WASHINGTON \u2014 Sen. Lindsey Graham is preparing a one-time $1.5 billion emergency funding bill to make a point that restrictions in the White House’s landmark aid deal to Israel was an overreach.
“Since the day he took office, President [Barack] Obama has provided Israel with all that it needs to defend itself in a very dangerous neighborhood,” Rice said. “This funding has permitted Israel to acquire the world\u2019s most advanced military capabilities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A follow-on to $24 billion in military aid over the past eight years, the deal provides $33 billion in foreign military financing and $5 billion for missile defense. The deal was also billed as allowing Israel to update the lion\u2019s share of its fighter aircraft, strengthen missile defense systems like Iron Dome and purchase more copies of America’s next-generation fighter jet, the\u00a0F-35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Graham\u2019s main objection is a letter he says Israeli officials signed promising to give back any money that Congress appropriates above the amount negotiated in the deal. Specifically,\u00a0Israel has committed to neither ask nor receive additional funding beyond the scope of the current MOU, meaning no more than $3.1 billion in foreign military financing (FMF) for FY2017 and FY2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The idea that the MOU is binding on us, I\u2019m going to fight violently,” Graham said. “It\u2019s not a treaty, and we\u2019re not a party to this. And the letter Israel apparently signed saying they would refund any money sent in \u201917 and \u201918 is frankly offensive, because what you\u2019ve done is you\u2019ve had a foreign government collude with the executive branch to neutralize the legislative branch. I\u2019m not going to stand for that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Graham said his bill will also renew the Iran Sanctions Act, the law that mandates many of the existing US sanctions on Iran\u2019s energy sector and which expires at the end of the year. The two are linked, he argued, because Israel was made less safe by the US nuclear deal with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I want our friends and allies to see that the more provocative Iran becomes, the more assistance we\u2019re going to give [to Israel],” Graham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Several Republicans and Democrats voiced support for Congress\u2019 ability to provide more than the MOU, among them Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Ranking Member Ben Cardin, D-Md. Both lauded the MOU and asserted Congress could adjust funding, but declined to comment on Graham’s bill until they had seen it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We can adjust these numbers, but it\u2019s usually done in consultation with the administration,” Cardin said. “You can\u2019t legally bind Congress.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“As much as I respect this president, I think he overstepped,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.\u00a0 “What we\u2019ve seen is when the administration asked for $300 million for Iron Dome, and Israel asked for $600 million, I approved $600 million. … That\u2019s my job.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Joe Donnelly, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, which oversees US missile defense programs, as well as US-Israel collaborative missile defense programs, including Iron Dome, David\u2019s Sling and Arrow, called the MOU “a major achievement.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“However, Israel is situated in one of the most unstable and threat-filled regions of the world, and we must maintain the flexibility to increase our support if security conditions warrant it,” said Donnelly, D-Ind. “I intend to work with my colleagues on a bipartisan basis to provide Israel the resources it needs to defend itself.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the rigidity could be considered\u00a0fiscally responsible, it is unprecedented, said Jim Moran, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia who served for many years on the House Appropriations Committee. Yet, Moran said, the limitations on Congress will be unenforceable because of Congress\u2019 constitutional prerogatives to declare war and control the government\u2019s purse strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“To plus up the amount of money available to Israel is always good politics, and sometimes its even good policy,” said Moran, now a defense lobbyist at the law firm McDermott Will & Emery in Washington. “I think [the Israelis] understand that if they ever want more money, they\u2019re going to get it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a briefing to reporters in Israel, the acting Israeli national security adviser, Jacob Nagel, said that with the exception of funds beyond the scope of the MOU for anti-tunnel technologies and cyber- and energy-related initiatives, Israel is obliged to return all congressionally appropriated funds that exceed the agreement\u2019s top lines. He did not definitively answer if Israel is bound to return appropriated funds beyond the new levels that start in FY19, which amounts to $3.3 billion in annual FMF from the State Department’s foreign operations account and $500 million in annual missile defense that comes from the Pentagon\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, despite the rigidity of the agreement\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which enhances the long-term budgeting and planning\u00a0capabilities of both nations\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Nagel said the two governments could negotiate at a later date possible\u00a0emergency increases in the event of war or unforeseen changes in Israeli requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alluded to this stipulation in July, following Graham\u2019s visit to Israel, when he essentially committed to abiding by budgetary top lines determined by mutual agreement with the Obama administration. In a Sept. 14 statement, Netanyahu hailed the “historic” agreement for ensuring “an unprecedented level of security assistance over the coming decade.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nagel said the agreement allows Israel to retain its ability to convert some 26 percent of its annual FMF aid into shekels for local research, development and procurement for the first five years of the MOU. However, starting in the sixth year, Israel will gradually wean itself off of this special aid\u00a0\u2014\u00a0known as offshore procurement \u2014\u00a0so\u00a0that\u00a0by the end of the agreement, all FMF funding will be spent in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not all of the sentiment among Israeli officials has been positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The day after the MOU was signed, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak lambasted Netanyahu in a Washington Post op-ed, claiming the prime minister\u2019s all-out opposition to the Iran deal, which included a fiery speech at the US Congress, led to a smaller-than-expected deal for Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The damage produced by Netanyahu\u2019s irresponsible management of the relations with the White House is now fully manifest,” Barak wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lawmakers view an assurance from Israel to reject more money from Congress as overstepping by the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":11,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[8,11,47,19,48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2818,3446,3378],"class_list":["post-24909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress","category-global","category-mideast-africa","category-pentagon","category-the-americas"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QD4P7C4KUBCZ5KGPVA4AYHKR5E","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/2016\/09\/16\/obama-lawmakers-at-odds-over-israel-aid-deal\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n