Washington —

The threat of a wider war between Israel and Iran could give U.S. President Joe Biden more breathing room to provide military aid to Israel without the restrictions sought by progressive lawmakers in his own party.

Iran’s massive air strikes on Israel on April 13, and Israel’s more limited counterattack earlier on Friday, have plunged the region into tension over concerns about the six-month-long war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. upgrade.

The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote on an aid package as early as Saturday. bill Provides $26.4 billion for Israeli security as part of a package to help Israel and Ukraine while deterring Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific region. Proposed foreign aid funding totals $95 billion.

On Wednesday, Biden urged passage of the bills and vowed to sign them into law immediately.

For months, top Democrats have called on Biden to provide at least some types of military aid to Israel to prevent U.S. weapons from being used to promote human rights abuses, which is illegal under the U.S.’s Leahy Act.

But analysts say the conflict between Israel and Iran may have eased some of the pressure, at least for now.

“His left has more room to maneuver now,” said Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“He has a moment where he can remind the country, and he can remind Democrats that they need to look at the bigger picture and understand who is really behind the various fires that are happening throughout the Middle East,” he said.

Biden: Standing idly by is ‘unthinkable’

in an op-ed wall street journal Earlier this week, Biden warned that the United States was headed for war.

“Israel is our strongest partner in the Middle East; if Israel’s defenses are weakened and Iran is able to carry out its intended destruction this weekend,” he said of the April 13 drone and missile attack, It is unthinkable in the land of Israel that we would stand by and watch.

He argued that this outcome would be less likely to occur if the United States provided military assistance now so that Israel’s defenses “could remain adequately stocked and prepared.”

Proposed aid to Israel

Israel’s proposed aid includes $4 billion to supplement Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems, and $1.2 billion for Iron Beam defense systems to counter short-range rockets and mortars.

The weapons systems thwarted most of the hundreds of drones and missiles launched on April 13 by Tehran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, which regularly fires missiles from Lebanon toward Israel’s northern border.

Most Democrats support aid for systems that protect Israel’s skies, but some worry about funding the types of weapons used to kill civilians in Gaza.

The aid bill includes $1 billion to strengthen the production and development of artillery and other munitions, and $4.4 billion to replenish defense articles and defense services provided to Israel, which may cover various types of munitions.

An additional $3.5 billion is used to procure weapons and defense services through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. FMF is financing provided by the U.S. government to allies to procure defense articles or services through Foreign Military Sales, FMS, or Direct Commercial Sales (also known as DCS).

Josh Paul, former director of the State Department’s Bureau of Congressional and Public Affairs, which oversees arms transfers, said the $3.5 billion in appropriations could be used to buy essentially any type of weapons.

He told VOA that the bill “also expands the scope and, frankly, the speed of arms transfers.”

Ali Tolani, director of security assistance, arms trade and technology at the Center for International Policy, said purchases under the FMF could include weapons for use in Gaza and the West Bank.

It is “non-specific and can capture most munition types, as well as target support and surveillance technologies, etc.,” she said.

A summary of the bill states that it “provides additional flexibility for the transfer of defense items stored abroad by the United States to Israel” and prohibits funding to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

UNRWA, which provides support to Palestinian refugees, has come under intense criticism since Israel accused some of its staff of involvement in Hamas’ October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 Israelis and took 200 hostages. A hostage.

Israel’s response has killed nearly 34,000 people in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. International aid groups warn of famine in Palestinian enclave.

Earlier this week, ProPublica, an investigative news organization, reported that a U.S. State Department task force recommended months ago that Secretary of State Antony Blinken withhold aid to some Israeli military and police forces amid accusations that they Human rights violations, mostly before October 7th.

On Friday, Blinken said his department had completed an investigation to determine whether the “very important” Leahy law was violated and would release the results in the coming days.

exempt from congressional oversight

The Israeli House bill includes a provision that would waive the obligation to notify Congress of FMFs if the Secretary of State determines that a national security emergency exists that requires an immediate transfer of weapons. Tolani said the provision is similar to the exemption currently applicable to FMS.

“Normally, the FMF’s obligations would still require notification to Congress, but that will not be the case if this bill passes,” she said. This means that up to $3.5 billion in weapons could potentially be supplied to Israel without government notification.

“The public and Congress have almost no idea what kind of ammunition is being transferred,” she said.

The FMS emergency authorization exemption is rarely used, but Blinken invoked it twice in December to transfer more than $250 million worth of weapons to Israel.

The move prompted some Democratic lawmakers to increase congressional oversight. Senator Tim Kaine of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committee introduced an amendment to repeal the FMF congressional notification exemption in the Senate Supplemental Appropriations bill.

Although Kaine’s amendment received support from prominent Democrats, the Senate’s supplement passed without a vote in February, retaining the FMF’s notification exemption.

Congressman Joaquin Castro has proposed a similar amendment to the House appropriations bill, but that is also unlikely to come to a vote.

The Israeli House of Representatives’ supplementary plan includes $2.4 billion for “current U.S. military operations in the region in response to recent attacks.”

These include an Iranian airstrike on April 13, which Tehran said was in retaliation for Israel’s bombing of an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus, Syria, on April 1. The United States said it did not “engage in any offensive operations” in Israel’s subsequent counterattack against Iran on Friday.