Israel Waives Sequestration Protection
Offers to Bear Burden on Missile Defense Funding Cuts
Aug. 2, 2013 - 01:01PM | By BARBARA OPALL-ROME
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130802/DEFREG04/308020008/Israel-Waives-Sequestration-Protection
WASHINGTON ? Despite pledges by US President Barack Obama and key
congressional leaders to shield the Israeli Iron Dome from sequestration
cuts, Israel has offered to waive funding protection, insisting it should
bear its share of the burden.
With more than US $1 billion earmarked in the president?s budget through
2015 for US-Israel cooperative missile defense programs, Israel?s share of
the burden would come to nearly $55 million; a painful, yet pragmatic price
for the goodwill to be generated among longtime supporters in Washington,
sources from both countries said.
After decades of perennial Israeli requests for additional security
assistance and so-called congressional plus-ups, the Israeli offer to forgo
fenced missile defense funding is somewhat akin to ?man bites dog,? said
Alan Makovsky, a longtime regional observer who recently retired as senior
staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
?Assuming this is accurate, it?s a very magnanimous, yet very wise decision
on their [Israel?s] part. It shows friendship, appreciation and sympathy for
our fiscal difficulties ? even to the point of giving up special favors
which it?s fair to say Congress would have been willing to grant,
considering the threats they face,? Makovsky said.
He added, ?The goodwill they will engender will be far more valuable than
the funds they forego.?
During Obama?s visit to Israel last March, he said he was ?pleased to
announce that we will take steps to ensure that there is no interruption of
funding for Iron Dome.? At a joint press conference with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama underscored his intent to work with
Congress for future funding Israel needs against the growing rocket and
missile threat.
According to sources here, the amount that would be shielded from some 9
percent in automatic cuts triggered by sequestration is $607.3 million for
Iron Dome over the 2013-2015 three-year budgetary period. That means Israel
is voluntarily forgoing some $54.7 million given the 9 percent sequester.
Israel is also slated to receive another $65.8 million in Arrow-2 Weapon
System funds, $181.7 million for the Upper Tier Arrow-3, $213.9 million for
David?s Sling.
Similarly, Israel has not requested, nor was it promised, exemption from the
approximately 5 percent sequester on its annual $3.1 billion in grant
foreign military financing aid scheduled over the next three years.
?Our position is we must bear the burden that our American friends are
bearing,? Michael Oren, Israel?s ambassador in Washington, told Defense News
in a wide-ranging interview to be published in an upcoming edition.
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