Washington Times: Speaker Johnson's Foreign Aid Bill is a Disaster
America continues to fund both sides of conflicts and wars. This is typified by the latest Israel aid portion of the package voted on by the House of Representatives.
Almost half of the Israel aid package goes to “humanitarian” purposes, with deference to how to distribute the $9 billion left in the hands of the Biden administration — yes, the same Biden administration that has taken the position of the “two-state solution.”
That is to say, President Biden, who is kneeling to the base of the Democratic Party, which exclaims, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” has arranged for up to $9 billion to be sent to Gaza. The same Gaza that has been controlled by Hamas for more than a decade.
The same Gaza that is ostensibly governed by the Palestinian Authority, which has honored and given bounties to suicide bombers who have indiscriminately killed Israeli civilians.
Up to $9 billion to the same Gaza that has acknowledged that Hamas has been hijacking most, if not all, of the humanitarian aid that Israel has facilitated. That Hamas. The Hamas that steals food and medicine and converts it into use for the terrorists while starving the people in Gaza.
We, the House of Representatives, voted to give upward of $9 billion to Gaza/Hamas, which takes the pressure off of Iran, which has been financially supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terrorist organizations. The package passed in the Senate on Tuesday and will be signed by the president this week.
Who will determine the distribution of the funds? None other than the hapless Biden regime. The same regime that insists that Israel recognize the right of statehood of an area that houses the soulless, ruthless terrorists of Hamas. The Hamas terrorists who have sworn to annihilate Israel.
The Biden regime, now captured by antisemitic radicals who want the genocidal eradication of Israel, insists that Israel engage in a one-sided cease-fire. It has demanded that Israel stop attacking Hamas animals and let Hamas regroup. Israel has offered a cease-fire seven times, but Hamas refuses because Israel demands that Hamas (which broke a cease-fire when it barbarically attacked Israel on Oct. 7) also lay down its weapons.
Even the funding that goes to Israel in the aid package will be leveraged, directed and controlled to a large extent by the Biden regime. Thank goodness that the ongoing, annualized payment of more than $3 billion, which has been on autopilot since 2018, is in the process of delivery, as it has fewer Biden strings.
Does Israel need help? Of course. That is why the best thing that House Speaker Mike Johnson has done was to push a package that provided military and humanitarian aid to Israel last November. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Mr. Biden opposed that package because it was paid for instead of being tacked onto our national debt.
The need to help Israel is also why additional legislation was proposed, including my bill HR 7271.
The speaker failed to move on that bill because, he said, “The Senate won’t pass it.”
So, the Schumer-Biden cabal, which refused to pass and sign into law an aid package that passed out of the House on a bipartisan vote last November, insisted that its proposal, which appeases the Democrats’ antisemitic base, be brought forward instead. The Schumer-Biden cabal also demanded that the entire Senate package of aid to Ukraine ($61 billion), Israel ($23 billion) and Taiwan ($2.5 billion) be passed. And so, it was.
And that’s how we end up funding both sides of the Israel-Hamas war. Democrats refuse to supply aid to Israel unless four things happen: (1) There cannot be a pay-for; the cost of the aid must be added to our national debt; (2) No funding for Israel unless Ukraine also gets funded; (3) To appease the antisemitic Democratic base, there has to be money going to Gaza-Hamas and (4) There cannot be U.S. border security policy tied to the Ukraine funding, contrary to what Mr. Johnson promised privately and publicly, dozens of times.
Last word. For at least three reasons, we know that assistance for Ukraine, not Israel, was the main objective for Democrats, who continue to kneel to their antisemitic base: (1) It was the Ukrainian flag that Democrats were waving on the floor after the vote last Saturday, not the Israeli flag; (2) Democrat Gerry Connolly brazenly claimed “the Ukrainian-Russian border is our border” without mention of the need to protect our true own border or Israel’s border and (3) while almost half of the Israel funding will likely be used to refurbish and rearm Hamas, there is no demand that nearly half of the Ukraine aid goes to the enemy who brutally attacked and continues to fight Ukraine.
If the first Israel aid package of last November was the best thing Mr. Johnson has done, this last legislation (which came to the House as one bill and returned to the Senate as one bill, not four separate bills) is one of the worst.
Andy Biggs is an attorney who represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.