The Biden administration has been steadfast in its support of Israel’s war effort against Hamas. Responding just three days after the brutal October 7th attack, President Joe Biden announced that “we’re surging additional military assistance [to Israel], including ammunition and interceptors to replenish Iron Dome,” Israel’s missile defense system. He added that “we’re going to make sure that Israel does not run out of these critical assets.”
Over the following days, Biden provided Israel with billions of dollars’ worth of American stocks. He even risked his personal security by visiting Israel on October 16 and, in a nationally televised speech on October 20, announced his request for a $50 billion supplemental funding package. The supplemental would include $10.6 billon to replenish the stocks that America was supplying to the Israel Defense Forces, in order, as he put it, “to support Israel in its time of need.” The request also included $3.7 billion allocated to the State Department for military financing and embassy support.
Within 10 days, House Republicans unveiled their own bill to support Israel. The funds in that bill virtually matched those that the administration put forward. The House GOP proposal was for a stand-alone bill that didn’t contain other elements of the administration’s proposal, which included funds to support Ukraine’s own defense needs and to strengthen American deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. Moreover, the House Republican bill incorporated offsets by reducing funding for the Internal Revenue Service. Not surprisingly, Biden threatened to veto the bill were it to pass the Congress.
Nevertheless, it is clear that, one way or another, Israel stands to receive billions of American dollars, over and above the $3.8 billion that it receives annually under a September 2016 agreement between Washington and Jerusalem.
Given this massive American commitment to Israel’s urgent defense and security needs, it is shocking that the Netanyahu government’s just released emergency war budget is not limited to critical wartime needs. Bezalel Smotrich, the extreme far-right Finance Minister, successfully won Prime Minister Netanyahu’s support for an amended 2023 budget that is not limited to the $4.5 billon that the government would divert from other programs in order to fund pressing defense needs and the over $3.6 billion to support civilian wartime needs.
Instead, it also adds $81 million for the ultra-Orthodox private school system, and $105 million to improve security for West Bank settlers. These additional funds had been planned for distribution in Smotrich’s original 2023 budget, but had been put on hold after the October 7 massacre.
Five cabinet ministers voted against Smotrich’s budget plan, including Gen. Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel’s national unity government and of the country’s war cabinet. Their opposition was to no avail, as Netanyahu controls a majority of both the 38-minister cabinet and the Knesset legislature.
Money is fungible. In effect, America’s generosity toward Israel in its time of need — which Biden has so forcefully articulated, even in the face of increasing opposition from members of his own party — is being diverted to meet the political demands of Netanyahu’s extremist coalition partners. There is no better word to describe Jerusalem’s behavior other than as the height of chutzpah.
Washington should not stand for these cynical political shenanigans. It is long past time for Netanyahu to fire Smotrich and the other extremists in his government. They are undermining Israel’s credibility not only in the U.S., nor indeed in the Middle East, but throughout the world.
Netanyahu is unlikely to jeopardize his coalition by firing his extremist ministers. That, however, should not deter the White House from responding forcefully to Jerusalem’s budgetary sleight-of-hand.
The administration should demand that all U.S. emergency funding for Israel be directed solely at its wartime needs, and none should indirectly fund the political machinations of the Netanyahu government. To that end, the Biden administration should make it clear that the U.S. would reduce on a dollar-for-dollar basis all funds that Smotrich would expend to meet the demands of the ultra-Orthodox and the settlers.
America’s emergency funding for Israel has yet to win congressional approval. The administration can therefore amend its supplemental request to the tune of Smotrich’s planned non-defense expenditures without backing away from its 10-year, $38 billion commitment to Israel’s long-term defense.
If ever there was a time for Washington to take a tough line on how Israel disburses the funds America has so generously provided it for decades, the time is now.
Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.
Biden must draw the line at Israel’s cynical budget
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01.12.2023
The Biden administration has been steadfast in its support of Israel’s war effort against Hamas. Responding just three days after the brutal October 7th attack, President Joe Biden announced that “we’re surging additional military assistance [to Israel], including ammunition and interceptors to replenish Iron Dome,” Israel’s missile defense system. He added that “we’re going to make sure that Israel does not run out of these critical assets.”
Over the following days, Biden provided Israel with billions of dollars’ worth of American stocks. He even risked his personal security by visiting Israel on October 16 and, in a nationally televised speech on October 20, announced his request for a $50 billion supplemental funding package. The supplemental would include $10.6 billon to replenish the stocks that America was supplying to the Israel Defense Forces, in order, as he put it, “to support Israel in its time of need.” The request also included $3.7 billion allocated to the State Department for military financing and embassy support.
Within 10 days, House Republicans unveiled their own bill to support Israel. The funds in that bill virtually matched those that the administration put forward. The House GOP proposal was for a stand-alone bill that didn’t contain other........
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