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Biden Admin Depletes Reserve U.S. Stockpile in Israel in Bid to Replenish Ukraine 

Biden Admin Depletes Reserve U.S. Stockpile in Israel in Bid to Replenish Ukraine 

“The amount of US munitions stored in Israel has been dwindling due to the Ukraine war and it is still unclear when it will be replenished.”

Israeli officials have raised concern as the Biden administration depletes the U.S. ammunition stockpile stored in the country amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Tel Avi-based newspaper Israel Hayom reported Thursday.

The warning comes as Israel faces multi-pronged rocket and terrorist attacks along its northern and southern borders. The Iranian regime is working to encircle Israel by building a terrorist axis comprising Islamist and terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli TV channel i24news reported that “Israeli officials are worried of their depletion due to the threat of a multi-front war, amid heightened tensions with Hezbollah in Lebanon and terror groups in the Palestinian territories.”

Reports first surfaced three months ago that the Biden administration was secretly shipping large amounts of artillery shells stored in Israel to the Ukrainian front-line. The Biden administration was “quietly shipping hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine from a massive stockpile in Israel,” The Times of Israel reported in January 2023.

The ammunition belongs to the U.S. military and has been stored for quick deployment in any future conflict in the Middle East. There is however an understanding that Israel could use the stockpile in case of a dire military need, Israeli media reports suggest. “There has been an unofficial understanding between Jerusalem and Washington that the depots placed in Israel could be used by the hosts in the event that the Jewish state found itself in an emergency situation,” i24news explained.

The Israel Hayom reported growing concern in Israel over the depleting stockpile:

The amount of US munitions stored in Israel has been dwindling due to the Ukraine war and it is still unclear when it will be replenished, Israel Hayom has learned from Israeli sources.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the depots storing US munitions in Israel had been partially tapped in order to help Ukraine fend off the Russian invasion. The depots are officially designated as US military storage facilities and as such enjoy diplomatic immunity under bilateral agreements with Israel. The implicit understanding between Jerusalem and Washington over many decades has been that the munitions there would be earmarked for Israel in times of emergency if the Jewish state faces a major attack along the scale as the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when it faced a combined invsasion by Syria and Egypt.

According to sources who spoke with Israel Hayom, some of the munitions have been shipped out in recent months through the Port of Ashdod – mainly on Saturdays – to avoid drawing media attention. The shipments out of Israel, which began under the premierships of Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, have continued until recent weeks. Israeli and foreign sources have told

Israel Hayom that the reason those munitions had been tapped is the ongoing shortage of reserve stockpiles in the West in the wake of the continued fighting in Ukraine.

A defense official said that the White House made the decision to shift resources outside of Israel to another front, but in light of Israel’s fragile security situation in recent weeks, this could have other effects. “These are Israel’s reserve stockpiles for times of war,” a former cabinet minister said. “The move has had a bigger implication in light of the threats on Israel in multiple theaters.”

After 14 months of intense fighting, the Ukrainian military is running low on ammunition and heavy weaponry. “NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine was using ammunition faster than NATO members could produce it,” the German state-run DW TV reported in February.

The recently leaked Pentagon documents also suggest that Ukraine may soon run out of various types of ammunition. “Ukraine’s air defences risk running out of missiles and ammunition within weeks,” British newspaper The Guardian reported earlier this month citing the cache of leaked classified U.S. documents.

The country desperately needs more antiaircraft missiles and ammunition. “Kyiv is depleting its last reserves of S-300 missiles, making it possible for Russia to achieve air superiority,” The Wall Street Journal reported recently citing the same leaked documents. “Russia could achieve its long-sought goal of air superiority in Ukrainian skies as early as May because Ukraine is running out of antiaircraft missiles.”

The massive pullout of the U.S. stockpile also coincides with President Joe Biden’s growing hostility towards Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Last month, President Joe Biden told PM Netanyahu to “walk away” from the proposed judicial reforms that seek to give Israel’s elected government more power to appoint Supreme Court judges and amend the constitutional framework.

The Israeli government accused the Biden White House of “inappropriately intervening” in the country’s domestic affairs. Responding to President Biden veiled threats, PM Netanyahu affirmed that “Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.”

