Record Amount Approved for U.S.-Israel Missle Defense Program
The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee awarded the highest-ever level of funding to the joint U.S.-Israel missile defense program Wednesday.
The subcommittee appropriated $235.7 million in funding for the coming year.
In a statement, committee member Rep. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) said it was “a mark of importance” of the three joint defense programs — Arrow 2, Arrow 3 and David’s Sling — that they were given such high funding during the current economic climate.
“The growing proliferation and increasing deadliness of missiles and rockets around the world – including those possessed by dangerous regimes such as the one headed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and President Bashar al-Assad in Syria – pose a direct threat to U.S. national security,” Rothman said. “Funding these new technologies serves our interests in the volatile Middle East, and wherever America’s troops and citizens are stationed.”
Funding for such cooperative ventures is separate from the $3 billion in U.S. defense assistance Israel receives each year.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!