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Obama threatens veto on missile defense aid

President Barack Obama signs the Trade Facilitation and Enforcement Act of 2015. (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty)

President Barack Obama signs the Trade Facilitation and Enforcement Act of 2015. (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty)

WASHINGTON — Despite President Barack Obama’s veto threat, the US House of Representatives passed a $576 billion defense appropriations bill, including an allocation of $635 million for Israel’s missile defense program.

The June 16 vote on the bill in the Republican-controlled house passed 282-138, according to Defense News.

Congress routinely adds more funds to Israel’s missile defense programs than Republican and Democratic presidents request, but this is the first time an administration has objected.

The dispute may be part of a larger debate on whether Israel should accede to Obama’s wishes to include funding for missile defense in the overall, 10-year American military aid package to Israel.

This has been held up as Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu preferred to negotiate the package, which expires in 2018, under the next US president.

Obama’s proposal is to increase the aid package from $3 billion to close to $4 to $5 billion annually for 10 years.

The House massive $576 billion defense appropriations bill for the upcoming fiscal year included $268.7 million in research and development funding for US-Israel cooperative missile and rocket defense programs; $25 million in research and development funding for US-Israel energy activities to combat missiles and rockets, including toward producing lasers; $72 million for procurement of the Iron Dome rocket defense system; $150 million for procurement of the David’s Sling missile defense system, and $120 million for procurement of the Arrow-3 missile defense system.

Also included is $42.7 million for US-Israel anti-tunnel cooperation.

AIPAC praised passage of the bill. “As Israel faces dramatically rising security challenges, AIPAC urges inclusion of these vital funds in the final versions of the Fiscal Year 2017 defense authorization and appropriations bills,” the Israel lobby group said in a statement.

On June 14, the White House released a six-page statement detailing over a dozen points of opposition to the appropriations measure, including the expanded funding for Israel’s missile defense system, to the tune of $455 million more than requested by the White House.

The Obama administration complained in the statement that the legislation “fails to provide our troops with the resources needed to keep our nation safe.”

The statement threatened a veto if the bill survives the reconciliation process with the Senate unaltered, but administration officials would not say if that would apply should some of its objections be resolved, or if it was a blanket veto threat applying to every objection.

The administration “opposes the addition of $455 million” for Israeli missile defense procurement and cooperative development programs, the statement said, while noting that the bill cuts $324 million from non-Israel related defense systems.

On June 15, State Department spokesman John Kirby said the administration opposed the funding increase because it “would consume a growing share of a shrinking US Missile Defense Agency’s budget.”

“Additional support for Israel means fewer resources that are available for critical US programs at a time when the missile threat from North Korea, in particular, is increasing,” Kirby said.

AIPAC was first to protest the administration’s statement of opposition. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called the White House’s opposition to the increased funding for Israel “a disturbing departure from the prior practice of this and previous administrations.”

In a time of “escalating threats to Israel from the arsenal of more 150,000 missiles and rockets supplied by Iran and stockpiled by Hezbollah,” Conference of Presidents Chairman Stephen Greenberg and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein wrote in a statement June 15, “the decision by the Obama Administration to oppose the overwhelming bipartisan Congressional support for increasing Israel’s ability to defend its people is very troubling.”

Another reason the Obama administration is objecting to the additional funds is that the US and Israel are considering including missile defense funding in the annual defense assistance package to Israel. Missile defense has until now been funded separately.

Administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have traditionally lowballed funding for missile defense cooperation with Israel, which is considered separately from the defense assistance budget, currently about $3 billion a year.

Congress then adds funds to the programs, which allows lawmakers to accrue chits with the pro-Israel community.

An administration explicitly opposing the increase in its statement of policy, however, seems unprecedented.

“On a bipartisan basis, Congress has increased funding above administration requests this year, as it has done for well over a decade,” AIPAC said last week.

“These cooperative programs — including the Arrow, David’s Sling, and Iron Dome — are critical for Israel’s defense against a growing array of missile threats and make an important contribution to US missile defense programs.

“We applaud Congress for consistently supporting these key programs, and urge their full funding in both the FY 2017 National Defense Authorization and Appropriations Acts.”

Another factor in the contretemps could be the talks underway now with Israel to extend the Memorandum of Understanding guaranteeing Israel defense assistance.

The Americans and the Israelis want to increase the annual level of assistance from $3 billion to nearly $5 billion, but the administration wants to wrap into that the missile defense cooperation funding, while Israel wants to keep it separate.

For the Israelis, keeping the missile defense cooperation out of the overall defense package allows them to negotiate each year for different levels of funding, which they say should be considered on an as-needed basis, subject to instability and threats in the region.

The Obama administration, like others before it, prefers to keep Congress as far away from its defense spending considerations as possible.

In a June 15 statement refuting Israeli media claims that the Obama administration is considering a cut in assistance, Netanyahu appeared amenable to including missile defense cooperation as part of the overall package, as long as there is an overall increase in its funding.

“In the wake of numerous misleading reports, the Prime Minister’s bureau would like to clarify there has been no cut in American assistance,” he said.

“There is an internal debate between Congress and the White House on the size of the annual supplement to the missile defense program. Prime Minister Netanyahu is working to anchor this supplement as part of the discussions on the assistance agreement for the next 10 years.

“Not only will security assistance for missile defense not be cut, it will be increased.”

Netanyahu has come under pressure in Israel recently to conclude a deal before Obama leaves office.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has said she is committed to the defense package for Israel, but Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has suggested that Israel should pay for its assistance from the US.



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