Trump promises to cancel all restrictions of arms shipments to Israel
Trump declared, “On the first day of my term, I will cancel all restrictions and delays on the transfer of armaments and combat equipment,” Israeli political analyst Amit Segal reports.
Trump’s clear policy marks a change from The Biden Administration’s back and forth with Israel on arms shipment restrictions throughout the Gaza War.
Recently, the Biden Administration backed off from a threat of an arms embargo against Israel if the humanitarian situation in Gaza didn’t improve by a specific deadline.
On October 13th, senior American officials penned a memorandum to Israeli leaders setting out a request with a 30-day deadline, insisting that Jerusalem take steps to increase the flow of aid to the Gaza Strip, to reduce the use of mass evacuation orders in Gaza, and to reduce the isolation of the northern Gaza Strip, where IDF forces are currently operating to crush a Hamas insurgency.
On Tuesday, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that while Israel had not, in the administration’s determination, fulfilled all 15 of the demands issued in the October 13th memo, the U.S. has not “assessed that there that the Israelis are in violation of US law.”
Previously, the Biden administration had intimated that failure by Israel to comply with the memo would result in restrictions on arms transfers.
Patel cited a number of steps taken by the Israeli government since October 13th to conform with the Biden administration’s demands.
“Over the past 30 days, Israel has taken a number of steps to address the measures laid out in the letter that Secretaries Blinken and Austin sent earlier in October,” Patel said.
“We continue to be in discussion with our partners in Israel about these steps that they have taken, which they took as a result of U.S. intervention, as well as additional steps that we feel that still need to be taken.”
