The Biden administration is seeking to ease restrictions to US weapons stockpiles that are based in Israel, which, by the way, I don't think most Americans were privy to. I certainly wasn't aware that this was going on. But if Biden gets his way, it would allow [00:00:17] for the Israeli Defense Forces to have near unlimited access to this weaponry. And look, the restrictions are put in place for a reason, and we're going to get to that. This news comes in an alarming report by Ken Klippenstein of The Intercept. [00:00:35] Let's get to those details now before we explain what restrictions the Biden administration wants to remove. We need to actually understand what these stockpiles of weapons are, and they're apparently scattered all around the globe. But we certainly have a stockpile of weapons based specifically in Israel. [00:00:53] So Klippenstein reports that the war reserve stockpile allies Israel, okay, that's what it's called, is the largest node in a network of what are effectively foreign US weapons caches. Now, the United States is only supposed to spend only supposed to spend [00:01:13] $200 million a year restocking the weapons stockpile in Israel. But keep in mind that that's about the half. That's about half the total amount that the United States is supposed to spend annually on its international weapons stockpiles. [00:01:30] So when you take a look at all of the money they spend overall every year, their budget every year for these international stockpiles, about half of that is spent specifically on the stockpiles based in Israel. Now, these stockpiles, for good reason, are subject to all sorts [00:01:47] of regulations and restrictions. For example, Israel is normally only allowed to access obsolete or surplus classes of weapons, according to Al Jazeera. However, what the Biden administration wants to do is basically get most of those regulations removed specifically from the stockpiles based in Israel [00:02:08] so Israel can access them more easily. The White House's supplemental budget request would remove the annual $200 million spending cap for the stockpile, meaning he would like to be able to spend even more money on that stockpile in Israel, allow Israel to access any weapons [00:02:28] in that stockpile without any concessions. Okay, and shorten the advance. Notice that the white House is required to give Congress before a weapons transfer takes place, meaning that this is [00:02:44] an effort to make the weapons transfers less transparent, more opaque. Why? Like, why the need for secrecy when it comes to these weapons transfers? I think that's super shady, super weird. And I want to know exactly why Biden thinks that's a good idea. [00:03:01] Now, Josh Paul, who's the former State Department official who resigned over US arms assistance to Israel, spoke to The Intercept about this. And here's what he had to say. The president's emergency supplemental funding request would essentially create a free flowing pipeline to provide any defense articles to Israel [00:03:19] by the simple act of placing them in the Israeli weapons stockpile or other stockpiles intended for Israel. Okay. Now, Biden supplemental budget request has already passed in the House. All that needs to happen now is the passage in the Senate. [00:03:36] I really don't see any reason why it wouldn't pass in the Senate. There aren't enough senators who are against providing unwavering support to the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces. It hasn't happened yet. I could be shocked and surprised by the failure of this request [00:03:54] or this proposal to pass in the Senate. I guess we're going to have to wait and see. But it's important to make clear that this isn't the Biden administration's only attempt to escape accountability for their support, unwavering commitment to Israel. [00:04:10] Whereas the Biden administration released a three page itemized list of weapons provided to Ukraine down to the exact number of rounds. The information released about weapons sent to Israel could fit in a single sentence, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated [00:04:28] in a press conference, for instance, that the US is simply trying to protect Israel's operational security, but he doesn't really explain why they were so transparent with the assistance in regard to weapons for Ukraine, [00:04:43] but want more secrecy when it comes to weapons transfers for Israel. William Hartung, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on weapons sales, explained that the real reason is. [00:04:59] Probably this. I think the purposeful lack of transparency over what weapons the US is supplying to Israel on a daily basis is tied to the larger administration policy of downplaying the extent to which Israel will use those weapons to commit war crimes and kill civilians in Gaza. [00:05:17] And I think that's actually a really good theory. In a previous report on the show today, I shared how, you know, foreign policy experts, experts who know a lot about military weaponry and what's typically used in these types of wars, were really shocked to find that the IDF [00:05:36] has been dropping 2,000 pound bombs in their airstrikes in Gaza. That is something that the US government has has not engaged in, especially when it comes to densely populated urban warfare. [00:05:52] And the reason why they don't is because they want to minimize the number of civilian casualties. Typically, the types of bombs that are utilized are 500 pound bombs that don't do as much damage. They they're not as likely to flatten an entire apartment building, for instance. But Israel has decided to take a completely different move, [00:06:09] a different tactic in using these far more extreme bombs as they do their airstrikes in Gaza, which explains the high civilian death toll. Now, last week, Bloomberg obtained a leaked copy of the US arms sent to Israel. And here's what they found. [00:06:24] The weapons include thousands of Hellfire missiles, the same kind being used extensively by Israel in Gaza. Doesn't surprise me at all. And despite the Biden administration's pretty desperate efforts to conceal their support for Israel and conceal the types of weapons they want to provide [00:06:42] for Israel, American voters apparently can see through it and they're not happy. So, according to a November poll by Reuters Ipsos, just 33% of US respondents now believe Washington should back Israel in the war, as opposed to being a neutral [00:06:58] mediator or backing the Palestinians. At the same time, only 31% of US respondents support sending Israel weapons, compared with 43% who oppose. Public opinion has flipped pretty dramatically from feeling deep empathy and [00:07:18] support for Israel following the terrorist attacks that were committed by Hamas on October 7th, to now feeling a lot more sympathy toward Palestinian civilians. Because you see the absolute destruction that has taken place in the Gaza Strip, [00:07:33] half of the buildings completely and utterly destroyed nothing for these Palestinian civilians who have fled to the southern region of the Gaza Strip to return home to. Okay, you look at the thousands of innocent civilians. The vast majority of people represented in the death toll happened [00:07:53] to be innocent Palestinian civilians. That type of brutal military action in the Gaza Strip, of course, is going to flip public opinion from being in favor of Israel to being, I don't want to say against Israel, but really questioning whether the US support for the Israeli [00:08:12] government, regardless of what the Israeli government carries out, you know it. They're just not in favor of it anymore. It's totally flipped now. So it's something that I wish the Israeli government was smart enough to take into account and maybe shift gears a little bit as they move forward with this war. [00:08:29] But something tells me that they're defiant. They're going to continue carrying out these airstrikes as soon as the pause in bombing for the hostage exchange commences. We'll see how it all plays out. But it's really depressing to see the Biden administration engage [00:08:49] in more secrecy and efforts to engage in more opaque weapons transfers between the United States and Israel. Thanks for watching. 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