The State Department approved a multimillion-dollar sale to provide 13,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel amid its war against Hamas, bypassing congressional review that is typically required for arms sales to foreign nations.
Department officials notified Congress that they would be moving forward with the $106.5 million sale in a late-night announcement on Friday, justifying the decision by calling the current situation in Israel an “emergency” that “requires the immediate sale to the Government of Israel of the above defense articles and services in the national security interests of the United States.” The approval comes despite congressional committees not yet completing a separate review of a larger order made by Israel earlier this week.
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The completion of arms sales to foreign countries is generally required to receive congressional approval before being completed. However, the State Department invoked an emergency provision in the Arms Export Control Act which allows the sale to be expedited without input from lawmakers. Congress also has no power to stop the sale once the process is triggered.
The sale marks the first time the State Department has invoked the emergency provision to ship ammunition or weapons to the Middle East since May 2019, when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unilaterally approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That decision was widely criticized by lawmakers as well as some officials at the State Department.
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However, the emergency provision has been invoked several times over the last two years to approve arms sales to Ukraine as part of its defense against Russia, which launched its invasion in February 2022. Those sales have not been widely criticized by lawmakers as several Congress members on both sides of the aisle have been largely supportive of assisting the Ukrainian military.
The latest decision could spark some disapproval among lawmakers, though, as there has been a growing sense of criticism about the way Israel is carrying out its offensive attacks — with several Democrats even going so far as to call for a ceasefire in the war-torn country and criticizing the Biden administration for supplying weapons to Israel.
