Gallant, US Declare Some Progress on Speeding Arms Delivery, but Bomb Shipment Still Frozen to Spite and Unseat Netanyahu
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the Biden administration separately announced progress Wednesday toward resolving the arms delivery issues from the US to Israel.
“During the meetings, we made significant progress. Obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed… [regarding] munition supply,” Gallant stated in a video from Washington after four days of discussions with top US officials.
A senior Biden administration official echoed Gallant’s remarks, confirming for the first time that “bottlenecks” in weapons transfers were being addressed. The official clarified these bottlenecks weren’t intentional, and Gallant’s meetings provided an opportunity to accelerate certain shipments and reprioritize based on Israel’s needs.
These comments were the closest the administration has come to confirming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public claim last week that the US has been “withholding” weapons shipments, which angered Washington. The White House insisted it only held one transfer of heavy bombs that Biden didn’t want the IDF using in Rafah.
In his video statement, Gallant criticized Netanyahu for airing grievances publicly rather than settling issues privately. “In every family — and we consider the American people our family — disagreements may arise. Yet like all families, we discuss our disagreements in-house and remain united,” Gallant said.
Netanyahu’s office responded, claiming the premier had tried to resolve the issue privately for weeks before going public. “When disagreements aren’t resolved privately after many weeks, the prime minister of Israel must speak openly to bring our soldiers what they need,” the statement read.
A senior administration official praised Gallant’s “professional approach” in advancing the US-Israel security partnership and avoided answering whether the US was putting the dispute with Netanyahu behind it.
Confirming reporting in Axios, a second US official told The Times of Israel that Netanyahu’s video set back efforts to unfreeze the high-payload bomb shipment. The administration didn’t want to be seen as taking orders from Netanyahu.
The first senior administration official noted, “The progress made was the ability to sit down with the people who do this work every day and go through every single case and where it is in the system.”
Netanyahu, for his part, issued a statement drily reiterating that effort to iron out differences quietly, behind closed doors, did not yield results for months, saying that it was his responsibility to get Israeli soldiers what they needed to fight.
The slowdown was further explained by the second US official, citing fewer weapons and ammunition requests from Israel as the intensity of fighting in Gaza waned. During the early months of the war, expedited transfers were possible, but such shipments have since run low. Axios also reported that some officials interpreted Biden’s freeze on bomb shipments as a signal to scrutinize all arms shipments more closely, slowing the process compared to the beginning of the war.
There’s also concern in Washington about a potential Israeli preemptive offensive against Hezbollah, which could lead to a regional war.
The senior administration official emphasized that since October 7, the US has sent over $6.5 billion in weapons to Israel, with nearly $3 billion alone in May.
National Unity leader Benny Gantz supported Gallant’s handling of the crisis. “Minister Gallant is right. Over the past few months, we have solved many of the problems with our friends behind closed doors, including on the matter of the munitions,” Gantz said, adding that Netanyahu’s actions for political gain harm the strategic relationship with the US.
Netanyahu is slated to travel to Washington next month to address Congress, but he has yet to receive an invitation to meet Biden at the White House.
Biden poodles Gantz and Gallant Shane on them for betraying the PM especially in time of war