Republicans Ask End to Biden-Harris “Partial Arms Embargo Against Israel”

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The weaker the executive branch leadership, the greater the role of Congress in national security matters.

It’s quite a letter out today to President Biden from Senate Republicans—Tom Cotton, Tim Scott, and 46 of their colleagues:

We write once again to protest your administration’s partial arms embargo against Israel. The actions of the Biden-Harris administration run counter to our long history of robust military cooperation with Israel and cast doubt upon the reliability of the United States as a long-term security partner. Your actions also violate the will of Congress as expressed in the recent supplemental that funded emergency military support to Israel.

When Prime Minister Netanyahu publicly raised the weapons hold in June, your administration adamantly denied the accusation. You ignored Congressional inquiries, including a May 6, 2024, letter from Senator Marshall, a May 6, 2024, letter from Senator Ernst, a May 14, 2024, letter from Senator Risch and a June 20, 2024, letter from Senator Cotton. All the while, you were deliberately delaying the delivery of weapons, ammunition, and equipment to Israel. These include 120 mm tank ammunition, 120 mm mortar ammunition, light tactical vehicles, air-to-air missiles, F-15s, F-35 engines, joint direct attack munition kits, 2,000 pound bombs, rifles, and guided missile systems….

Your stalling tactics are endangering our greatest ally in the Middle East and jeopardizing the lives of our American servicemembers stationed in the region. We urge you to use every available emergency authority to expedite the physical delivery of all weapons and ammunition to Israel that have been approved by Congress.

Your administration must stop accommodating Iran and its terrorist allies now.

Biden has acknowledged holding up the 2,000-pound bombs—eight of which Israel reportedly used to kill Hamas military leader Mohammad Deif. The other items are news. Israel is moving to start making some of the material itself domestically. The best way for Biden and Harris to blunt this as a political issue would be to expedite the arms deliveries, but they seem unwilling or unable to do that.