Congress has placed a hold on the $1 billion military aid package to Israel amid Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington on Tuesday.
Two congressional aides confirmed to The Hill that lawmakers have halted the sale. The top members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have the individual authority to block arms transfers exceeding a certain dollar threshold.
The decision marks a new development in an unbroken tradition of bipartisan support for U.S. military aid to Israel.
The proposed package, according to The Wall Street Journal, included 4,700 1,000-pound bombs valued at over $700 million and armored bulldozers, worth over than $300 million.
The hold on the sale coincides with growing tensions over Trump's hard-line support of Israel's Likud bloc agenda.
On Tuesday, The Journal also reported that during Trump and Netanyahu's meeting, the president proposed that millions of Palestinians leave Gaza permanently, a suggestion widely rejected by Arab states and Palestinian leaders.
"I hope we can do something where they wouldn't want to go back," Trump said next to Netanyahu.
He added that his administration envisions "really good quality housing" for Palestinians outside of Gaza while ostensible U.S.-backed reconstruction efforts are undertaken in the region.
"At some point, we have to look realistically. How do you rebuild Gaza," White House national security adviser Mike Waltz asked. "What does that look like? What's the timeline? These people are sitting with literally thousands of unexploded ordnance, in piles of rubble."
Meanwhile, Trump's notion of removing Palestinians from their land has drawn strong opposition from Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, whose diplomats recently reiterated that "in any form or under any circumstances or justifications" they oppose forced displacement of Palestinians.
Despite this, White House officials suggested they could be persuaded. Trump has invited Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordan's King Abdullah II to Washington for discussions later this month.
Trump's stance on Iran also looms over his discussions with Netanyahu. The president has not ruled out supporting an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear program, stating, "We just don't want them to have a nuclear weapon… we'll see what happens." While Netanyahu has long advocated military action against Iran, Trump has sent mixed signals — on one hand, appearing to encourage a strike, and on the other, expressing openness to negotiations. Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump signed an order reimposing "maximum pressure" sanctions on Iran, tightening enforcement of economic restrictions first implemented during his previous term.
The hold on the arms sale also comes as the Trump administration seeks to restructure the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an issue that's become a recent point of contention for Democrats in Washington.
With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, Democrats have limited options to challenge Trump's agenda. Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., have pledged to delay State Department nominees unless the administration reverses course on USAID.
But Trump could override the hold. In 2019, he bypassed Congress, approving an arms sale of more than $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan by invoking an emergency declaration. At the time, the Republican-controlled Senate voted to block the sale.
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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