Following reports that the White House is opposed to additional aid to Israel approved by Congress for the development of anti-missile systems, the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday 9 Sivan issued the following statement.
“In the wake of numerous misleading reports, the Prime Minister’s bureau would like to clarify there has been no cut in American assistance. There is an internal debate between Congress and the White House on the size of the annual supplement to the missile defense program.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is working to anchor this supplement as part of the discussions on the assistance agreement for the next ten years.
“Not only will security assistance for missile defense not be cut, it will be increased.
“The attempt to turn the dialogue with the US into a domestic Israeli political tool is improper; expressions of panic are not warranted.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
When we first negotiated the joint US-Isreal Arrow missile defense program in 1986, we had intense negotiations with them on cost share. In the end they lost.
Nothing has changed. It all depends on negotiations and budget priorities. Politics has very little to do with it.
Shazam, in your comment who is ‘we’ and who is ‘they’?
We is the US Department of Defense (the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, to be more precise), of which I was a member as a consultant contractor.
They is the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MAFAT, to be more precise).