Obama Asks for $96 Million, Congress Approves $284 Million With a budget crunch threatening programs across the board, almost every spending request that hits Congress gets only partially filled. Unless you’re talking Israel.
The US was already sending $3.1 billion in military aid to Israel for 2014, and President Obama requested another $96 million for anti-missile systems. Congress took that number and tripled it.
Buried in the National Defense Authorization Act for 2014, Congress pledged another $284 million in funding for Israel. A separate bill is also pushing the administration for more “reviews” of whether or not they’re giving sufficient aid to Israel, seeking a full review every two years.
Experts say that Israel’s much-vaunted missile defense systems likely don’t work nearly as well as the official figures claim, and the Israeli military defunded them outright as not cost effective, which is why the US started bankrolling the program instead.