Biden moves to lift all restrictions on Israeli access to US weapons
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The changes restrict congressional supervision of US arms transfers by shortening the amount of advance notice provided to Congress before a weapons transfer.
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US President Joe Biden answers questions after a conference near the White House in Washington DC on March 31, 2022. (AFP)
The White House has demanded all limits on weapons and ammunition permissible to "Israel" from US stockpiles be lifted, a report by The Intercept revealed.
The lifting of limits was part of the White House's supplemental budget proposal, which was given to the Senate on October 20. "This request would allow for the transfer of all categories of defense articles," according to the suggested budget.
The billions of dollars the US has been providing the Israeli occupation with are clearly not enough for its genocidal actions, since the request is for unknown weapons depots in "Israel" that the Pentagon developed for use in regional crises.
John Ramming Chappell, a legal fellow with the Center for Civilians in Conflict, expressed that the amendments "would create a two-step around restrictions on U.S. weapons transfers to 'Israel'.”
Back in January 2022, US-based Breaking Defense military news outlet reported that Israeli military sources disclosed it has a list of weapons it plans to urge the US to add to its American emergency stockpile in "Israel" as a safeguard for possible future wars in the region.
Read more: UN rights chief urges probe into 'Israel's high-impact weapons'
According to a US Congressional Research Service report, the War Reserves Stock Allies stockpile, established in the 1980s, allows the US to "stockpile arms and equipment at Israeli bases for American use in wartime" and has included missiles, armored vehicles, and artillery ammunition. Later, the US changed the conditions for the stockpile, granting "Israel" immediate access "in emergency scenarios" and allowing weapons to be transferred through considerably expedited Foreign Military Sales procedures.
In the 2020 CRS report, an Israeli commander was cited as saying, "Officially, all this equipment belongs to the US military," unless there is a conflict, then the Israeli occupation forces "can ask permission to use some of the equipment," which occurred during the Israeli regime's massive military aggression against Lebanon in 2006 (2006 July War), and again during the regime's brutal war on the Gaza Strip in 2014.
With the WRSA-I, Biden seeks to remove all restrictions, including plans to eliminate restrictions on obsolete or surplus weapons, waive an annual spending cap on replenishing the stockpile, remove weapon-specific restrictions, and reduce congressional oversight.
According to Josh Paul, a former official in the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs who quit his post due to US arms deals with "Israel", lifting constraints on transfers to "Israel" could harm US objectives by reducing American preparedness in the region.
A free-flowing pipeline of weapons to 'Israel'
Paul remarked that since eliminating the cap of $200 million, restocking the WRSA-I would mean a "free-flowing pipeline to provide any defense articles to 'Israel' by the simple act of placing them in the WRSA-I stockpile, or other stockpiles intended for 'Israel'.”
The US now requires "Israel" to make specific concessions in exchange for some types of Pentagon weaponry support, but the White House plan would remove this requirement as well.
The changes also restrict congressional supervision of US arms transfers by shortening the amount of advance notice provided to Congress before a weapons transfer.
Current law requires 30 days' notice, but the changes according to Chappell, would make it "much harder for Congress or the public to monitor U.S. arms transfers to Israel," in a move that would "further undermine oversight and accountability even as U.S. support enables an Israeli campaign that has killed thousands of children."
Last month, the House enacted legislation mirroring the White House's request, and it is currently before the Senate.
William Hartung, an arms expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, explained that the package makes Congress' monitoring of US arms to "Israel" particularly difficult, "even as the Israeli government has engaged in massive attacks on civilians, some of which constitute war crimes.”
US constructed secret military base in 'Israel': The Intercept
Two months prior to the start of the Palestinian Resistance's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Pentagon granted a multi-million dollar contract for the construction of facilities for US troops at a confidential base located in al-Naqab Desert, known by the codename Site 512, The Intercept reported last month.
Site 512, previously termed a "cooperative security location," a label meant for low-cost, minimal presence bases, has been applied to facilities capable of housing up to 1,000 troops, the report indicated on Friday.
According to The Intercept, Site 512 was not created to address the threat posed by the Palestinian Resistance, but rather to counter the danger presented by Iranian mid-range missiles.
However, when thousands of the Palestinian Resistance rockets were launched on October 7 toward illegal Israeli settlements and occupied cities, Site 512 remained inactive because its primary focus was monitoring Iran, which is over 700 miles away, the report pointed out.
Despite President Joe Biden's denial of plans to deploy US troops as part of the ongoing confrontation between the Palestinian Resistance and the Israeli occupation, a covert US military presence is in place and expanding, as indicated by government documents, the report revealed.
