President Biden is mulling his first new major arms sales to Israel since the unprecedented Iranian missile and drone attack which targeted the country last Saturday.
Though the world just narrowly avoided witnessing a major regional war explode with Thursday night's Israeli 'limited' retaliation on the Islamic Republic, the White House apparently thinks the 'answer' is to pump Israel with yet more and more weapons and ammo, to the tune of $1+ billion.
"The Biden administration is considering more than $1 billion in new weapons deals for Israel including tank ammunition, military vehicles and mortar rounds, U.S. officials said, at a time of heightened scrutiny of the use of American-made weapons in the war in Gaza," Wall Street Journal reports Friday.
"The proposed weapons transfers—which would be in addition to those in a military aid deal currently before the Congress—would be among the largest to Israel since it invaded Gaza in response to Hamas’s attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7," the report continues.
This also comes while the administration has been talking out of both sides of its mouth - on the one hand condemning the immense civilian death toll in Gaza, and on the other vowing to remain firm in its "ironclad commitment" to Israel's defense.
The US administration has time and again said it has been urging Israel against escalating with Iran. The White House has also said it did not "greenlight" Israel's Thursday overnight attack, which reportedly targeted radar sites in Isfahan, which is home to a key Iranian nuclear facility.
As for the Gaza operation, Biden has still sought to press Israel to hold off on a Rafah ground offensive. And yet, the IDF is more ensconced in the Gaza Strip than ever. There are new reports of an Israeli military base being established in the heart of Gaza.
"Satellite images and photographs shared on social media show extensive development and construction at two outposts the Israel Defense Forces is building on the strategic road that divides the Gaza Strip into two," reports Haaretz.
"The army calls the construction of these outposts in what it calls the 'Netzarim Corridor' as a long-term achievement. The whole corridor is referred to as something that is here to stay," the report indicates.
