The Iranian attack against Israel this weekend has redoubled pressure on the United States Congress to approve the aid package to Israel and Ukraine worth nearly 95 billion dollars (more than 89 billion euros), pending for some time. months. The president of the Lower House, Mike Johnson, has assured that he will try to push the measure forward this week. But it is not clear that he can achieve it: the majority of him can be counted on the fingers of one hand and the deputies of the most radical republican wing remain entrenched in their refusal to assist kyiv with more funds. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden reiterated when receiving Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al Sudani at the White House that Washington is committed to preventing the conflict in the Middle East from “spreading further than it already has.” has done”.
“House Republicans and the Republican Party understand the need to support Israel,” Johnson told Fox News television this Sunday. “We are going to try again this week, the details of that proposal are being organized right now.”
The White House, for its part, reiterated in public its calls to approve this aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Asian allies: “They have to put it to a vote as soon as possible,” insisted the spokesman for the National Security Council, John Kirby. .
The move for Johnson, a parsimonious man who likes to carefully examine all possibilities from every conceivable angle before making a decision, is complicated. He knows that after the events of the weekend he needs to move forward, at least, with aid to Israel: some and others highlight the fundamental role of American teams in intercepting the barrage of projectiles launched by Iran. But a false step before the hard wing of his own caucus could cost him his job, as his predecessor Kevin McCarthy already experienced firsthand, deposed by his own in September for not having blocked a budget law proposed by the Democrats. .
A flurry of activity was taking place behind the scenes this Monday in the offices and hallways of the House. A meeting of the Republican parliamentary group was scheduled for late in the afternoon to discuss the “recent Iranian attack against Israel and supplementary defense funds.”
Johnson met by videoconference on Sunday with President Biden, and with the rest of the political leaders of Congress: Democrats Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate majority, and Hakeem Jeffries, the number one Democrat in the House of Representatives, and Mitch McConnell, head of the Republican minority in the Senate. All of them alluded to the Iranian broadsides to highlight the need to approve pending aid to Israel. And, by the way, to Ukraine. Biden, according to the White House, highlighted the “urgent need” to advance this assistance, which kyiv desperately needs to respond to the Russian offensive.
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The assistance bill has been circulating, in various versions, since the end of September. It allocates more than 60,000 million dollars in military and economic aid to Ukraine, and around 14,000 to Israel, among other items. The Senate approved it on February 8, but it has since languished in the House of Representatives, where Johnson has resisted putting it to a vote.
Although Democrats and Republicans recognize that if it were brought to the plenary session it would receive the support of a comfortable majority and move forward, presenting the project could mean political death for the president of the House, originally from Louisiana. The radical Republican wing is sharply opposed to any assistance to kyiv and believes the funds are better spent on priorities within the United States. Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene, a great ally of former President Donald Trump, threatens to present an internal motion to depose Johnson, similar to the one that cost McCarthy his position, if the Speaker of the House gives in and puts the aid to a vote.
Another possible option Johnson is considering is to introduce his own bill, including only assistance to Israel. It is a step that he had already tried in various ways in recent months, always without success. And that he runs the risk of definitively leaving aside aid destined for Ukraine, which would place the invaded country exposed to the Russian war machine. Something that the White House, and the Democrats, reject outright. Kirby reiterated it this Monday in the daily briefing of the presidential office: “We oppose a bill solely for Israel,” he stressed. “This is about two allies, Israel and Ukraine. They are very different conflicts, but time is not in favor of either of them. The fastest way to provide them with help is by approving the bill that already has the Senate's yes.”
While Johnson deliberates on how to make a move, Democrats reiterate their calls. In an open letter to MPs, Hakeem Jeffries has once again urged the aid to be approved as soon as possible.
“This past weekend's serious events in the Middle East and Eastern Europe underscore the need for Congress to act immediately. We must move forward with the bipartisan and comprehensive bill that the Senate approved on national security,” emphasizes Jeffries, who urges deputies to choose whether they prefer to be “[Winston] Churchill or [Neville] Chamberlain. The former led the British war effort against Nazi Germany in World War II. The second, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1937 and 1940, has gone down in history with opprobrium, as the man who tried to appease Adolf Hitler's regime by offering concessions and promised, after those negotiations, “peace for our era”, only to end up seeing how on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the war began.
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