The White House said on Nov. 2 that President Joe Biden will veto any bill that provides funding for Israel only, after House Republicans advanced a package offering $14.3 billion in aid to Israel.
“The President would veto an only-Israel bill. I think we made that clear,” National Security spokesperson John Kirby said during a White House press briefing.
Mr. Kirby defended the president’s decision, highlighting four crucial national security priorities in the supplemental request: Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific, and border security.
“The president wants to see all of them honored, all of them acted on by Congress, all of them together. We wouldn’t have submitted it that way if we didn’t believe that they were all important,” Mr. Kirby added.
Some Republicans, however, have criticized President Biden for using Israel as a bargaining chip to get additional money for Ukraine.
The House bill does not include any humanitarian aid for Gaza; instead, it only includes security assistance for Israel.
That’s a non-starter for the White House, according to Mr. Kirby.
“That’s nothing more than partisan politics,” he said.
The legislation allocates money for various purposes, including defense maintenance, procurement of army ammunition, naval weapons, air force missiles, and missile defense systems like the Iron Dome and David’s Sling. Additionally, it includes funds for research and development of Israel’s defense systems and State Department operations in Israel.
Reaction to IRS offset
The White House earlier reacted to the Republican proposal to offset the cost of aid to Israel by cutting IRS funding.OMB warned that the bill “inserts partisanship into support for Israel, making our ally a pawn in our politics, at a moment we must stand together,” and said it neglects humanitarian assistance for Palestinians.
The agency also said that by stripping IRS funding, the bill “sets a new and dangerous precedent by conditioning assistance for Israel, further politicizing our support and treating one ally differently from others.”
This offset, added OMB, is a “poison pill.”
However, Republicans defended the IRS offset in the bill.
“I think that’s an excellent move,” Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times on Nov. 1.
“That’s a strong move by him to put Israel out there, standalone and paid for,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told reporters on Nov. 1, referring to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
While Democrats have called for pairing assistance to Israel with aid to Ukraine, Republicans have said the two should be dealt with separately. However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have called for Ukraine and Israel assistance to be passed simultaneously.
Republican political strategist Ford O'Connell believes the resistance from House Republicans stems from concerns about corruption and a lack of a clear goal in Ukraine funding.
“Joe Biden has never once articulated what the American mission in Ukraine is,” Mr. O'Connell told The Epoch Times.
“The Ukrainian government is rife with corruption,” he added. “So, the question is, does the money we provide Ukrainians actually go to the Ukrainian military and people?”
Republicans are also upset that the United States is paying the lion’s share of NATO defense spending and other countries are not contributing enough, Mr. O'Connell said.
U.S. assistance to Israel goes back to two years before the Jewish state declared its independence in 1948. Israel got economic assistance between 1971 and 2007. The United States gave Israel more than $114.4 billion in military assistance between 1946 and 2023, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Congress gives Israel $3.8 billion annually, $3.3 billion of which is defense assistance.
