An Israeli F-15 fighter jet takes off during an air show at the graduation ceremony of Israeli air force pilots at the Hatzerim base in the Negev desert, on June 27, 2013 (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP/File photo)
Two key Democrats in the U.S. Congress agreed to a major arms sale to Israel, including fifty F-15 fighter jets valued at over $18 billion, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing three unnamed U.S. officials.
Representative Gregory Meeks (NY-D) and Senator Benjamin Cardin (MD-D) agreed to the deal on Monday after holding up the sale of arms for months as a result of pressure from the Biden administration and pro-Israel groups
Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Cardin, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are two of four lawmakers who have an effective veto over foreign military sales. Their Republican counterparts signed off on the sale months ago.
The two politicians held up the agreement until they received assurances from the Biden administration about how the jets and weapons would be used in Gaza, where over 37,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began following Hamas’s unprecedented Oct. 7 attack.
Eric Harris, communications director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Post, “Any issues or concerns Chair Cardin had were addressed through our ongoing consultations with the [Biden] administration, and that’s why he felt it appropriate to allow this case to move forward.”
Meeks also told the Post that he had been in close communications with the White House and urged them to pressure Israel to increase humanitarian efforts and minimize civilian casualties. He reported that the F-15s would not be delivered until “years from now.”
However, the arms deal also includes air-to-air missiles and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits which equip unguided bombs with precision guidance. If approved, the transaction would be one of the largest arms sales to Israel since the war began in October.
The Biden administration is also considering unpausing the delivery of a shipment of 1,800 2,000-pound (around 900-kilogram) bombs as well as 1,700 500-pound (226-kilogram) bombs, officials close to the matter told the Post, even though U.S. weapons, including these bombs, have been linked to previous mass-casualty events throughout Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The shipment was paused in May due to U.S. concerns over potential civilian casualties in Rafah in the face of an Israeli offensive in the enclave’s southernmost region.