Israel has long been the leading recipient of U.S. foreign aid, including military support. That aid has come under heightened scrutiny amid Israel’s monthslong war to eliminate Hamas.

Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.

Since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024 (in line with the current MOU) and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April 2024.

Most of the aid—approximately $3.3 billion a year—is provided as grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, funds that Israel must use to purchase U.S. military equipment and services. In October, the Joe Biden administration said Israel had nearly six hundred active FMF cases, totalling around $24 billion. (…)

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldEnglish
    148·
    5 months ago

    The United States cannot provide security assistance to foreign governments or groups that commit gross human rights violations, a red line enshrined in the so-called Leahy Law. Moreover, the Biden administration announced in February 2023 that it would not provide arms to recipients deemed likely to commit serious human rights violations. Some legal scholars and other critics have alleged that the United States has not applied the Leahy Law with regard to Israel as it has with other Middle Eastern countries.

    Israel has agreed to use U.S. weapons only in self-defense. Outside of this, Biden administration officials said in mid-October that they had not placed further limitations or constraints on how Israel uses U.S. weapons, although they said that Israel should observe international law. In February 2024, four months into the Israel-Hamas war, Biden issued a national security memo requiring recipients of U.S. military aid to give written assurances that they would observe international law in their use of the aid, and that they would facilitate the delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance in the area of armed conflict where the U.S. military aid is being used.

    Thanks Genocide Joe

    • solo@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
      22·
      5 months ago

      TIL

      the Ronald Reagan administration banned transfers of cluster munitions to Israel for several years in the 1980s after it determined that Israel had used them on civilian targets during its invasion of Lebanon.