US Drains Emergency Weapons Stockpile in Israel

Written by a friend of mine in Israel.  January 18, 2023 

This is a real international dilemma with serious implications for Israel's future.

Israel cannot afford to alienate Russia by supplying Ukraine from its strategic weapons reserve. Yet The weapons are under control of the USA which wants to aid in the fight against Russia via the Ukraine proxy.

Although the rate of production of American weaponry can't match the needs of Ukraine, the USA needs to maintain a sufficient reserve in case of some unforeseen emergency. We are, therefore, depleting our emergency reserve in Israel, which Israel would rely on if attacked, for example, by Iran or by Iran's nearby proxy terrorist armies.

The Russian war in Ukraine will not end soon. Putin (if he is still alive - some are expressing doubts) will gladly sacrifice millions of Russian citizens if needed to "save face" after his ill-conceived bloody invasion of Ukraine. (Russia just quickly, quietly, drafted 700,000 new military conscripts which it will likely send into the "non-war" immediately with little to no training and minimal equipment.)

The Pentagon cares little about Israel's future possible needs when the administration orders them to send massive war supplies (which our military doesn't have) to Ukraine.

But most of us do care and there's little that we can do, short of writing to our elected representatives in D.C. Yes, write! Yes, you!

I CARE!!!!!

-- Eliyahu

That stockpile is not as robust as it once was, however. The US moved hundreds of thousands of munitions out of its reserves in Israel earlier this year as the US and its allies were searching the world for ammunition to provide to Ukraine, prompting concerns among Defense Department officials and crystallizing the challenges the US faces as it grapples with two wars abroad, according to a source familiar with discussions.

Not to mention
Since the war began, the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute. 

The national debt is $33 Trillion dollars!

Concern is growing within the Pentagon over the potential need to stretch its increasingly scarce ammunition stockpiles to support Ukraine and Israel in two separate wars, according to multiple US defense officials.

At the moment Ukraine and Israel require different weapons: Ukraine wants massive amounts of artillery ammunition while Israel has requested precision guided aerial munitions and Iron Dome interceptors.

But if Israel launches a ground incursion into Gaza, the Israeli military will create a new and entirely unexpected demand for 155mm artillery ammunition and other weapons at a time when the US and its allies and partners have been stretched thin from more than 18 months of fighting in Ukraine.

Israel has its own capable industrial base and produces many of its own advanced weapons, but a prolonged ground campaign could drain the country’s stockpiles, officials said. The Pentagon’s Joint Staff and Transportation Command have been working around the clock since Hamas launched its war on Israel last weekend to identify extra stores of munitions around the world and how to move them to Israel quickly, officials said.

In 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urgently requested ammunition for tanks and other equipment as Israel’s last ground incursion into Gaza dragged on. The request was immediately approved by former President Barack Obama, and the equipment was pulled from US reserve stockpiles in Israel.

That stockpile is not as robust as it once was, however. The US moved hundreds of thousands of munitions out of its reserves in Israel earlier this year as the US and its allies were searching the world for ammunition to provide to Ukraine, prompting concerns among Defense Department officials and crystallizing the challenges the US faces as it grapples with two wars abroad, according to a source familiar with discussions.

See video below

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Volodymyr Zelensky stood to applaud a man who fought for the Nazi SS during the Second World War after an address in parliament, footage shows. Anthony Rota, Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, hailed 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka as “a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran” who “fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians”. His tribute promoted a standing ovation from lawmakers in the chamber. Rota later apologised when it emerged that Hunka served in a division of the Nazi SS during the war. The speaker’s address had come after Mr Zelensky made a speech of his own in the Canadian parliament. 

Trudeau and Zelensky give Ukrainian Nazi war veteran standing ovation in Canadian parliament

Are there NAZIS in Ukraine?

Last defenders of Mariupol: what is Ukraine's Azov Regiment?

At the core of that last stand has been the Azov Regiment whose fighters are lionised as heroes in Ukraine, but reviled by Putin's Kremlin as a band of Russia-hating neo-Nazis.

AZOV'S ORIGINS

The Azov Regiment began as one of many militias of volunteer fighters who banded together to fight pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow who carved out two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.