International Business Times:
U.S. lawmakers across party lines are pushing to boost funding for Israel’s missile defense system beyond the amount proposed by President Barack Obama for next year’s military budget, Defense News reported Wednesday. Politicians cited a series of regional threats, including Iran’s missile program, as an impetus for stepping up defense support.
“Missile defense is crucially important, and coming out of the Iran deal, we want to make clear our commitment to their security has not wavered,” Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the House Armed Services Committee’s ranking member, said. “Any threats Israel faces from missiles from the south — from the Gaza Strip, Islamic Jihad Organization and Hamas — and from the north and Hezbollah, we want to put them in the position to have a very strong deterrent to that.”
The additional funding, on top of the nearly $150 million requested by Obama, would go toward various missile technologies, including the Iron Dome air defense system, a medium- and long-range defense system called David’s Sling and anti-ballistic missiles. The requested price tag of the aid boost was not mentioned, although it appeared to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
