Israel Fights To Save US Missile Funding From The Sequester Cuts

Israel is making feverish efforts to save part of the US military aid from the sequester, which will come into effect tomorrow. Israel realizes that it will have to absorb a cut of hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid for the 2013 fiscal year, and the question is what can be saved, if anything.

To some extent Israel is collateral damage of a financial attack, and must now undertake triage to decide which are the elements of US military aid are critical to the country's security, and which of them have the best chance of being saved. This means which items are attractive enough in the opinion of US administration officials or members of Congress so the budget axe can be stayed. At this point it seems that Israel will focus its rescue effort on financing for the Iron Dome and Arrow missile defense programs, and accept the reduction in current military aid.

Senior officials in the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs are drawing up a strategy for dealing with the problem, which is at the top of the agenda at the Embassy in Washington. One source believes that Minister of Defense Ehud Barak's unscheduled visit to Washington on February 13, shortly after his previous visit, was related to the sequester.

The severity of the sequester on Israel is still not fully clear. Assuming that it comes into effect, the worst case scenario is a $729 million reduction in US military aid for Israel. $250 million will be cut from current aid, which totals $3.15 billion for the 2013 fiscal year (the final figure is uncertain because how the sequester will be calculated has not been finalized).

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