U.S.-Israel Missile Defense Cooperation Reaches New Heights

Ariela Fleisig — June 1, 2011 – 3:46 pm | Barack Obama | Congress | Foreign Policy | Israel | Military Comments (0) Add a comment

The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee allocated $235.7 million in funding to joint US-Israel missile programs today - the largest amount in history.

Representative Steve Rothman (D-NJ) said that the House of Representatives “sent a strong message” to America’s friends and adversaries about the strong nature of the U.S.-Israel defense relationship with this record-setting appropriation. Rothman also said:

Given America’s significant budget challenges, every single dollar we are expending on behalf of the U.S. taxpayer must be given the highest level of scrutiny, including funds appropriated toward the defense of the United States and its allies. It is a mark of the importance of these jointly developed missile defense programs - Arrow 2, Arrow 3, and David’s Sling - that they were all robustly funded by our Subcommittee.

Rothman pointed out the programs’ importance to American national security:

Funding these new technologies serves our interests in the volatile Middle East, and wherever America’s troops and citizens are stationed. This allocation helps fulfill the most important role of the U.S. House of Representatives: keeping America and her citizens safe.

Politico‘s Ben Smith noted that National Security Advisor Tom Donilon confirmed the Obama administration’s support for the funding in a recent speech. He said:

For more than two decades, the United States has also been working to improve the protection of Israel’s population from the very real and urgent threat of rockets and missiles by partnering with Israel to develop an extensive missile defense architecture. We cooperate across the continuum of development, deployment, and operation of these systems. Our financial and technological support was essential to the Arrow and David’s Sling systems to defend against long and short-range ballistic missiles.

Click here to read Rothman’s full statement.

Click here to read NJDC’s fact sheet on Donilon.

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