US President Donald Trump has approved the transfer of 40,000 one-ton bombs to Israel in a $2.8 billion deal, the New York Times revealed on 15 September.
The State Department recently sent the proposal to two congressional committees for informal approval, the official said, but has not formally notified Congress and would not confirm or comment on the arms transfer, citing its policy on unnotified deals.
New York Representative Gregory Meeks, the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, put a hold on the transfer a day after the reports emerged.
He stated that the administration had not given “sufficient assurances” on civilian protection, and cited “grave, unresolved concerns about how these munitions could be used in densely populated areas of Gaza and Lebanon.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) welcomed the hold but urged Congress to block the transfer permanently, saying “no reasonable person can claim ignorance about how the racist, openly genocidal Netanyahu government would use these weapons.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio could still push the deal through using emergency powers, as he has repeatedly done. Congress could then block it only by passing resolutions in both chambers with two-thirds majorities to survive a presidential veto.
The Washington Post, which first reported the plan, called it the largest single transfer of 2,000-pound bombs in recent years.
The package includes 20,000 MK-84s, 20,000 BLU-117s, and 20,000 I-2000 penetrator warheads. The MK-84 is a 2,000-pound-class general-purpose bomb that can be dropped unguided or fitted with guidance kits such as JDAM.
Though labeled a “sale,” the deal would be paid for with US taxpayer money through Foreign Military Financing (FMF), under which Washington supplies the cash that Israel spends on US-made munitions and military equipment.
PERCEPTION RESET 