WASHINGTON — A Biden administration plan to sell $18 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Israel is moving forward after two leading Democratic holdouts in Congress signed on to the deal, according to several people familiar with the sale.
Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee who publicly opposed the transfer citing Israel’s tactics during its campaign in the Gaza Strip, withdrew his control over the deal, one of the biggest sell-offs of US weapons. to Israel in years. Meeks said the sale would take years to come to fruition and that he supported the Biden administration’s plans to suspend sales of other ammunition.
“I have been in close contact with the White House and the National Security Council on this and other weapons-to-Israel cases, and I have repeatedly urged the administration to continue to pressure Israel to make significant and concrete improvements on all fronts when it comes to humanitarian efforts and limit civilian casualties,” Meeks said in a statement.
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Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who delayed signing but never publicly said he was blocking the deal, also agreed to allow it to move forward, joining top Republicans who agreed to the plan months in advance.
Closing the informal consultation process with Congress allows the State Department to move forward with officially notifying Congress of the sale, the final step before closing the deal. The department declined to comment on the weapons orders, including whether it would soon make such a formal notification.
Congressional approval of arms sales has almost always been a foregone conclusion when it comes to Israel. That changed in recent months, against a backdrop of growing concern in the United States about Israel’s conduct of the war against Hamas, and as Democrats in Congress increasingly hinted that they could use their influence on arms transfers to demand that Israel to change its tactics.
The decision to bow to pressure from the Biden administration was a radical turnaround for Meeks, who had been outspoken about his opposition to the deal, signaling his frustration with Israel’s actions in the war, which have led to tens of thousands of Palestinian casualties and helped to create a hunger crisis in Gaza.
“I don’t want the types of weapons that Israel has to be used to cause more deaths,” Meeks said in an interview with CNN in April. “I want to ensure that humanitarian aid arrives. I don’t want people to die of hunger. And I want Hamas to release the hostages.”
When asked if he would delay the sale of the jets, he said: “I will make that decision as soon as I see what those guarantees are.”
Meeks did not make clear Monday whether he had received those assurances.
The order, which would include up to 50 planes and take several years to deliver, still faces potential obstacles from a number of lawmakers who will have the opportunity to register their opposition to the sale before it can be finalized and approved. .
The State Department gave two congressional committees, the House Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee, informal notice of the F-15 order in January. In the informal review process, these committees may ask the department questions about how the recipient country intends to use the weapons. The top two Republicans on those panels, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas and Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, immediately approved it.
A spokesperson for Cardin said the review of the order went through the regular deliberation process and that all concerns were addressed by the administration.
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