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Ten Years Ago, the U.S. Also Delayed Arms Deliveries to Israel during Gaza Fighting

(Jerusalem Post) Lenny Ben-David - In the summer of 2014, after volleys of Hamas rockets from Gaza and Hamas's kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, the Israeli air force struck back. Seven weeks of war ensued. The Wall Street Journal reported that "White House and State Department officials [led] U.S. efforts to rein in Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip." "Tensions really started to flare after Israel launched Gaza ground operations on July 17, 2014, and the civilian death toll started to rise sharply, prompting U.S. officials to complain that Israel wasn't showing enough restraint. Israeli officials rejected that notion, saying Hamas was using civilians as human shields." "On July 20, Israel's defense ministry asked the U.S. military for a range of munitions, including 120-mm mortar shells and 40-mm illuminating rounds, which were already kept stored at a pre-positioned weapons stockpile in Israel. According to Israeli and congressional officials, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency was about to release an initial batch of [precision helicopter-fired] Hellfire missiles. The Pentagon immediately put it on hold." "Top White House officials instructed...agencies to consult with policymakers at the White House and the State Department before approving any additional requests. The White House and State Department would require approval for even routine munitions requests by Israel, officials say. Instead of being handled as a military-to-military matter, each case was subject to review - slowing the approval process and signaling to Israel that military assistance, once taken for granted, [was] now under closer scrutiny." The writer, former Deputy Chief of Mission in Israel's Washington Embassy, is Director of the Institute for U.S.-Israel Relations at the Jerusalem Center for Foreign Affairs.
2024-06-27 00:00:00
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