Several Senate Republicans said on Wednesday that Israel’s announcement this week that it plans to ramp up domestic weapons production to reduce its reliance on the United States is a predictable consequence of what they described as a misguided approach from the Biden administration since Oct. 7, 2023.

Last spring, the administration withheld a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs from Israel. Israel’s Defense Ministry said this week that it is aiming to achieve “armament independence” in the coming decade, including ramping up domestic production of heavy bombs.

“Israel’s interest in reducing dependence on the United States is the predictable outcome of the Biden administration’s policy of withholding arms sales from one of our closest allies during a time of war,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Jewish Insider. “Biden’s attempt to leverage arms sales to constrain Israel’s war aims was targeted at satisfying the left-wing of the Democratic Party prior to our elections.”

“While I would assure our friends in Israel that these issues will go away on January 20, I don’t fault them for ensuring their existence is untethered from U.S. Democrats’ politics,” he added. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that while he had not heard about the developments, he understood why Israel would take such a step given issues with munitions transfers from the U.S. since Oct. 7.

“I can’t say I blame them [Israel]. I would like to be a more reliable ally,” Cramer told JI. “Hopefully we will be going forward, but again, I can’t blame them.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD), who is also a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, similarly said he had not heard about the news, but noted that he and others on the committee had sounded the alarm on the delay of weapons to Ukraine and Israel in the last year.

“I can’t comment on what I haven’t read, but I will tell you that we have had discussions here within the Armed Services Committee about our frustration about the time delays that have been incurred for both the delivery of weapons to Israel and the delivery of weapons to Ukraine,” Rounds said. “Both have taken longer than what they should have. We have expressed our concern about that for well over a year on that particular issue. This is a case of, it is either a matter of they have been told to slow those down, or there’s a competency issue. It’s one or the other.”

Some pro-Israel Democrats this week downplayed the significance of Israel’s move.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told JI, “I welcome their self-reliance, but I think the United States should continue to support Israel with military and economic and other assistance as robustly as it has.”

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) argued that the U.S.-Israel alliance and the interests underlying it remain strong, adding that both sides must ensure that they maintain a unified front.

“Israel has been and will remain our most important ally in the region, one of our most important allies in the world. It’s fighting not a battle just in Gaza, but a battle on seven fronts. And in many respects, the fights that Israel has are fights that are in common with common enemies from the United States,” Schneider said. “So we stand united, as other people have been noting, Israel and the United States are strongest when they stand together and when there’s no daylight between us, and we need to work on both sides to make sure that we keep that relationship strong.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said there’s no reason to doubt the U.S.’ reliability as a partner to Israel.

“There may be a question as to how much money we provide for those weapons, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that we will provide the weapons,” Sherman said. “And obviously every country likes to be self-reliant and everything. It’s balance of payments issues, etc., but I would think that Israel is accomplishing good things with good weapons.”