The US again voted to stand by Israel, allocating millions to boost Israel’s defense capabilities.
Both houses of Congress passed a defense authorization bill Thursday that includes over $600 million in funding for US-Israel cooperation in missile defense development.
The defense legislation passed the Senate by a margin of 92-7 after the House of Representatives approved it 375-34. It now awaits the president’s signature, which is all but assured.
The legislation includes authorization to spend $600.7 million on joint US-Israel development of missile defense during the 2017 fiscal year. Of that total, $268.7 million will be designated for cooperative research and development, $62 million for the anti-rocket system Iron Dome, $150 million for the medium-range missile defense system David’s Sling, and $120 million for long-range missile defense system Arrow-3.
An additional $10 million earmark in the bill approves funding to develop anti-tunnel technology.
The missile defense funding is not part of the recently-signed 10-year, $38 billion memorandum of understanding governing American defense aid to Israel. That memorandum goes into effect starting in 2018.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated last Sunday that the memorandum reflects “the strong bipartisan support for Israel in the Congress and the broad support for Israel in the American people.”
By: TheTower.org and United with Israel Staff