President-elect Donald Trump promised Thursday to end all restrictions and delays on arms deliveries to Israel on his first day in office, according to Amit Segal, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 12 News and Yedioth Ahronot newspaper.
Trump's first promise to Israel: On the first day of my term, I will cancel all restrictions and delays on the transfer of armaments and combat equipment
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) November 14, 2024
The Biden-Harris administration withheld precision bombs from Israel in May in response to Israel’s decision to enter Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, against the White House’s explicit demands. Israel ultimately secured Gaza’s border with Egypt and killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who had been attempting to escape through Rafah.
Though the administration later released those weapons, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) alleged that the administration was delaying the delivery of weapons that had already been approved by Congress by failing to submit the proper notifications. Breitbart News had reported already in March that Israeli military officers believed that the U.S. was quietly withholding weapons to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a softer approach to defeating Hamas.
Without precision bombs, Israel was required to send soldiers into buildings in Gaza where Palestinian terrorists were believed to be hiding, risking the lives of those soldiers through battles or booby traps.
Precision and bunker-busting bombs have also been crucial in the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose leaders had built their headquarters and other facilities underground — not just near the border, but in the capital city of Beirut as well. Israel used such bunker-busting bombs to kill Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September.
At the same time that he has promised to allow Israel to win its wars, Trump has also insisted on ending those wars through diplomacy if possible, pursuing the same dual strategy that yielded the Abraham Accords in his first term.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
