Israeli Defense Ministers' Meeting with Lloyd Austin Comes at a Delicate Moment in Promoting US Weapons

When Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meets with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday, Gallant is expected to request more U.S. weapons and equipment to support Israel's war in Gaza, U.S. officials said. The country is facing intense scrutiny from lawmakers and criticism of President Joe Biden's continued support for Israel.

Gallants' meeting with Austin will mark his first visit to the Pentagon as Israel's defense minister and follows his talks Monday with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during which sales weapons should also be discussed, officials said.

The meetings come as relations between the United States and Israel hit a new low point on Monday, with a separate Israeli delegation pulling out of planned meetings with American officials to discuss Israeli military plans for southern Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the delegation after the United States failed to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and unconditional release of all the Gaza hostages.

We are very disappointed that they will not come to Washington, DC, to allow us to have an in-depth conversation with them on viable alternatives to intervention on the ground in Rafah, the Security Council spokesperson said Monday National, John Kirby.

Despite heightened tensions, growing arms sales from the United States remain a priority for Israeli defense officials, who have pushed their American counterparts for faster approval and progress on arms transfers, several officials and people familiar with the demands told CNN.

Before heading to Washington, DC on Sunday, Gallant made clear in a phone call with Austin last week that he would bring with him a wish list of US weapons and equipment that Israel wants to purchase and have delivered in an expedited manner, officials said. , including more precisely guided munitions and F-35 and F-15 fighter jets.

Gallant will be informed that the various cases of arms sales are underway, a senior administration official told CNN. There is scrutiny, but no policy decision to withhold additional arms supplies to Israel, the official told CNN.

More than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October, the enclaves' health ministry announced last week. In phone calls, Austin regularly emphasizes how Israel uses U.S.-supplied weapons for its operations in the enclave, U.S. officials familiar with the calls said, and often tells Gallant that Israel is losing international support by not doing more to protect and help civilians there.

But the defense secretary's position on providing weapons to Israel has not changed much since the war began, officials said.

The secretary of state still fundamentally believes in Israel's inherent right to defend itself and that we will continue to support him in that regard, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said Monday. This support is foolproof.

Still, a concern within the administration was that approving too many arms sales that were too big and too fast could allow Israel to stockpile equipment for a possible major confrontation with Hezbollah in Lebanon, another official said American, something the United States has urged Israel to avoid. The United States understands that Israel must replenish its stocks as the war depletes its supplies in order to restore its deterrence.

On Monday, Gallant said Israel could move closer to a northern war with Lebanon if the Israel Defense Forces do not win a decisive victory over Hamas in Gaza.

We have no moral right to stop the war while there are still hostages held in Gaza, Gallant said. The lack of a decisive victory in Gaza could bring us closer to war in the north.

The Biden administration is also debating whether and how to condition certain forms of military assistance to Israel, especially as Netanyahu considers a major military incursion into Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge since the start of the war.

U.S. officials have publicly opposed such an offensive, especially since Israel has yet to present the Biden administration with a plan for how it could carry out such an operation and ensure the safety of these civilians.

If there is, that would be something we would want to hear, the senior administration official said, adding that the consequences of failing to comply with U.S. demands are increasingly being considered.

We do not believe that a ground operation in Rafah is the right course of action, Kirby said Monday. Austin also told Gallant last week that Israel needed to consider alternatives to a major ground operation in Rafah, according to a Pentagon account of their call.

Even as the Biden administration has pressured Israel to do more to protect civilians in Gaza, allow more humanitarian aid into the enclave and refrain from going to war with Hezbollah, the U.S. United have not stopped the flow of weapons.

Since Hamas's attack on Israel in October, the United States has sold more than 100 military products to Israel, according to a source familiar with a classified briefing that U.S. lawmakers received on the issue last month. Each sale may consist of several separate arms shipments, the source explained.

Foreign military sales are either denied or approved by the State Department and generally must be approved by Congress before they can move forward, but most U.S. sales to Israel since October 7, in especially sales of individual ammunition, fell below the specific dollar. amount that requires notification to Congress, an official familiar with the matter told CNN. However, although they are sent in batches, sales eventually reach several thousand bombs in total, the official said.

Only two such sales, involving tank ammunition and 155mm shell components, have been made public since October and only because the State Department used its emergency authority to circumvent approval of the Congress.

The sale of additional fighter jets to Israel, however, will be large enough to require congressional review and approval and will likely spark intense debate, the official said.

Democratic lawmakers have called on the United States to withhold military aid to Israel unless it provides credible and reliable assurances that it respects international humanitarian law, a requirement the Biden administration codified in a memorandum on national security last month. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday that the United States had received these assurances from Israel, but that U.S. assessments of Israel's conduct were ongoing.

These ongoing assessments did not start because of the national security memorandum, and they did not stop because we got these assurances from Israel yesterday, Miller said. They will be continuous.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN's Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.

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