US Invokes Emergency Waiver to Green-Light $8.6 B Arms Package for Israel & Gulf Allies

Washington’s emergency airlift during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 2019 Pompeo–Saudi UAE waiver both echo today’s move: when allies burn through munitions, US presidents routinely cite “regional emergencies” to override Capitol Hill. The pattern reveals two larger arcs: (1) the post-9/11 normalization of perpetual arms flows to Middle-Eastern partners regardless of their rights records, and (2) the mounting strain on the US–NATO industrial base as simultaneous conflicts (Ukraine 2022–, Gaza 2023, Iran 2026) outpace production. Whether these weapons arrive in months or years, the waiver further entrenches a security architecture in which Gulf states trade oil transit rights for US defensive umbrellas—an arrangement already six decades old. On a century scale, each bypass marginally weakens congressional war-powers oversight, inching the US toward an executive-led foreign policy first cemented in the 1947 National Security Act; historians may see these 2020s waivers as another small ratchet in that long-term constitutional shift.