President Joe Biden would veto a standalone bill to aid Israel during its war against Hamas terrorists, according to the White House, which insists on linking Israel aid to spending on the war in Ukraine, as well as Democrats’ immigration funding bill.
CNN.com reported Monday:
“The Administration spent months working with a bipartisan group of Senators to reach a national security agreement that secures the border and provides support for the people of Ukraine and Israel, while also providing much-needed humanitarian assistance to civilians affected by conflicts around the world,” the White House wrote in a statement. “Instead of working in good faith to address the most pressing national security challenges, this bill is another cynical political maneuver.”
“The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game,” the statement continued.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) said late last week that he would offer a standalone bill to aid Israel. The House had already passed a bill offering Israel over $14 billion in aid last year, with money to be provided through cuts to Biden’s expanded Internal Revenue Service.
President Biden took the unusual step in October of tying aid to Israel to aid to Ukraine, which has become less popular recently. Critics argued that Biden was using Israel as a pawn and risking the failure of the aid package.
It is unclear that a standalone Israel aid bill would pass the Senate, given that Democrats there largely do Biden’s bidding. But in the event that such a bill passed both houses of Congress, it would probably be difficult for Biden to veto; he would face an override vote.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
