Israel is trying to find new sources of weapons and ammunition to bypass a future US limit or even an embargo on these supplies. A source in Israel’s security apparatus told Kan 11 News on Monday that “the growing criticism and delegitimization fueled by various parties, Muslims and antisemites, endangers the continued equipping of Israel and the transfer of ammunition and means of warfare.”
The source noted that “there is a concern that the tensions with the United States regarding the entry into Rafah and the humanitarian problem in Gaza will impact the American willingness to continue assisting Israel at the same intensity.”
On Sunday, Vice President Kamala Harris warned Israel on ABC’s This Week that should it defy the administration and enter Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, where the Hamas leadership is hiding underground, there would be “consequences” (Vice President Kamala Harris Threatens ‘Consequences’ If Israel Enters Rafah).
Some countries have already halted supplies in a quiet boycott, and others have announced that they are bound by law not to allow selling arms and ammunition to conflict zones. Some countries won’t go on the record as blocking military supplies, but somehow Israeli purchase delegations there are still waiting for permits.
Italy is refusing to sell Israel armaments for its navy ships. Canada, a supplier of sub-components such as electronic cards, military-grade chips, and dozens of sub-components used in constructing and repairing the Iron Dome system, on March 19 announced its plan to halt all arms exports to Israel. France and Germany are threatening to boycott supplies to Israel. In addition, because of the war in Ukraine, there is a global shortage of ammunition, causing a kind of global arms race, with all the countries in the world busy equipping themselves.
For now, the US air train continues to run as strong as it did on October 8, 2023, with a daily landing of a Galaxy plane chock full of military supplies. But the continued clashes between the administration and the Israeli government, with PM Benjamin Netanyahu as the lightening rod, may change that situation.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), between 2014–18 and 2019–23, arms imports by Israel rose only marginally, at a rate of about 5%. The US accounted for 69% of Israeli arms imports, and Germany for 30%. However, after October 7, 2023, the US rapidly delivered thousands of guided bombs and missiles to Israel.
GALLANT’S VISIT
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will arrive in Washington on Monday for urgent meetings with senior US officials to amend the frayed relationship. Gallant is scheduled to meet national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to discuss “plans to ensure the safety of the more than one million people sheltering in Rafah while ensuring Hamas can no longer pose a threat to Israel,” as a National Security Council spokesman put it.
VP Harris told ABC on Sunday about a potential Israeli incursion in Rafah, “I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go. We’re looking at about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there, most of them.”
Gallant will convey to Sullivan that Israel is preparing a tent city on the shoreline of Gaza, south of the Gaza River, where the safety and humanitarian needs of a million plus civilians from Rafah will be taken care of. This provision, together with the fact that Israel has accepted the US proposed deal for ceasefire in exchange for the release of Hamas hostages, should satisfy the administration’s need to show who’s in charge in Gaza.
In this context, and with the presidential elections in the US only eight months away, it should be noted that a Pew report that was published on March 21 concluded that “Months into the Israel-Hamas war, roughly six-in-ten Americans (58%) say Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas are valid,” and “about four-in-ten US adults (38%) say Israel’s conduct of the war has been acceptable, and 34% say it has been unacceptable. The remaining 26% are unsure.”
But meanwhile, “When asked about Hamas’ reasons for fighting Israel, far fewer Americans (22%) describe them as valid. And just 5% of US adults say the way Hamas carried out its Oct. 7 attack on Israel was acceptable, while 66% describe it as completely unacceptable.”
But Kamala Harris already knows that.
