re: WH.. we knew nothing about arms to Israel

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That ain't happening esp after we just cut a nice huge check for their Iron Dome.

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Iron Dome is defensive and was therefore explicitly excluded from new restrictions.

To the OP, I don't know exactly how our FMF arrangement with Israel is structured, but it is very possible (probable even) that they receive certain pieces of equipment on a schedule that was already signed off by the DoS at some point in the past. Even if the WH promulgated new policy and restrictions, there were probably loopholes that they could exploit through either the incompetence or complicity of someone(s)in DSCA.

ETA: The event in question occurred in late July. I don't believe the new "line-item" approval process was put into place until the end of the first week in August.

Long-story short, however, the Israeli government has powerful friends throughout our government which has afforded them near-unparallelled access to senior officials in Congress, among appointed officials, and even among career Senior executives.