12 2 STA T .48 4 3PUBLIC LA W 11 0– 42 9—O CT. 1 5, 2008 TI T LE II —UN ITE DS T A TES A RM S E XPO RTS SEC.201 . A SSESS M E NTOFI S R AE L’ S QU ALITATI V E MILITAR Y E DG E OVER MILITARY T H REATS. (a)AS S E SS M E NTR E QUIR E D.—ThePr e sid e nt sha l l c arr you tan e mp irical and q ualitati v e assessment on an on g oing b asis o f the e x tent to w hich I srael possesses a qualitative military edge over military threats to Israel. The assessment required under this sub - section shall be sufficiently robust so as to facilitate comparability of data over concurrent years. (b) U SE OF ASSESSMENT.—The President shall ensure that the assessment required under subsection (a) is used to inform the review by the United S tates of applications to sell defense articles and defense services under the Arms E xport C ontrol Act ( 2 2 U.S.C. 2 751 et seq.) to countries in the M iddle East. (c) RE P ORTS.— (1) INITI AL REPORT.— N ot later than J une 30, 200 9 , the President shall transmit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the initial assessment required under subsection (a). (2) Q UADRENNIAL REPORT.—Not later than four years after the date on which the President transmits the initial report under paragraph (1), and every four years thereafter, the Presi- dent shall transmit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on the most recent assessment required under sub- section (a). (d) CERTIFI C ATION.—Section 3 6 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2776) is amended by adding at the end the following
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‘(h) CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENT RELATIN G TO ISRAEL ’ S QUALI- TATI V E MILITAR Y EDGE.— ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Any certification relating to a proposed sale or export of defense articles or defense services under this section to any country in the Middle East other than Israel shall include a determination that the sale or export of the defense articles or defense services will not adversely affect Israel’s qualitative military edge over military threats to Israel. ‘‘(2) QUALITATIVE MILITARY EDGE DEFINED.—In this sub- section, the term ‘qualitative military edge’ means the ability to counter and defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors, while sustaining minimal damages and casualties, through the use of superior military means, pos- sessed in sufficient quantity, including weapons, command, con- trol, communication, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnais- sance capabilities that in their technical characteristics are superior in capability to those of such other individual or pos- sible coalition of states or non-state actors.’’. (e) D EFINITIONS.—In this section: (1) APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES.—The term ‘‘appropriate congressional committees’’ means the Committee on F oreign Affairs of the H ouse of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate. (2) QUALITATIVE MILITARY EDGE.—The term ‘‘qualitative military edge’’ has the meaning given the term in section 36(h) Presid e nt.2 2 USC 2 7 7 6 n o te.
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