The Biden administration, Qatar and assorted countries are trying to hammer out a hostage deal that would free thousands of Hamas terrorists and effectively end Israel’s war against the terror group. Since Israel isn’t thrilled about the idea, the Biden administration is looking to apply pressure by using weapons shipments. And that’s why foreign aid to Israel exists.
Our defense industry is financed with foreign aid in the form of weapons shipments so that D.C. can then control the countries that receive those shipments. And decide when they can fight and when they can’t.
The Biden administration is discussing using weaponry sales to Israel as leverage to convince the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to heed long-standing U.S. calls to scale back its military assault in the Gaza Strip, according to three current U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.
At the direction of the White House, the Pentagon has been reviewing what weaponry Israel has requested that could be used as leverage, said the sources. They said no decisions have been made.
Mind you, we’re not even talking about the larger weapons package that Biden announced after the attacks.
The Biden administration tied that package to a much bigger package for Ukraine and a border “deal” that’s in oblivion. This is more in the way of regular resupply.
But the way our defense foreign aid setup works is on the razor blade or printer cartridge model. You get the system for what seems like a good deal, but whenever you need ammo, you have to turn to D.C. Whether you buy it or not, D.C. gets to decide. That’s what Taiwan is dealing with right now. And so the deal turns out not to be a good deal after all.
Right now Biden wants Israel to wind down the war on Hamas. Slowing down resupply means Israel will have to slow down, stop or shift its own operations to depending even more on ground personnel which will cost the lives of more soldiers. And it’s dealing with the possibility that if war breaks out with Hezbollah or other Iran proxies, it will be dangerously undersupplied.
But at least Biden did send over $2 billion to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over.