Biden admin. approves sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israeli regime: Report

The US government has approved the sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to the Israeli regime, according to a report in Washington Post on Monday, citing sources in the US Congress.

The Congress was officially informed of the proposed sale on May 5, the daily said, days before the Israeli regime launched an all-out aggression on Palestine.

The proposed weapons sale is related to Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMS) that transforms so-called "dumb" bombs into precision-guided missiles, which the Israel regime has reportedly used on several occasions in the past.

BREAKING: The Biden administration approves sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to #Israel, raising red flags for some House Democrats who are part of the shifting debate over the #US government’s support for the Israeli gov’t - WaPo.

— Arwa Ibrahim (@arwaib) May 17, 2021

Washington Post said some US Democrats want to know the details of the proposed arms sale, as they believe its timing may be used as leverage.

According to the report, once the Congress receives formal notification from the Biden administration about the sale, lawmakers would have 20 days to object with a nonbinding resolution of disapproval.

It comes at a time when Palestine has been reeling under an unprecedented military aggression from the occupying regime, with the resistance front retaliating forcefully, exposing cracks in the Israeli regime's defense infrastructure. 

The latest escalation was triggered earlier this month by the Israeli regime forces who forced Palestinian families to vacate their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, followed by violent onslaught on worshipers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

After the Palestinian resistance movement retaliated, the occupying regime fired a barrage of missiles targeting civilian areas in the besieged territory, including high-rise buildings housing residential apartments and media houses.

The death toll from the Israeli regime attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip has jumped to 200, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday.

Biden and some of his Democratic colleagues have insisted that Israel has the right to defend itself, even though an overwhelming evidence points to Israeli regime’s disproportionate attacks on Palestine. 

The controversial sale has caught some US lawmakers off guard. One of them, quoted in the Washington Post story, says there is "zero transparency" on the House Foreign Affairs Committe with "sensitive deals" being "regularly approved without scrutiny". 

The deal is likley to lead to further divisions in the Democratic Party ranks as some lawmakers are mounting pressure on the Biden administration to take action in the face of Israeli regime's relentless aggression on Palestinians.

“This is happening with the support of the United States,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Saturday in reference to Israeli airstrikes. "The US vetoed the UN call for ceasefire. If the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib said Israel is bombing the international media so the world can't see its war crimes against the people of Palestine, in reaction to an airstrike on a building housing media offices in Gaza.

“Israel targeting media sources is so the world can't see Israel's war crimes led by the apartheid-in-chief Netanyahu. It's so the world can't see the killing of babies, children and their parents. It's so the world can't see Palestinians being massacred,” she tweeted on Saturday.

However, some lawmakers continue on the path of the US military-industrial complex’s full support for the Israeli apartheid regime.

“Please don’t be fooled by false choices: Israel or Hamas,” Representative Ted Deutch, a Democrat from Florida, said in a floor speech. “If I am asked to choose between a terrorist organization and our democratic ally, I will stand with Israel.”

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