How the Pentagon can help Israel now

Excerpt

Following Hamas’ horrific terror attack on Israel this past Saturday, the Biden administration has moved quickly to send Israel weapons and strengthen U.S. military posture in the region. Those initial steps are laudable but not enough. With Israel preparing to launch a major ground incursion into Gaza and with the possibility that Hezbollah could open a major new front in the north, the United States would be wise to proactively provide Israel additional air defenses and weapons as soon as possible to augment what has already been sent or is in the pipeline for delivery.

Many Israelis are comparing the Hamas attack to some combination of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. It is easy to see why in terms of the brutality and consequences of the attack. The actions of Hamas fighters clearly surprised Israel, and the tactics employed during the assault were straight out of the ISIS playbook, with reports of civilian executions and war crimes. As U.S. President Joe Biden said on Oct. 10: “This was an act of sheer evil.”

Hamas’ surprise terrorist attack and subsequent onslaught has claimed the lives of at least 1,200 Israelis. Israel’s losses would be equivalent to more than 40,000 Americans dying, in per capita terms; that is more than 13 times those lost on 9/11.

In response to Hamas’ terror attack, the United States is already providing weapons to Israel. A senior Pentagon official stated on Oct. 9 that the support “includes air defense and munitions” and that the Pentagon is “contacting U.S. industry to gain expedited shipment of pending Israeli orders for military equipment.” Bloomberg reported on Oct. 10 that a pending order of 1,000 Small Diameter Bombs was already picked up by an Israeli transport aircraft and that an additional sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions conversion kits, which convert unguided bombs into precision munitions, is being accelerated.

Bradley Bowman is the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Ryan Brobst is a senior research analyst.