Israel reportedly bypassed the White House and asked the US Congress for an extra $317 million to be added to President Barack Obama’s budget for the next fiscal year in order to fund Israeli missile defense programs, Bloomberg reported.
The requested funds
would be in addition to the $158 million already proposed by the
Pentagon for Israel’s security needs for the fiscal year that
will begin on October 1. The new allocation will allegedly
finance the ‘David’s Sling’ and ‘Arrow-3’ programs – designed to
intercept medium- to long-range missiles – as well as provide an
anti-ballistic missile system.
According to Bloomberg’s report on Friday, the director of Israel’s
missile defense organization Yair Ramati “visited lawmakers
and aides to the congressional defense committees on February 2
and 3 to outline the case for more money and thank them for past
assistance.”
Ramati completely bypassed the White House and the Pentagon. The
report links the move to the tense relationship between the Obama
administration and the Israeli government ahead of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on March 3, which is
likely to stress that the White House is pursuing a “bad
deal” by negotiating to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
READ MORE: ‘Cherry-picked leaks’: US accuses
Israel of distorting Iran nuclear talks details
The report revealed that Ramati’s proposal included $250 million
to start production of the David’s Sling system, in addition to
Obama’s $37 million request for development. Another $35 million
Ramati requested for the initial production of Arrow 3, in
addition to the $55.7 million the US administration is seeking
for development.
During his visit to Capitol Hill, Ramati “distributed
one-page sheets naming US contractors that would benefit from
production funds for each of the missile defense systems.”
According to Bloomberg’s information, the list included
Chicago-based Boeing Co.; Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon
Co.; Arlington, Virginia-based Orbital ATK Inc.; and Falls
Church, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman Corp.
When contacted by Bloomberg, the Israeli embassy in the US
declined to comment on the report.
The US already provides Israel with $3.1 billion a year as
“foreign military financing,” which excludes other
missile defense funds, according to the report.
For the current fiscal year, Congress has reportedly provided
$620 million, including about $347 million for missile defense
programs. US Congress has appropriated more than $1.2 billion
since 2011 for the Iron Dome, which is designed to intercept and
destroy rockets.
In light of the large amounts of distributed funds, US lawmakers
have been insisting that Israel use American-based defense
contractors when spending the received money.
Last year, the Israeli government agreed to spend more than half
the funds provided by the Pentagon for the Iron Dome in the US by
this year. Until recently, the missile system was been built
solely in Israel by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.
Iran nuclear talks have created a significant rift between Israel
and the US. Last week, the White House and State Department
stated that Israel inaccurately provided information and twisted
the official US position in nuclear talks with Iran, and accused
Tel Aviv of “selectively” leaking details of sensitive talks.
Washington has also voiced suspicion that Netanyahu’s office
directly provided Israeli journalists with the leaked
information, including an alleged offer to Iran to keep 6,500
centrifuges for uranium enrichment. A White House spokesman
expressed frustration with the “cherry-picked” information
released by the Israelis out of context.