IRmep asks appeals court to block Trump transfer of $3.7 billion in US aid to nuclear Israel

prnewswire.com

IRmep Director Grant F. Smith filed an emergency motion asking the US Court of Appeals for an injunction on the immanent transfer of US foreign military assistance to Israel.

On May 5 President Trump signed into law a temporary spending measure designed to keep the US government running until September. The law included $3.7 billion in foreign aid to Israel. 

Appellants argue that Israel's nuclear weapons program requires either that the aid be withheld, or that long-neglected special procedures under the Arms Export Control Act be followed. The Trump administration has not issued required special waivers, as has been done for Pakistan and other nuclear weapons countries, that would make the aid legal under the Symington & Glenn Amendments.

Senator Stuart Symington (1901-1988), in legislating prohibitions on foreign aid to covert nuclear powers said "if you wish to take the dangerous and costly steps necessary to achieve a nuclear weapons option, you cannot expect the United States to help underwrite that effort indirectly or directly."

Senator Chuck Schumer recently told reporters at a National Press Club Briefing, "It is a well-known fact that Israel has nuclear weapons, but the Israeli government doesn't officially talk about what kinds of weapons and where, et cetera."