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Washington DC – After days of controversy surrounding this move, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved an additional $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
Legislators passed the bill by a vote of 420 to 9 on Thursday, paving the way for a substantial increase in US support for the system.
The bill will now be submitted to the Senate and is expected to be passed easily in the Senate. It will then be signed into law by President Joe Biden, who has already expressed support for additional assistance.
This move was made at a time of intense debate about U.S. support for Israel and a growing number of progressive voices in Congress calling for Biden. Conditioned on U.S. aid Israel’s human rights record.
Earlier this week, a different bill that included and subsequently excluded funds from the Iron Dome Fund caused an uproar in Washington.
The US$1 billion appropriation first appeared in the House of Representatives legislative proposal on Tuesday morning, aimed at providing short-term emergency funding for the US government to avoid a government shutdown. But in the afternoon, it had been deleted for no reason.
Although several media reports in the United States claim that progressive lawmakers are responsible for excluding funding for Israel from Tuesday’s bill, no lawmaker believes that this move is praised.
Lara Friedman, chairman of the Middle East Peace Foundation (FMEP), said that including $1 billion in aid to Israel in a general bill aimed at funding the U.S. government to “keep the lights on” is “weird” of”.
She said that Democratic leaders hope to “circumvent” discussions and debates brought about by typical legislative procedures by including assistance to Israel in the short-term funding bill.
Friedman told Al Jazeera earlier this week: “It makes me feel that this is an extraordinary own goal for the leadership, because if they somehow think it will prevent members from expressing their opinions and let them have no controversy. If they survived the difficult situation, they would be wrong.”
Although the $1 billion is in addition to the funds normally provided by the United States for Iron Dome, Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats expressed anger at the eventual removal of the clause.
Significant increase
Supporters of the increased funding said that its goal is to “replenish” the Iron Dome battery. Recent fight In Gaza, the US$1 billion approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday represents a significant increase in US funding for the program.
Israel receives US$3.8 billion in military assistance from the United States each year, which was compiled through a 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by President Obama in 2016. Among them, 500 million U.S. dollars is used for missile defense each year.
last year, Congress allocates $73 million Iron Dome is one of several missile defense programs in particular.
“The missile defense system (ie, the iron dome) protects civilians from missile attacks. It gets its name. Only in a morally inverted universe will this be considered a’controversy’,” said Richie, a first-term Democrat from New York. · Torres (Ritchie Torres) wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called the initial move to remove Israeli funding from the broader House bill “despicable.”
Graham said on Twitter on Tuesday: “I hope that the American people are paying attention and understanding that funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system is vital to the survival of the State of Israel. Israel is the most reliable ally of the United States in a turbulent and dangerous area. .”
There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the nature of aid. On Tuesday, many lawmakers proposed to cancel the Iron Dome funding clause to end US aid to the missile defense program.
In fact, this year’s 108 million US dollars of regular assistance from Iron Dome is part of the annual assistance stipulated in the memorandum of understanding, including Defense Appropriations Act This was debated almost at the same time as Tuesday’s resolution.
this The memorandum of understanding says Israel must not seek additional missile defense funding beyond the US$500 million allocation from the United States, “except under special circumstances.”
The bill approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday said that “funds should be provided to meet the urgent needs of supporting the operations of the guardians of the wall”, referring to Israel’s offensive against Gaza that ended a few months ago.
“More Aid”
Since the end of the fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian groups in Gaza in May, pro-Israel lawmakers have been pushing for additional funding for Israel. The war killed at least 253 Palestinians in Gaza, including 66 children, and 12 deaths in Israel.
“The corner building will submit a $1 billion application to the Pentagon this Friday. [Israeli] The Secretary of Defense added the iron dome and some other things, upgraded the system,” Senator Graham told Journalists visiting Jerusalem shortly after the ceasefire.
He told Fox News on the same trip: “Every time someone tries to destroy Israel, our response will be more assistance.” As of press time, Graham’s office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Thursday.
Biden Administration Signaled Support Israel’s request for more Iron Dome funding.
As US military assistance to Israel is about to increase, Palestinian solidarity activists and some progressive members of the Democratic Party call for Restrictions or conditions Aid to force Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinians.
Earlier this week, some Palestinian human rights organizations were pleased to exclude Iron Dome aid from government funding resolutions, believing that this marked a shift in the traditional firm support that Israel enjoyed in Congress, especially in terms of security assistance.
Beth Miller, the senior government affairs manager of the “Voice of Jewish Peace Operations,” an advocacy group supporting Palestinian rights, accused the House Majority Leader Stanney Hoyer of trying to “secretly” provide additional aid to Israel through the funding bill.
Miller said in a statement on Tuesday: “There was a time when no one in Washington, DC blinked at providing more military funding to Israel, but progressives in Congress just showed that the era of unconditional support for Israel is over.” “This is An unprecedented victory in the fight for Palestinian rights.”
But if Palestinian rights advocates prevail through this commotion, then with the House of Representatives approving funding on Thursday, the victory seems to be short-lived.
Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib is one of the few members who voted against the bill. She is a Palestinian Democrat from Michigan. She criticized her colleagues for ignoring the security needs of Palestinians. She said they live under a “violent apartheid system.”
“We should also talk about the security needs of the Palestinians against Israeli attacks, and we must consistently commit to human life. Everyone should be safe there,” she said in an impassioned speech before the vote.
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