Congressional negotiators agreed to hike funding for missile defense development with Israel. Appropriators from the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate agreed Wednesday on a defense appropriations package that includes $155 million for missile defense cooperation with Israel. That’s $17 million more than last year’s appropriation and $75 million more than President Bush requested. Both houses are expected to approve the bill in the coming weeks, with Bush expected to sign the measure before Thanksgiving. The package includes $98 million for Israel’s Arrow missile interceptor program; $37 million for the development of a short-range interceptor, a program launched in part because of Hezbollah’s bombardment of northern Israel during the Lebanese terrorist group’s war with Israel in the summer of 2006; and $20 million to develop a high altitude missile defense.
It is aimed principally at enhancing Israel’s missile defense capability, although the package has applications for U.S. defense. Other Israeli-U.S. packages approved by the appropriators are mostly for U.S. defense needs, especially in Iraq.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
