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Washington said limiting arms transfers to Israel as ties fray | The Times of Israel
After months of worsening tensions, the US-Israeli diplomatic relationship has reached new lows, with the White House and State Department last month tightening the reins on arms transfers to Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, and blocking the delivery of a batch of Hellfire precision missiles.
It also reported on a “particularly combative phone call on Wednesday” between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said administration officials consider Netanyahu and his team reckless and untrustworthy, while the Israel leadership considers the administration weak and naive.
The decision to evaluate every request by the Israeli military separately, including halting the transfer of Hellfire missiles, came after the White House and State Department discovered last month that the Pentagon was supplying Jerusalem with arms without their knowledge, the newspaper report said.
While one US diplomat described the American reaction to the arms transfer as a feeling of being “blindsided,” another US defense official stressed the back channel transfers were legitimate and did not require a sign-off from President Barack Obama or the State Department.
“There was no intent to blindside anyone. The process for this transfer was followed precisely along the lines that it should have,” a US defense official told the paper.
After learning of these transfers, the Obama administration, perturbed that much of the ammunition was used by the IDF in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, revised the review process in a move that is likely to limit or at least delay Israel’s requests for weapons.
A transfer of a large batch of Hellfire missiles was subsequently put on hold by the Pentagon.
Increasing control of the weapons transferred to Israel is “the United States saying ‘The buck stops here. Wait a second…It’s not OK anymore,’” a senior US official said.
Earlier this week, Britain’s business secretary said London would halt some arms exports to Israel if fighting resumed in Gaza.
On July 23, the Pentagon approved a transfer of arms, including 120-mm mortar shells and 40-mm illuminating rounds after receiving a request three days earlier from Israel. As was customary until that point, the White House and State Department were not informed.
US-supplied shells were later used in a July 30 IDF strike on a UN school in Jabaliya that killed 16 people — an attack that drew unusually fierce criticism from the White House and State Department. Israel said it was responding to fire originating in the area.
“The shelling of a UN facility that is housing innocent civilians who are fleeing violence is totally unacceptable and totally indefensible,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at the time. The US also called for a full investigation of the incident, but stopped short of ascribing the blame on Israel.
Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, record tensions between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were reported.
US officials told The Wall Street Journal that a phone call between Obama and Netanyahu on Wednesday on the state of ceasefire negotiations in Cairo was “particularly combative,” as ties between the countries have soured over Gaza.
A US administration official noted the sorry state of diplomatic ties between the nations: “The United States is their strongest friend. The notion that they are playing the United States, or that they’re manipulating us publicly, completely miscalculates their place in the world.”
Numerous US officials say the Gaza violence “has persuaded them that Mr. Netanyahu and his national security team are both reckless and untrustworthy,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
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Stupid Israeli terrorists. When you lose on the battlefield you don't carpet bomb nieghborhoods and murder hundreds of civilians. You have been exposed to the world and even the US now is starting to realize how evil these Israelis are.
Of course Jewish employees in the Pentagon approved arms transfers to Israel without knowledge/apporval of White House/State Department. Kick these disloyal Jews who serve Israeli murderous interests out of our government. Good Job for once....
Hopefully the US keeps this path and it will gain a real constructive role in the world. It is this conflict that makes the US look bad in its foreign policy.
.........
After months of worsening tensions, the US-Israeli diplomatic relationship has reached new lows, with the White House and State Department last month tightening the reins on arms transfers to Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, and blocking the delivery of a batch of Hellfire precision missiles.
It also reported on a “particularly combative phone call on Wednesday” between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said administration officials consider Netanyahu and his team reckless and untrustworthy, while the Israel leadership considers the administration weak and naive.
The decision to evaluate every request by the Israeli military separately, including halting the transfer of Hellfire missiles, came after the White House and State Department discovered last month that the Pentagon was supplying Jerusalem with arms without their knowledge, the newspaper report said.
While one US diplomat described the American reaction to the arms transfer as a feeling of being “blindsided,” another US defense official stressed the back channel transfers were legitimate and did not require a sign-off from President Barack Obama or the State Department.
“There was no intent to blindside anyone. The process for this transfer was followed precisely along the lines that it should have,” a US defense official told the paper.
After learning of these transfers, the Obama administration, perturbed that much of the ammunition was used by the IDF in its offensive in the Gaza Strip, revised the review process in a move that is likely to limit or at least delay Israel’s requests for weapons.
A transfer of a large batch of Hellfire missiles was subsequently put on hold by the Pentagon.
Increasing control of the weapons transferred to Israel is “the United States saying ‘The buck stops here. Wait a second…It’s not OK anymore,’” a senior US official said.
Earlier this week, Britain’s business secretary said London would halt some arms exports to Israel if fighting resumed in Gaza.
On July 23, the Pentagon approved a transfer of arms, including 120-mm mortar shells and 40-mm illuminating rounds after receiving a request three days earlier from Israel. As was customary until that point, the White House and State Department were not informed.
US-supplied shells were later used in a July 30 IDF strike on a UN school in Jabaliya that killed 16 people — an attack that drew unusually fierce criticism from the White House and State Department. Israel said it was responding to fire originating in the area.
“The shelling of a UN facility that is housing innocent civilians who are fleeing violence is totally unacceptable and totally indefensible,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at the time. The US also called for a full investigation of the incident, but stopped short of ascribing the blame on Israel.
Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, record tensions between Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were reported.
US officials told The Wall Street Journal that a phone call between Obama and Netanyahu on Wednesday on the state of ceasefire negotiations in Cairo was “particularly combative,” as ties between the countries have soured over Gaza.
A US administration official noted the sorry state of diplomatic ties between the nations: “The United States is their strongest friend. The notion that they are playing the United States, or that they’re manipulating us publicly, completely miscalculates their place in the world.”
Numerous US officials say the Gaza violence “has persuaded them that Mr. Netanyahu and his national security team are both reckless and untrustworthy,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
...........................
Stupid Israeli terrorists. When you lose on the battlefield you don't carpet bomb nieghborhoods and murder hundreds of civilians. You have been exposed to the world and even the US now is starting to realize how evil these Israelis are.
Of course Jewish employees in the Pentagon approved arms transfers to Israel without knowledge/apporval of White House/State Department. Kick these disloyal Jews who serve Israeli murderous interests out of our government. Good Job for once....
Hopefully the US keeps this path and it will gain a real constructive role in the world. It is this conflict that makes the US look bad in its foreign policy.
.........
