Congress has placed a hold on a $1 billion arms sale package for Israel that was readied alongside President Trump welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington on Tuesday.
Two congressional aides told The Hill on Tuesday that a hold has been placed on the arms sale package.
President Trump to host Israeli PM at the White House
The four top lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have the power to individually block arms sales orders when over a certain dollar amount.
Netanyahu is the first foreign leader to visit Trump since he returned to the White House, generally a recognition of the importance of the relationship. A hold on arms sales to Israel signals a major flouting of convention, where U.S. military support for Israel is viewed as an investment in American national security.
The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, reported that the $1 billion arms sale package includes 4,700 1,000-pound bombs, worth more than $700 million, as well as armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar, worth more than $300 million.
The hold comes as Democrats have seethed over Trump’s actions a little over two weeks into his presidency. They pushed back on an initial federal aid freeze; are condemning a halt on U.S. foreign assistance; raising alarm over the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); and opposing the president’s threats of tariffs on America’s neighbors Mexico and Canada, to name a few of the high-profile conflicts.
But there are few options for Democrats to push back on Trump’s agenda absent Republican allies, given the GOP’s majorities in the House and Senate. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) have announced they will delay and stall Trump’s State Department nominees until the administration retreats on its efforts to break up USAID.
Trump could try to override the Israeli arms sale hold. In 2019, he issued an emergency declaration to push through more than $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan without congressional approval. The Republican-controlled Senate at the time voted to block the sale.
Arms sales to Israel are historically bipartisan, even as Democrats have increasingly raised alarm over Israel’s war conduct in the Gaza Strip and Netanyahu’s policies toward Palestinians.
Amid Israel’s war against Hamas in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, an estimated half of the nearly 47,000 Palestinian casualties are women, children and the elderly. Nearly all of the 2 million Gaza residents require humanitarian assistance, and 90 percent are displaced among widespread destruction.
Still, Democrats in positions of power did not stand in the way of President Biden sending weapons to Israel or green-lighting arms sales. In June, Biden moved forward on a $18 billion arms sale to Israel.
Netanyahu will meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday and is expected to visit Capitol Hill and meet with lawmakers on Wednesday.
The U.S. provides about $38 billion to Israel as part of a 10-year memorandum of understanding (MOU). That amounts to $3.3 billion in foreign military financing — generally a credit for Israel to purchase weapons systems in the U.S., and $500 million for missile defense programs annually. The MOU runs through fiscal 2028 and will need to be renewed in 2029.
