It’s time for politically cool heads to kick back and separate out the issue of U.S. aid to Israel from the “my way or the highway” culture that has overtaken our governmental process. Now is a critical moment in the Jewish state’s fight to put an end to Hamas’s threat to both its security and the geopolitical interests of the United States as well. U.S. support for this effort should be a no-brainer. Yet a proposed supplemental aid package to Israel is being challenged in Congress, thankfully not over any problems with Israel, but with Ukraine, which would also receive aid for its war with Russia under the proposed plan – something which is strongly supported by President Biden and congressional Democrats.
Opponents to Ukrainian aid, predominantly from the Republican side, argue that the defense of Ukraine’s borders must take second place to the defense of our own borders. They insist that the U.S. should not be sending any more billions of dollars to support Ukrainian security before seriously acting to secure our own border with Mexico, through which millions of migrants have illegally entered our country. In fact, Republicans even rejected a Biden administration proposal for funding for a border crackdown because they said it didn’t go far enough. Republicans also contend that sending more money to Ukraine would be unavailing because it now has become clear that Ukraine will never be able to defeat the far larger and more militarily powerful Russia on the battlefield despite their heretofore impressive interim victories.
On Sunday, in a critical procedural victory, the Senate voted 67-27 to end the debate on whether the current supplemental foreign aid bill for Israel and the Ukraine should be added to pending general aid legislation. The numbers surpass the filibuster threshold and means that the entire legislation – including the supplemental provisions – will likely be voted on by the full Senate and passed this week. Some influential senators still oppose the emergency aid, but overwhelming votes on procedural issues, like the one in play here, are usually good barometers of how the vote on the merits will go.
But following Senate passage, the action would then move to the House where the supplemental aid issue – including aid to Israel – has been largely overtaken by the partisan political fight over inadequate American border security. Significantly, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has said that there was serious opposition to aid to Ukraine in his chamber and has hinted that he has been threatened with a challenge to his leadership if he pushes an aid package which included Ukraine.
We hear that Johnson has been hinting that he may be open to pushing aid legislation that includes Israel but not Ukraine, although he says he believes that helping Ukraine is important to American national interests and its reputation for not abandoning its friends. But if the choice is all or nothing, as we have said the answer should be a no-brainer.
We are also constrained to note that in this context, we find particularly disturbing the various calls from members of Congress that U.S. aid to Israel should be conditioned on Israel’s compliance with a diktat from President Biden on how Israel should conduct its war with Hamas. Although the President himself has not gone that far, it is fair to say that his comments suggest that he is certainly considering moving in that direction.
Israel must be left free to deal with its Hamas problem in its own way.
