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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/urmomsloosevag on 2023-12-30 03:20:48.
Biden administration again bypasses Congress for weapons sale to Israel
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/29/biden-blinken-byspass-congress-israel-weapons-sale
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Given the urgency of Israel’s defensive needs, the secretary notified Congress that he had exercised his delegated authority to determine an emergency existed necessitating the immediate approval of the transfer,” the department said.
Blinken made a similar decision on 9 December, to approve the sale to Israel of nearly 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth more than $106m.
Some Democratic lawmakers have spoken of making the proposed $14.3bn in American assistance to its Middle East ally contingent on concrete steps by the government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza during the war with Hamas.
“We continue to strongly emphasize to the government of Israel that they must not only comply with international humanitarian law, but also take every feasible step to prevent harm to civilians,” it said.
Bypassing Congress with emergency determinations for arms sales is an unusual step that has in the past met resistance from lawmakers, who normally have a period of time to weigh in on proposed weapons transfers and, in some cases, block them.
Pompeo came under heavy criticism for the move, which some believed may have violated the law because many of the weapons involved had yet to be built and could not be delivered urgently.
The original article contains 589 words, the summary contains 208 words. Saved 65%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!