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U.S. House Okays Funding Boost for Israel's Missile Defense

(Times of Israel) Rebecca Shimoni Stoil - Under the shadow of a presidential veto threat, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense appropriations measure Thursday that included $635.7 million for Israel's missile defense programs, an amount that exceeded the Obama administration's request by over $400 million. The House also included $42.7 million for U.S.-Israel anti-tunnel cooperation. On Thursday, leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called the Obama administration's rejection of the spending increase for Israel "very troubling" and "a disturbing departure from the prior practice of this and previous administrations." Conference of Presidents Chairman Stephen M. Greenberg and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, asserted that "in a time of escalating threats to Israel from the arsenal of more 150,000 missiles and rockets supplied by Iran and stockpiled by Hizbullah, including sophisticated precision guided weapons capable of targeting hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians in major population areas in Israel; the belligerent threats to Israel posed by Iran's ongoing development and testing of its long-range missiles in blatant violation of internationally imposed restrictions; and the ever-present peril of renewed rocket and missile attacks on Israel from Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza, the decision by the Obama Administration to oppose the overwhelming bipartisan Congressional support for increasing Israel's ability to defend its people is very troubling."
2016-06-17 00:00:00
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