Following progressive members of the US Congress, Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington during the Barack Obama administration, told The Times of Israel on Wednesday it was time to reconsider the military aid it received from the United States. Iron Dome was successful in removing funding from government spending bills.
“I think it’s very important that we begin the process of rethinking and restructuring our aid to the United States, the way America assists us militarily,” he said.
“It calls for soul-searching and serious long-term strategic thinking.”
Oren, a noted academic and author, said that military aid to Israel is increasingly being used by left-wing Democrats as a tool against Jerusalem, seen as a “strategic vulnerability” for Israel, whose There could be dangerous consequences for the Jewish state.
Israel’s leaders should consider whether what is seen as sensitive to pressure from US legislators is consistent with its attempt to project an image of a powerful, self-sufficient state that can defend itself.
“American aid has a cost, too,” he said.
The Iron Dome in action on May 13, 2021. (Avichai Socher/IDF)
Oren called for a “more cooperative” path to US aid to Israel: “For example, the US and Israel could create a joint cyber defense initiative. The United States would actually be strengthening its security.”
At the same time, he was not hopeful that there would be a major change in Israel’s approach to US aid, citing concerns about securing funding of the Israeli Defense Forces, and finding aid in its budget plans. .
“When progressives demand aid cuts, military leaders are thinking about how many bullets we can buy, how many jets we can buy, not a strategic message of Israel’s vulnerability,” he said.
It is up to Israel’s non-military leaders to lead the ideological change, Oren stressed.
the current Memorandum of understanding On military aid between the US and Israel, signed with the Obama administration in 2016, ends in 2028.
US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks to the press with House impeachment managers after the Senate voted to acquit former US President Donald Trump at the US Capitol on February 13, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Alex Edelman/AFP)
Oren also raised the possibility that withholding Iron Dome funding could be a breach of understanding between Israel and the US.
“America conditioned its aid on the Iron Dome” [on the condition] That we share the intellectual property of the system,” he explained. “We shared it with the US, and now there is a possibility that we will not get that support, so there is a potential breach of our deal with the US.”
Progressive Democrats successfully pressured the party on Tuesday remove $1 billion for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system from a bill to keep the US government funded.
Oren called the move “a shot all over, and a shot very well aimed.”
“During Obama’s period, progressives were much smaller and less powerful, and they were too afraid to take on Obama,” Oren said. “The Progressives are a lot more powerful, and they’re not afraid to take on Biden.”
The funds are expected to be widely accepted, but at a later date.
The clause approving $1 billion to restore Israel’s Iron Dome interceptor — vital to protecting Israel’s cities from rocket attacks and which was decimated to some extent during May’s Gaza War — is in the US House of Representatives had caused a hangup in the U.S., as party leaders sought to pursue one. Bill to increase loan limit
In this July 15, 2019 file photo, (from left) Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-MA, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-MN, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D- MI, answers during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
Oren also noted that Germany and South Korea receive far more aid packages than Israel, but that money is added as part of the US defense budget, not foreign military funding.
“It has to do with the way aid is budgeted,” he said.
Since 2011, the US Congress has provided Israel with more than $1.5 billion to produce the Iron Dome battery developed by Rafale Advanced Defense Systems. In August 2011, Raytheon and Rafale – which partnered with David Sling, a US-Israel cooperative missile defense development program – announced an agreement to allow Raytheon to market the Iron Dome in the US.
In 2014, the US and Israeli governments signed a co-production agreement to enable them to produce parts of the Iron Dome system in the US.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to pass a budgetary bill by September 30 to keep the government funded until early December. She needed everyone on deck for it to pass, and couldn’t afford to lose the Progressive vote because no Republican is willing to support it. Pelosi originally calculated that adding Iron Dome funding would be a way to woo Republicans, but that didn’t ship.
A member of Congress told The Times of Israel that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Betty McCollum pushed Pelosi to remove Iron Dome funding from the spending bill and succeeded through mediation by Congresswoman Rosa Delaro. managed to be
Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayana Pressley and Pramila Jayapal also threatened to vote against the bill if the Iron Dome funding was included, a Congress colleague said.
New York Representative Jamal Bowman told Bloomberg that the problem was that the Iron Dome provision was added at the last minute, and there was no proper discussion.
Bowman said, “It’s not about Israel, it’s once again about leadership, throwing something on our desk at the last minute and in five minutes we have to decide what to do with this big problem.” Is.”
Jacob Magid and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.