As the United States engages in negotiations for an extended pause in Gaza alongside its regional allies, the U.S. government is concurrently expanding its military support to Israel. The White House has formally requested the removal of restrictions on all categories of weapons and ammunition, granting the Netanyahu government access to U.S. weapons stockpiles located in Israel.
This initiative to lift restrictions was incorporated into the White House’s supplemental budget request sent to the Senate on October 20th. The proposal aims to permit the transfer of all categories of Defense articles from the U.S. weapons stockpiles in Israel, established by the Pentagon for deployment in regional conflicts. This war reserve stockpile in Israel stands as the largest node within the network of U.S. weapons caches, conceived in the 1980s to address potential regional crises. Due to security considerations, it is highly regulated.
The stipulations for utilizing this stockpile involve allowing Israel to draw on it and purchase weapons at minimal cost, effectively leveraging the U.S. military aid subsidy. The U.S. government is normally constrained to spending $200 million per fiscal year for restocking stockpiles globally, with the total cap for all U.S. stockpiles worldwide set at around half of this amount. The White House’s request seeks to waive this limit specifically for the U.S. contributions to the stockpile in Israel, enabling its utilization and subsequent replenishment.
