends more military aid to Israel than any other country, which is worth $3.8 billion per year.
Since Israel’s military assault on Gaza on October 7, the US has increased its aid, with the House of Representatives approving a $14.3 billion emergency military aid package to Israel.
However, according to reports, the US public’s support for military aid to Israel is declining amid the Gaza war, in which Israeli attacks have killed nearly 15,000 Palestinians, including 6,000 children.
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