Report: US halted transfer of Hellfire missiles to Israel

[azurnoir]

While the White House had no qualms about supplying Israel with the defensive, non-lethal Iron Dome interceptors, the Journal reports Israel took another route to secure $3 million worth of lethal munitions, including 120-mm mortar shells and 40-mm illuminating rounds.

After the shipment of the 120-mm and 40-mm rounds caught the White House by surprise, the Pentagon was instructed to put another arms shipment to Israel - a large number of Hellfire missiles - on halt and the administraction instructed all of its defense agencies to consult with the White House and State Department before approving any additional arms requests from Israel, the Journal reported.

Meanwhile Israeli officials view the Obama administration as "weak and naive" and are working to bypass the White House, working with allies in Congress and elsewhere in the US administration instead.

The Israeli officials told the Journal Netanyahu isn't worried about the tensions with the Obama administration and that he believews he can simply "wait out" Obama's term, while relying on the strong support for Israel in Congress until then.

Netanyahu is said to have used his influence in the Pentagon, Congress and lobby groups in Washington to defuse the US administration's pressure on Israel during the Gaza operation.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4558615,00.html

[azurnoir]

1. Israeli official confirms US nixed arms sale; PM blamed for icy ties

A senior Israeli official confirmed to Israeli media that the US had suspended a shipment of Hellfire missiles to Israel amid worsening ties over fighting in Gaza.

The decision to hold off on the transfer was most likely on grounds of increased diplomatic tension, the official said, corroborating a Wall Street Journal report earlier in the day that claimed the White House and State Department had been angered by a transfer of arms to Israel and had ordered greater oversight into future sales.

The report claimed that US-Israeli tensions are at a record high, with US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said to hold a “particularly combative phone call on Wednesday” and officials on both sides resorting to name-calling.


http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-official-confirms-us-nixed-missile-sale-pm-blamed-for-soured-ties/#ixzz3AN9r3JmK

[bemildred]

2. Tsk. Can this marriage be saved? nt

[shaayecanaan]

3. Seems quite remarkable

that he was able to get arms shipments by going directly to the Pentagon. At least thats what Haaretz was reporting. Not many allies can do that.

[bemildred]

4. Not remarkable to me.

What is remarkable to me is that the White House has tried to put a stop to it, with what success we shall soon see. Fast and loose has been the norm when it comes to the Pentagon and the IDF, at least since Bush the Lesser was selected President.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. Since our esteemed electeds don't have the balls...

this nation (the USA) needs to have an open dialog, on air/TV, WRT Israel, its colonization of the Palestinian terriories, Israeli apartheid and the USA blindly... willfully funding them as they murder children; in and out if Gaza.

This dialog needs to leave the internets where the kings and queens of hasbara throw old tired accusations of bigotry and anti-Semitism around whenever a rational dialog of Israeli occupation/colonization takes place.

We should discuss this as a nation and frame ut as a democracies duty not to fuck with the people of the world, through our vassal states, just because we have the biggest war toys.

I would love to see Israel and their lobbies kicked out of America until they stop acting like the aggressive militaristic aholes they have become.