Do at least 56 members of Congress support giving Israel additional military aid this year?
A bipartisan group of 56 U.S. representatives wrote in early June 2021 to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to declare support for additional aid to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which intercepts incoming rockets.
The U.S. has pledged to provide Israel $3.8 billion in military aid annually from 2019 to 2028, including at least $500 million for missile defense along with promises of additional support following a major armed conflict. In 2014, after a wave of rocket attacks, Congress provided Israel an additional $225 million to replenish the Iron Dome system.
On an early June visit to Israel, Sen. Lindsay Graham said Israel would soon be making a request for $1 billion more in aid to “replenish the Iron Dome and a few other things, to upgrade the system.”
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid since World War II.