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Comments

JackinSilverSpring | April 30, 2023 at 4:15 pm

As Psalm 146 admonishes us, Do not put your trust in princes or in people. Israel needs to look at what’s happening and plan accordingly. Biden is simply inept and most likely demented. Whoever is running the show in the Administration is hostile to Israel and specifically Netanyahu. In light of that, Israel either needs to produce its own ammunition in sufficient quantities or find someone who can do that for it that is not the USA. As a sidebar, I find it interesting that the bloated US budget has money for all manner of useless things but not arms. A primary purpose of the US government is to protect its citizens. If it cannot replace the arms it is providing Ukraine, it is failing big time.

    “Biden is simply inept and most likely demented.”
    Biden is neither inept nor demented. He may be more affected by the typical mental diminishments of old age than the average alter kocker, he is effectively doing what he and the Democrats have been planning. Biden is evil and venal, and pro-Iran (among other anti-American countries).

Like the Strategic Pertroleum Reserve.

Back in the 90’s, the Cold War was eon after we bankrupted the Soviets. Now, it looks like the reverse is going on. Of course, Biden and the progressives are helping by driving America off a cliff.

    Are you people so stuck in your silliness that you don’t realize that those missiles are doing just what they’re supposed to do? It’s not like China or Russia was ever going to attack us. They know we’d wipe them out in weeks.

    So we’re using those missiles to humiliate Russia in its illegal land-grab. Which is a great use for them and a better use of our tax dollars than funding intersection welfare queens to tell us about how evil every white man ever was…

      henrybowman in reply to MosesZD. | April 30, 2023 at 8:23 pm

      i wouldn’t call myself silly.
      I’d prefer to simply be known as not having been a warmongering progressive/neo-con fool.

      CommoChief in reply to MosesZD. | April 30, 2023 at 9:55 pm

      All those missiles were bought and paid for to defend the US and the vital National Security interests of the US aka our treaty allies. Ukraine is neither of those nor is the US in a state of War with Russia. The missiles and everything else sent to Ukraine are therefore not in fact ‘doing what they are supposed to do’.

      If you think kicking Russia in the jimmy is a good idea then go do your own kicking at the front. By all realistic accounts the Ukrainians are getting pasted so they would probably appreciate your help. This foolish view of the US as Team USA World Police whereby we are somehow obliged to intervene around the world is Cray Cray.

It’s as if the Brandon Administration’s true goal is to feed a Lovecraftian shithole.

Since day one in office, Joe has analyzed every sector of the US economy and society, identified its most valuable resource, and tossed it down the shithole.

Energy. Transportation. Education. Defense. Finance. Health. Home ownership. Social harmony. Immigration. Political representation. The Justice system.

    BeAChooser in reply to henrybowman. | April 30, 2023 at 7:23 pm

    “It’s as if the Brandon Administration’s true goal is to feed a Lovecraftian shithole.”

    It is. This is how the communists gain control of the US. They repeatedly told us this.

    ahad haamoratsim in reply to henrybowman. | May 1, 2023 at 7:44 am

    Tried to vote this up but hit the wrong icon. Sorry.
    Word Press needs a way to let us correct that kind of error.

All the billions the military gets and we have no bullets

Good to know

    CommoChief in reply to gonzotx. | April 30, 2023 at 6:40 pm

    1. Basic ordinance isn’t sexy like a new generation of fighter aircraft (which we subsequently cancel b/c it don’t work or vastly reduce reduce # from original order size due to cost overrun. Thus few champions for it.
    2. Shipping multiple years worth of current (and future) production levels in many categories to a Client State who was coerced by the US/UK into kicking sand on their bigger, badder neighbor is a poorly conceived policy.
    3. The Military Brass have at least been sounding the alarm on the issue instead of ignoring it, downplaying it so give the devil his due on this one.
    4. The usual suspects of military industrial complex grifters, neocons, chicken hawks and the ill informed rah rah USA should just kick everyone else’s ass choir along with those politicians who want to wag the dog via Ukrainian Flag lapel pins are to blame here.

      henrybowman in reply to CommoChief. | April 30, 2023 at 8:27 pm

      “The Military Brass have at least been sounding the alarm on the issue instead of ignoring it, downplaying it so give the devil his due on this one.”

