President Joe Biden is moving to permanently lift nearly all safeguards on weapons transfers to Israel in a request that would essentially create a “free-flowing pipeline” of weapons to the country as it massacres Palestinians at a rate that is nearly unprecedented in modern times.
The White House request pertains to a stockpile of weapons that the U.S. holds in Israel that Israel is normally allowed to use under specific and limited circumstances, known as the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel (WRSA-I). WRSA-I is used by the U.S. as a stockpile of weapons for use in conflicts in the Middle East and beyond and is the largest of several global stockpiles maintained by the U.S.
As The Intercept reports, the White House has requested that nearly all restrictions on the use of the stockpile be lifted for Israel, ensuring that Israel has access to an even larger cache of weapons than it already has. This is on top of the deluge of weapons that the U.S. has already sent to Israel in recent weeks and years, including a supply of Hellfire missiles made by Lockheed Martin that have been used in Israel’s recent genocidal assault on Gaza, according to a leaked list obtained by Bloomberg earlier this month.
The restrictions that officials are seeking to nix, The Intercept found, include waiving the $200 million annual spending cap used to replenish the stockpile through 2024 — meaning that the weapons would flow, nearly unlimited, to Israel through the stockpile. Other requests include removing restrictions on excess or surplus weapons and on certain other weapons.
The White House sought these changes in its supplementary budget request sent to Congress on October 20 — in which Biden officials also requested for such weapon deals to be done without congressional or public oversight. Legislation containing these requests has passed the House and is awaiting approval by the Senate.
Former State Department official Josh Paul, who worked on U.S. arms transfers before resigning due to the U.S.’s recent policies regarding Israel’s genocide in Gaza, told The Intercept that lifting these restrictions would give Israel extraordinary access to U.S. weapons.
Biden’s budget request, Paul said, “would essentially create 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.”
Other experts agreed. “If enacted, the amendments would create a two-step around restrictions on U.S. weapons transfers to Israel,” John Ramming Chappell, a legal fellow for the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept.
These requests come as Israel’s assault is killing Palestinians in Gaza at a pace not seen in this century, experts have said, as Israel uses weapons on densely populated civilian areas that are typically deemed too destructive or heavy for urban areas. So far, Israeli forces have killed at least 15,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including at least 6,150 children.
Bombs and artillery are not the only weapons that Israel is using against Palestinians in Gaza; Israel has also launched a horrific assault on Palestinians’ ability to meet their basic human needs by blockading water, food, power and medical supplies from the region. And Israel’s assault on hospitals and other medical centers is creating bioweapons of sorts as the World Health Organization has warned that more people will die from disease than from bombings if the health and sanitation systems in Gaza aren’t repaired.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 182 new monthly donors in the next 24 hours.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy