The U.S. State Department approved a possible $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, and Israeli officials are now expected to ask Donald Trump’s administration for extra weapons and defense capabilities as “compensation.” That’s the machinery on display: one state’s military upgrade triggers another state’s shopping list, while the people under both systems get none of the say.
The State Monopoly on Sale
Middle East Eye said Israeli media reported that Israeli officials are expected to seek weapons Washington had previously declined to provide. The reported requests go well beyond fighter aircraft and stealth capabilities. Walla said they include space-based weapons, the development and production of interceptor aircraft, and “bunker-busting munitions and underground systems capable of operating deep beneath rocky mountains.” The language is clinical. The purpose is not.
The requests are meant to secure a U.S. “compensation” package after Washington approved the potential F-35 sale to Riyadh, according to Walla. The proposed Saudi package includes 49 Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines, communications and cryptographic equipment, electronic warfare support, training and logistics, according to the State Department’s notification to Congress. The sale still needs congressional approval, because even a giant weapons transfer has to pass through the usual democratic theater before the hardware starts moving.
Reuters reported that the proposed sale could test Washington’s longstanding policy of maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region. That policy has always been less about peace than about managing which state gets the bigger knife.
Who Gets Armed, Who Gets Managed
Middle East Eye said it had reported for months on the progress of the sale, with multiple U.S. and Arab sources saying it was moving quickly. It said the sale would make Saudi Arabia the first Arab country to operate F-35s, while Israel is currently the only Middle Eastern country operating the aircraft. The regional arms race keeps its own rhythm. Washington approves. The states compete. Everyone else lives with the consequences.
The report also said Saudi Arabia is reeling from Houthi missile and drone attacks while its allies in Yemen, the internationally recognised government, are struggling to stem a Houthi offensive that has resulted in them securing the entirety of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, along with the Arabian Gulf side of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The phrasing belongs to the official record. The reality is a region where armed authorities, recognized or not, keep rearranging territory and power while civilians remain the terrain.
Compensation for the Powerful
Israeli officials are expected to ask the Trump administration to approve systems that Washington had previously declined to provide. That’s the real meaning of “compensation” here. Not security for ordinary people. Not restraint. Just a recalibration of state power, with one military bureaucracy asking another for more tools after a rival bureaucracy gets a new toy.
The State Department’s notification to Congress lists the proposed Saudi sale at $24.3 billion. The package includes fighter jets, engines, communications and cryptographic equipment, electronic warfare support, training and logistics. The Israeli side, according to the report, wants its own package of advanced capabilities in return. The whole arrangement reads like a marketplace for organized force, with Congress cast as the clerk and the public as the audience.
Middle East Eye said the sale could also intersect with Washington’s review of Israel’s qualitative military edge, which it said it revealed in December 2025. That review, like the sale itself, is a reminder that the region’s security order is built on managed inequality, not anything resembling liberation or accountability.
The people who will live under these systems don’t appear in the paperwork except as targets, subjects, or collateral. The states do. The contractors do. The diplomats do. The rest are expected to call it stability.