{"id":23532,"date":"2026-08-01T15:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/23532\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T15:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T15:40:11","slug":"report-netanyahu-blocked-lindsey-grahams-request-to-send-iron-dome-to-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/23532\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Netanyahu Blocked Lindsey Graham’s Request to Send Iron Dome to Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down a request from late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to transfer an Iron Dome air defense system from the United States to Ukraine in 2023, The Washington Post reported Saturday. <\/p>\n

According to the report,<\/a> Netanyahu vetoed the transfer by citing the terms of a joint-production agreement that grants Israel the final say regarding the system’s deployment, even though the battery in question was paid for by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

Responding to the report, Israel’s embassy in Washington confirmed the report, saying the decision was made out of concern that “the technology would find its way to the Iranians.”<\/p>\n

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Lindsey Graham in the Senate, May. Credit: AFP\/JIM WATSON<\/p>\n

Lindsey Graham in the Senate, May. Credit: AFP\/JIM WATSON<\/p>\n

The embassy also said Israel returned Patriot missile batteries to the United States so they could be sent to Ukraine instead.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told The Washington Post that Israel’s capacity to veto exports of U.S. arms to other countries was a necessary limitation imposed by co-production. “Any time you enter into co-production, we have those restrictions,” he said.<\/p>\n

The report comes after the U.S. House of Representatives passed its version of the annual defense appropriations bill, which includes a provision that critics charge would actually increase U.S.-Israeli military and technology cooperation rather than weaning Israel away from U.S. assistance.<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/p>\n

The relevant section \u2013 formally known as Section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act \u2013 would increase U.S. and Israeli military cooperation by committing to bilateral research and development, weapons co-production, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and deeply integrating both countries’ weapons industries.<\/p>\n

\"The\"TheClose<\/p>\n

The Iron Beam laser system: 100 kilowatts and a range of 10 kilometers. Credit: Defense Ministr<\/p>\n

The Iron Beam laser system: 100 kilowatts and a range of 10 kilometers. Credit: Defense Ministr<\/p>\n

The section goes beyond traditional foreign military sales and existing cooperative programs. In a letter backing the plan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the concept as “my plan to shift the framework for U.S.-Israel defense cooperation.”<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended Graham’s funeral <\/a>after the senator died earlier this month at the age of 71. The two leaders separately met<\/a> U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday and later attended the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham, where they were seen standing near one another and seemingly conversing.<\/p>\n

Listen to the Haaretz Podcast with Pnina Pfeuffer<\/p>\n

This week, two sources told Haaretz that Netanyahu’s office declined a proposal for him to meet with Zelenskyy<\/a> in Washington. According to a Ukrainian source, Netanyahu’s office initially proposed the meeting, but after Zelenskyy’s office accepted, it received no further response until Tuesday, when Israeli officials said the prime minister would be unable to meet because of time constraints. <\/p>\n

The two leaders have not met in person since the U.N. General Assembly in September 2023. In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack, Zelenskyy sought to visit Israel in a show of solidarity, but the request was turned down. Netanyahu and Zelenskyy last spoke by phone in early 2025.<\/p>\n

Ben Samuels contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turned down a request from late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham to transfer an Iron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6654,8479,8478,26,152],"class_list":["post-23532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-iron-dome","tag-israel-u-s","tag-ukraine","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}