US House of Representatives votes for billions in aid for Israel

2023-11-03 05:05:55

However, the legislative text has no chance of passing the Senate, which is controlled by President Joe Biden’s Democrats, due to the lack of aid to Ukraine and the lack of humanitarian aid for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip.

The legislative text presented by the Republican Party passed the Congressional Chamber on Thursday with the help of the Republican majority and the votes of a handful of Democrats. Biden wants Congress to release new billions for Ukraine along with aid to Israel. However, the Republican bill does not provide for any new funds for Kiev. The conservatives, who make up the majority in the House of Representatives, also want the new aid to Israel to be counter-financed by savings from the US tax authorities, which Biden firmly rejects.

Biden announced veto

The president has made it clear that he would veto a bill that only included aid to Israel. Two weeks ago, Biden asked Parliament for $14.3 billion for Israel and $61.4 billion for Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia. While the Republicans are largely united in their support for more money for Israel, the situation is different when it comes to Ukraine: parts of the conservative party are strictly against new aid for Kiev.

The new chairman of the House of Representatives, the arch-conservative Republican Mike Johnson, presented the text of the law, which only provides for new aid to Israel. This has also met with criticism from Republicans in the Senate: “The idea that supporting the fight against Russian aggression distracts from other security priorities is wrong,” said Republican minority leader in the congressional chamber, Mitch McConnell, recently.

Along with aid to Israel and Ukraine, Biden had also asked Congress for billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, funding for allies in the Indo-Pacific and for protecting US borders. The overall package is worth almost $106 billion.

The US government warns urgently that Ukraine could lose the war against Russia without further US aid. “I can guarantee you that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will be successful (for Ukraine) without our support,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022, Washington has so far provided or promised Kiev military aid worth around $44 billion. The US is also a close and historic ally of Israel.

The House of Representatives was recently paralyzed for three weeks by a Republican power struggle and was therefore unable to pass any laws – and therefore no new aid for US allies. The previous Republican chairman Kevin McCarthy was the first “speaker” in US history to be overthrown on October 3rd by a rebellion by right-wing hardliners within his own ranks.

In the search for a successor, three candidates nominated by the Republicans failed one after the other due to internal party turf wars. The parliamentary crisis ended on Wednesday last week with the election of Mike Johnson as the new leader.