US congress. (Wikipedia)
The US expressed its unshakable and unbreakable support for Israel over the weekend when it approved a multi-million dollar security aid package for the Jewish State.
The US Congress approved and President Barack Obama signed the country’s $1.8 trillion 2016 budget over the weekend, which includes $3.1 billion in security aid to Israel.
The aid includes $487 million for the funding of Israel’s various anti-projectile defensive projects, the highly effective Iron Dome system for short-range missiles, the David’s Sling system for longer-range missiles, and the Arrow 2 and 3 anti-ballistic missiles, which recently completed a successful trial.
Likewise, $200 million is designated to replenish US military emergency arsenals stationed in Israel. The IDF used these emergency caches to restock the army during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
A new item in the aid package includes funding for the tunnel detection project Israel has been developing to counter Hamas’ terror tunnels running out of the Gaza Strip into Israel. The project is still at its initial stages.
The American multi-billion dollar aid package is provided within the framework of a memorandum signed by former president George W. Bush in August 2007. The memorandum stated that Israel would receive $30 billion over the course of ten years, and Obama is working on a new memorandum which will continue the first one.
It is estimated that this package will be bigger than the first to meet Israel’s growing security needs, especially in the wake of the nuclear deal signed with Iran and the mounting threat of Islamic terrorism and its spread across the Middle East.
