This is How American Military Support Ensures Israel's Qualitative Superiority.

 

President Joe Biden ordered the allocation of an additional $14.3 billion in aid to Israel last month (Anadolu, 14/11/2023). The U.S. House of Representatives approved the request of President Joe Biden in early November to allocate $14.3 billion in aid to Israel, shedding light on the scale and objectives of American aid, and how its establishment and regulation have evolved over time.

According to a study released this year by the Congressional Research Service, the United States has provided Israel with assistance amounting to $158.66 billion since 1948 until early 2023, excluding the inflation rate. With inflation considered, it amounts to $260 billion.

Most of this aid is military assistance, as Washington stopped its economic aid to Tel Aviv in 2007, which began in 1971, after Israel became one of the world's fastest-growing countries. Israel's per capita gross domestic product ranked 14th globally in 2022.

Memoranda of Understanding:

Since 1999, the size of American aid to Israel has been determined within "Memoranda of Understanding" between the two countries for a period of 10 years.

These memoranda are not legally binding agreements like treaties and do not require approval from the U.S. Senate. They allow Congress to provide supplemental appropriations and, under exceptional circumstances such as wars, to offer additional aid packages, as in the latest budget.

The first memorandum of understanding for American aid to Israel covered the period from 1999 to 2008, amounting to $21.3 billion. It then increased to $30 billion in the second memorandum covering the period from 2009 to 2018.

The peak was $33 billion in the third memorandum covering the period from 2019 to 2028, at a rate of $3.3 billion annually, in addition to $500 million annually allocated for missile defence programs. Therefore, Congress allocated $3.8 billion for Israel in the 2023 budget.

Ensuring Qualitative Superiority:

In 1977, Congress formulated a provision stating that "according to the historical relationship between the United States and Israel, U.S. arms sales to Middle Eastern countries should not weaken Israeli deterrence or undermine the military balance in the Middle East."

In 1981, then-U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig clarified before Congress that a central aspect of U.S. policy since the October 1973 war is to ensure Israel maintains a qualitative military advantage in the Middle East.

According to the American concept of ensuring Israel's qualitative military superiority, Tel Aviv receives more advanced weapons than other countries in the region. It can also add components to enhance the capabilities of equivalent weapons sold to regional countries.

For example, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that owns F-35 aircraft, having purchased 50 of them with U.S. funding. This allows Israel to strike targets – without the need for refuelling – within a radius covering Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, most of Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

In line with this concept, when the Obama administration approved the sale of an advanced version of the F-16 aircraft to the United Arab Emirates in 2013, then-U.S. Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel announced in return the sale of advanced refuelling aircraft (KC-13) to Israel. This made Israel the second foreign country in the world to be granted such sales by Washington after Japan.

The deal was implemented in August 2022 with Boeing and Israel signing a contract to purchase 4 KC-46A aircraft worth $927 million, to be delivered in 2026.

As the procedures related to ensuring Israel's qualitative military superiority were conducted based on self-assessments by joint committees from both sides, U.S. Representative Howard Berman sought to formalize these procedures.

Shortly after assuming the chairmanship of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he moved to incorporate a provision in the 2008 Naval Vessel Transfer Act (PL 110-429) requiring an assessment of Israel's qualitative military advantage every four years. The Arms Export Control Act was also amended to stipulate that, concerning the export of U.S. weapons to any country in the Middle East, such sales would not negatively impact Israel's qualitative military advantage.

Other Benefits:

The annual U.S. military funding represents nearly 16% of Israel's total military budget. This has contributed to transforming the Israeli army into one of the most technologically advanced in the world.

It also assisted Tel Aviv in building its local military industry, ranking 10th globally among the largest arms exporters from 2018 to 2022, with total exports of $11.3 billion in 2021, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). For example, since 2011 until early 2023, the United States provided around $3 billion to Israel for the purchase of Iron Dome batteries and missiles. It also provided about $2.4 billion since 2006 to develop the David's Sling missile defence system and $4.5 billion to develop the Arrow-3 missile defence system.

These billions have helped Israeli arms companies fund research, development, and manufacturing operations. This has allowed companies such as Israeli Aerospace Industries, Rafael, and Elbit Systems to export about 70% of their production, according to the book "Israeli Defence Industry and U.S. Security Assistance" published by the Israeli National Security Institute. India, Azerbaijan, and Vietnam are among the top three markets for Israeli arms exports.

The new $14.3 billion U.S. aid package represents a continuation of Washington's policies seeking to ensure Israel's military superiority in the region, even though Tel Aviv has not engaged in conflicts and wars against regular armies in the latter half of this century, limiting its wars to groups and organizations.

Contrary to expectations, those massive aids did not enable the Israeli army to repel the attack launched by Hamas fighters on the morning of October 7th last year in the Gaza Strip. The attackers used makeshift weapons, limited to automatic rifles, shoulder-launched rockets, and locally manufactured missiles, without possessing tanks, aircraft, or heavy artillery.