Quick look
- The screenshot of the document "US approves $8 billion in aid to Israel" posted on the Internet is a fake. There is no indication that the United States is providing specific amounts of military assistance to Israel in connection with the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II. According to the report, as of March 1 this year, the United States has provided $158 billion in bilateral aid and missile defense funds to Israel, and almost all of the bilateral aid to Israel is provided in the form of military aid.
Event background
On October 7, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) announced the launch of the "Al-Aqsa Flood" military operation against Israel.
On the same day, according to the Foreign Assistance Act, US President Joe Biden has approved the emergency provision of US $8 billion in military aid to Israel.
The claim was accompanied by a screenshot of a document showing Biden authorizing the Secretary of state to provide up to $8 billion in aid to Israel under Section 506 (a) (1) of the FAA under the authority given to the president by Section 621 of the FAA of 1961. The screenshot shows that the document was published on October 7, 2023.
Screenshot of the web file
Mincha
a search of the White House website shows no information that Biden issued a memorandum on the authorization of Section 506 (a) (1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 on October 7.
On October 7, Biden delivered a speech on the attack on Israel in which he said the United States "will make sure they get the help their citizens need and that they can continue to defend themselves," according to a transcript of the White House website. However, Biden did not mention a specific amount of military aid to Israel in his speech. Biden's statement on the attack on Israel, released later by the White House, also contained no reference to military aid.
In his speech, Biden did not mention a specific amount of military aid to Israel, only that it would ensure that Israelis "can continue to defend themselves."
After verification, the screenshots of the Memorandum signed by Biden on the Internet have obvious traces of post-processing. The text in the screenshot is clearly off-color from the background, the Subject section of the screenshot is not aligned to the left, and Biden's byline is not aligned to the right. This is at odds with the usual White House format for releasing documents.
The background of the text in the screenshot is light yellow, with obvious color difference from the background, which may have undergone post-processing; The Subject section of the statement in the screenshot (above the yellow box) is not aligned to the left, and Biden's byline (below the yellow box) is not aligned to the right, which is inconsistent with the formatting practice of White House documents.
In addition, keyword search shows that the content of the document shown in the screenshot is almost consistent with the document text of the "Memorandum on the Authorization of Article 506 (a) (1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961" issued by Biden on July 25 this year in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict situation. In the original text, Biden authorized the secretary of state to provide up to $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, but the screenshot changed the amount of aid in the document, the target of aid and the date of release of the document.
On: Memorandum Concerning the Authorization under Section 506 (a) (1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, posted on the White House website on July 25, 2023. Next: net file screenshot. Except for the parts marked in the red box, the text of the two documents is no different.
Combining the above clues, we can see that the screenshot of the document that the United States approved $8 billion in aid to Israel is artificial. There is no information that the United States has decided to provide a specific amount of military aid to Israel in connection with the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On the other hand, American aid to Israel has been sustained for years. For example, a report from the Congressional Research Service, a U.S. congressional think tank, shows that Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid since World War II. As of March 1, the United States had provided $158 billion in bilateral aid and missile defense funding to Israel, and almost all of its bilateral aid to Israel was in the form of military aid.
Screenshot of the text of the Congressional Research Service report.
In 2016, the governments of the United States and Israel signed a third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military assistance. Under the terms of the memorandum, the United States pledged to provide Israel with a total of $38 billion in military assistance between fiscal 2019 and 2028, subject to congressional appropriations.
In 2022, Congress authorized $520 million (including $500 million for missile defense) for the United States and Israel's "joint defense Program" in the James Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023. In addition, under the terms of the MOU, Congress has allocated $3.8 billion to Israel in the Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act for military assistance and missile defense, and added $98.58 million for other cooperative defense and non-defense projects.
To sum up, the United States has actually provided a lot of financial support and military aid to Israel. A screenshot of a document posted online saying "US approves $8 billion in aid to Israel" is fake. There is no information that the United States will provide specific amounts of military assistance to Israel in connection with the recent Israeli-Palestinian conflict.