The Trump administration is moving forward with a massive arms package for Israel valued at close to $6 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
According to the report, the deal would be financed using U.S. foreign military assistance and includes $3.8 billion for 30 AH-64 Apache helicopters, nearly doubling the number Israel already has in its fleet.
The documents reviewed by the Journal also show an additional $1.9 billion request for 3,250 infantry fighting vehicles for the IDF.
Deliveries of the equipment are not anticipated for at least another two to three years.
As part of the process, the State Department has asked the four senior lawmakers who chair and rank on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to sign off. Their approval is usually required before a larger notification is sent to Congress on such major arms deals.
The Journal noted that these sales were originally transmitted to congressional leaders nearly a month ago, before Israel’s September 9 strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar. Despite the blowback that strike generated and President Trump’s anger over the action in a Gulf ally, the administration has pressed ahead with its request.
Neither the White House, Israel’s defense ministry, nor the State Department offered any comment when asked.
Since Trump entered office, Washington has significantly stepped up arms transfers to Israel. This follows the Biden administration’s rush of weapons shipments to Israel after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, in which about 1,200 people were murdered in southern Israel and 251 were taken hostage.
In 2024, Joe Biden temporarily blocked deliveries of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs amid friction with Yerushalayim over a planned Rafah operation.
That decision was later reversed—Biden allowed the 500-pound bombs to go through, and once in office, President Trump lifted the suspension on the 2,000-pound bombs.
{Matzav.com}
