Israel needs weapons, but Joe Biden’s cupboards are bare

WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden leads a White House engaged in a desperate attempt to catch up to the crisis unfolding in Israel. In one regard at least, his efforts may not succeed.

Israel’s urgent request for additional supplies of weaponry and munitions comes at a time when America’s military cupboard is almost bare. 20 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, America’s capacity to provide even Kyiv’s forces with fresh military supplies has been sorely tested over the last few weeks. Now, the Israeli government has also come calling.

Mr Biden’s controversial decision in July to send cluster munitions to Volodymyr Zelensky’s army was driven by a growing shortage of other alternatives. US officials described the cluster bombs as a “bridge of supplies” needed to fill the gap while the country’s arms manufacturers ramped up production.

But it’s now emerged that the Biden administration even tapped into stockpiles of weapons specifically provided to Israel by the Americans for use during any emergency. Earlier this year, with the Israeli government’s permission, the US removed 155-milimeter artillery shells and sent them in Kyiv’s direction. The Biden administration also raided a similar stockpile in South Korea.

Efforts by the White House to replenish supplies have run aground. Only last week the Pentagon warned Congress its funds for additional armaments were running low. On Monday, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth confirmed the simultaneous needs of both Ukraine and Israel are putting fresh pressure on the system. “Additional funding is needed to increase our capacity to expand production and then also pay for the munitions themselves”, she told reporters at an annual Army conference.

Securing any fresh funding is impossible for as long as there is no replacement for Kevin McCarthy, the ousted Speaker of the House of Representatives. In a disastrous quirk of timing, all legislative activity is at a standstill on Capitol Hill while Republicans try to resolve their differences and pick Mr McCarthy’s successor.

But even when Congress is operating at full tilt, fresh support for Israel will still run into supply chain issues that are delaying the delivery of weapons systems. In January, the Center for Strategic and International Studies published a report warning that “the US defense industrial base is not adequately prepared for the international security environment that now exists”. It predicted that in the event of a war with China in the Taiwan Strait “the US would likely run out of some munitions….in less than one week”.

Israel is reportedly seeking fresh supplies of precision-guided weapons and artillery to support its war on Hamas. It also needs more Tamir Interceptors for its “Iron Dome” missile defense system, and 75% of their components are manufactured in the United States.

Ms Wormuth told reporters that the Biden administration is “in the early stage of….evaluating our ability to support what the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) needs”. But with Mr Biden now conceding that a “hostage crisis” exists in Gaza, where some American citizens are believed to be among the Hamas captives, the shortage of munitions could not be occurring at a worse time.