CNN
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The State Department announced $7 billion in arms sales to Israel on Friday, circumventing the Congressional review process, according to Rep. Gregory Meeks, a leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The announcement, which includes thousands of Hellfire missiles and bombs, comes days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met President Donald Trump and other top management officials in Washington, D.C. Netanyahu was the first foreign leader to meet Trump at the White House in his second term.
During the standard parliamentary review process, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee are informed of arms sales and are given time to raise concerns and question them. But even with questions from Meeks, the administration has pushed sales forward.
“The move is “another denial of just and legal surveillance privileges” by Congressional Donald Trump, Meeks said in a statement Friday. “In addition, (Secretary of State Marco) Rubio has failed to provide appropriate justification or documentation to bypass the parliamentary committee’s review process.”
Congressional aides said they were “shocked, but not surprising” by the move from the Trump administration. The aide pointed out that Trump rapidly dismantled USAID, another indication that the White House ignored Congressional oversight and authority.
The billion-dollar foreign military sales were the first arms sales to Israel under the Trump administration, but Israel received billions of arms sales from the US under the previous White House.
Last summer, the Biden administration approved a massive $20 billion weapons sale to Israel. This included over 50 F-15 fighter jets.
On Tuesday, Trump falsely claimed that he had ended the “de facto arms embargo” on Israel from the Biden administration. The reality is that former President Joe Biden last year, regarding one shipment of a 2,000-pound bomb against the potential use of their potential use by Israeli forces in Palestinian civilians at risk in Gaza. It’s become easier.
The White House was working to sell another $1 billion to Israel even after the Biden administration suspended shipping of the £2,000 bomb.
Josh Paul, who resigned from the State Department over Biden’s Gaza policies in 2023, said he “essentially gave the middle finger to those members and the oversight of Congress.”
“This week, in light of President Trump’s comments, he talked about Gaza being a hell and a demolition site, so these are the weapons that made it a hell and a demolition site,” he said, adding a new policy. Paul, who founded it, said. It advocates for changes to US policies regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