      Nuh uh. Any player having playing the “whatever it takes as long as it takes” card publicly (and in this case, repeatedly) can no longer gain points on any term by playing the “sounding the alarm” card.

        CommoChief in reply to henrybowman. | April 30, 2023 at 9:01 pm

        Rephrase then to ‘some Military Brass’ ….others in hierarchy of a more ass kissing persuasion who allow themselves to be a weather vane to prevailing opinion have not. Mostly b/c they are more interested in other considerations than their primary responsibility to Deter, Fight and Win the Nation’s wars.

        That said when the political leadership aka the Commander in Chief gives a lawful order the talking is done. You go execute. Directed planning aka STFU and do it sucks as leadership style but whatcha gonna do? Congress could be doing more to stop this as well but most of them are all on board with it. See the proliferation of Ukrainian Flag pins and ribbons on the lapels of those in power.

        You won’t find many people more cynical of our SR Military leaders than I but in this case a couple of very SR Officers sounded the alarm which gutted most of their future post retirement opportunities for cushy graft gigs on defense contractors boards and elsewhere. They aren’t ‘team players’ you see and are too willing to go public with things the regime would prefer remain private.

    BeAChooser in reply to gonzotx. | April 30, 2023 at 7:24 pm

    Not “we”. The military.

    Keep that in mind if the 2nd Amendment gets used to stop this madness.

    ahad haamoratsim in reply to gonzotx. | May 1, 2023 at 7:45 am

    Who needs bullets when you have pronouns?

      Peabody in reply to ahad haamoratsim. | May 1, 2023 at 8:12 am

      The new pronouns are all feel good, it’s the original pronouns that hurt.

      BeAChooser in reply to ahad haamoratsim. | May 1, 2023 at 1:08 pm

      The problem is pronouns only work as a weapon against us. They won’t be effective against the Chinese or Russians. In fact, I saw a cartoon where a Chinese drill sergeant was training a soldier to shout pronouns at us in order to demoralize us.

        ahad haamoratsim in reply to BeAChooser. | May 3, 2023 at 7:53 am

        Well, your priorities are definitely not the same as the current brass, but then again neither are mine. Somewhere I had this crazy idea that the military is there to win wars.

I guarantee you that not one of the vile Dhimmi-crats in dotard-marionette, Biden’s, Administration, including innumerable, Jew-hating and Israel-vilifying Muslim supremacists and apologists for Arab terrorism, is troubled in the slightest by this stockpile reduction.

The reserves that we are depleting were intended for a military the size of the US military. Given the size of Ukraine’s military, I don’t understand how they could be consuming munitions at the rate we’re sending them.

    CommoChief in reply to randian. | May 1, 2023 at 12:06 pm

    The rate and duration of expenditure, especially the duration, far exceeds what the US would expect for our own reasonably expected conflicts. Modern warfare planning is built around either very short duration v ‘near peer’ competitors like the first weeks of Iraq or an extended asymmetric fight. Neither of which use anything like the rate of expenditure/duration in Ukraine.

    In Ukraine we see two more/less modern 1st ish world Nations dueling. Neither had recent combat experience in modern maneuver warfare. Both adapted and recast their tactics and strategy. Supplying Ukraine the many anti air missiles worked to deny air superiority or even air parity to Russia. That’s a huge component of modern maneuver warfare. Much easier to send off an armor or mech infantry column or set up forward artillery positions when the opponent can’t get at you from the air.

    As the supply of anti air missiles dwindles and the Russians are able to operate more freely in the air and on the ground the asymmetric tactics adopted by Ukraine become less effective. That’s the main reason the Ukrainians have been bitching about getting modern fighter aircraft from NATO. Without it and more importantly IMO anti air missiles and layered air defense they will lose.

Lucifer Morningstar | May 1, 2023 at 4:48 pm

What a surprise. Now that the Biden regime has driven the U.S. military into a hole with regards to military equipment and ammunition they’re going for any supplies that they might have in any foreign based military bases. All to give to that fraud by the name of Zelenskyy in support of a proxy war with Russia.

Well, all Russia has to do now is out wait U.S. and when we run out of military equipment and ammo to give to pretty boy Zelenskyy simply walk in and take what they want.