Rubio bypasses US Congress to send Israel $4 billion in arms

Washington: Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked "emergency authorities" to bypass Congress and send $4 billion in weapons to Israel, the second time in a month that the Trump administration has skirted the process of congressional approval for sending arms to the country.

Rubio did not explain in a statement announcing the decision Saturday why he was using an emergency authority. He said only that the Trump administration would "continue to use all available tools to fulfill America's long-standing commitment to Israel's security, including means to counter security threats."

State Department officials told the two congressional committees in the House and Senate that review foreign weapons sales about the emergency declaration on Friday. At least one congressional official privately expressed alarm at the bypassing of the review.

Several of the cases of munitions to be sent to Israel were undergoing review in Congress. But one large case worth about $2 billion had not been sent by the State Department to Congress for review, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly about sensitive weapons deals.

The Pentagon announced details of that sale to Israel on Friday. The announcement lists several possible mixes of bombs that would be delivered, including more than 35,000 2,000-pound bombs.

Israel has been dropping 2,000-pound bombs in Gaza, a densely populated strip of 2 million people that is about the size of Las Vegas. US military officers have said the bombs are unsuitable for urban combat.

President Joe Biden sent several orders of the bombs to Israel, then withheld one shipment last summer as Israel prepared to attack Rafah, a shelter point for many displaced Palestinians. Israel destroyed much of Rafah anyway, and the White House released the shipment days after President Donald Trump took office in late January.

Israel announced Sunday that it was halting all goods and humanitarian aid into Gaza in a pressure campaign to get Hamas to accept a temporary extension to a ceasefire that had just expired. Most of the aid is from groups and governments outside Israel, and some legal experts said Israel's halt violated international law.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the proposal for a ceasefire extension had been the idea of Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East. Hamas had insisted that Israel seriously take part in talks for a permanent truce during the just-expired ceasefire, which Israel did not do.

Hamas still holds dozens of Israeli hostages who were abducted in October 2023, when about 1,200 Israelis were killed in a Hamas-led assault in southern Israel. The Israeli military then attacked Gaza, killing nearly 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza Health Ministry estimates. Most of the people killed on both sides have been civilians.

Besides the case of bombs worth $2 billion, the other military equipment to be sent to Israel under the emergency authorization includes bulldozers, more bombs and GPS-guidance kits to be fitted onto unguided or "dumb" bombs.

The two relevant congressional committees -- the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- had been doing an informal review of the equipment. During that process, aides and lawmakers can ask the State Department questions about the orders before giving approval. The department usually expects the informal review process of arms for Israel to last no longer than 20 days.

In early February, the State Department bypassed the congressional informal review process to announce that it was sending $8 billion in arms to Israel that the Biden administration had approved.

The State Department under Biden, led by Antony Blinken, told the committees about that package in early January. Three of the four top Republican and Democratic officials on the committees approved the package during the normal 20-day informal review period. But one Democratic representative, Gregory Meeks of New York, wanted to continue the review, prompting the Trump administration to bypass full approval days after Trump and Netanyahu met in the White House.

The Saturday statement from Rubio claimed that the Trump administration had approved the $8 billion in arms to Israel, when in fact the package had originated with the Biden administration.

The statement also falsely asserted that Rubio's decision on the new $4 billion in weapons and equipment reversed a Biden administration "partial arms embargo" on Israel. In fact, Biden and Blinken approved almost all of Israel's orders for weapons.

The State Department would not comment about either assertion.

Blinken did withhold issuing licenses for Israel to buy 24,000 US-made assault rifles from US companies for fear of helping to escalate violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. This year, the department under Rubio submitted to Congress for review at least one request from Israel for a license to buy 5,000 rifles.

During Trump's first term, the administration invoked an emergency declaration to bypass Congress to send arms to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.