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House passes funding for Israel conditioned on IRS cuts, leaving almost no chance of the bill advancing
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives approved $14 billion in emergency assistance for Israel but tied it to a cut in funding to the Internal Revenue Service, an unprecedented setting of conditions on aid to Israel that is expected to doom the bill.
The bill passed 226-196 on Thursday with all but two Republicans voting for it and all but 12 Democrats voting against. The bill would deliver assistance amid the war Israel is fighting against Hamas in Gaza, following the terror group’s Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. Among other provisions, about $5 billion goes to missile defense systems and another $4.5 billion goes to offensive systems.
President Joe Biden gave an Oval Office address last month calling for aid to Israel, but has vowed to veto the bill approved Thursday because he opposes tying it to the spending cuts.
But he won’t even see the bill: Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Jewish New York Democrat who is the Senate’s majority leader, said he would not even consider the bill once it landed on his desk. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, suggested that he backed that approach.
The funding bill comes as Congress is considering and passing a series of resolutions supporting Israel. The latest to pass overwhelmingly, also Thursday, was a non-binding resolution condemning antisemitism on campuses in the wake of Hamas’ war against Israel. It passed 396-23, and “Condemns the support of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations at institutions of higher education, which may lead to the creation of a hostile environment for Jewish students, faculty and staff.”
The move was all the more remarkable for coming from Republicans. In recent years, calls for conditioning aid to Israel had largely come from progressive Democrats, who wanted to make the funding dependent on Israel’s policies vis a vis the West Bank, Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians.
Five Jewish Democrats who voted for Thursday’s bill — Florida’s Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Lois Frankel and Jared Moskowitz; Ohio’s Greg Landsman; and New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer — said later in interviews and statements that the need to assist Israel at a time of urgent need overrode their anger with Johnson for tying the measure to IRS cuts. Wasserman Schultz and Landsman reportedly left the floor after the vote weeping, according to Semafor.
“While I do not support the speaker’s approach to this legislation, we must ensure that Israel has the resources to defeat Hamas and other terrorists, and get every hostage home, including all Americans,” Gottheimer said. “The symbol to the world of voting no would have done more damage.”
Wasserman Schultz, in her floor speech Thursday, said attaching the aid to cuts in IRS funding opened a can of worms.
“This House should send a clean bill to the Senate,” said Wasserman Schultz, who reportedly teared up at a closed door meeting ahead of the vote where she made a last-ditch appeal to Republicans for a bill stripped of conditions. “Instead, Speaker Johnson is willingly jeopardizing Israel’s security by making support for Israeli assistance contingent on issues totally unrelated to its security.”
She said Republicans had gone back on years of pledges to pro-Israel groups never to condition aid. “I’ve heard their promises over the years to never condition aid to Israel,” she said. “You know, you’ve looked pro-Israel leaders in the eye and promised that you would never do that. Think about it.”
Johnson has said that attaching the bill to IRS defunding is a matter of fiscal responsibility. “We want to protect and help and assist our friend Israel but we have to keep our own house in order as well,” he said in a press conference ahead of the vote. “While we take care of obligations, we have to do it in a responsible manner.”
Pro-Israel insiders said ahead of the vote that they dreaded its advance for two reasons: It has now created a precedent for some progressive Democrats who have sought for years to condition aid, and it gives the impression that assisting Israel exacts a price from Americans domestically — a narrative that the pro-Israel lobby has long combatted, noting that foreign aid is a tiny part of government spending.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which takes pains to avoid any hint of partisanship, tiptoed around the vote, faintly praising it while indicating that the group would work with Schumer to pass the bill Biden wants, without conditions.
“We strongly support the president’s emergency funding request for Israel & appreciate the House’s approval of a bill that fully funds that request,” it said in a tweet. “We’ll work to build broad bipartisan support as the package moves through the legislative process to ensure prompt final approval.”
By presenting the bill as he did, Johnson also sought to separate assistance for Israel from spending for Ukraine and for protecting U.S. allies in the Far East from China’s aggression. McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor ahead of the House vote, rejected that approach. Biden’s package includes funding for all three of those areas, as well as for humanitarian assistance for the Palestinians. The veteran Republican chided, without naming them, his partisans in the House for leaning into isolationism.
“We have a direct interest in a stable and peaceful Middle East, and we have a responsibility to stand with Israel, our closest ally in the region, and to impose real costs on those who seek to harm U.S. personnel,” McConnell said. “We have a direct interest in preserving free commerce and deterring aggression in the Indo-Pacific. And we have a responsibility to future generations of Americans to win this century’s longterm strategy competition with communist China. And we have a direct interest in stability and security in Europe.”
The comments outlined what is becoming a gulf of difference between there party’s aging establishment and a younger generation of hardline right Republicans, led by Johnson, who are turning inward.
Schumer said he would not consider the House bill, and would fashion one in the Senate that would reflect Biden’s broader requests of assistance for Ukraine and defense spending in the Far East.
“What a joke,” he said in his floor speech Thursday, calling the bill “stunningly unserious.”
Rep. Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat and one of the 18 Jewish Democrats who voted against the bill, said he was ready to advance the Senate bill once it came back to the House.
“The Senate will pass a robust, bipartisan aid package,” he said in a statement. “I will lead the charge to pass that package in the House as soon as humanly possible.”
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Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen
Smoke rises after Israeli strikes near Sanaa airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi terrorist group in Yemen on Thursday, including Sanaa International Airport, and Houthi media said three people were killed.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under attack. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said in a statement.
The Israeli military said that in addition to striking the airport, it also hit military infrastructure at the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Kanatib on Yemen’s west coast. It also attacked the country’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said two people were killed in the strikes on the airport and one person was killed in the port hits, while 11 others were wounded in the attacks.
There was no comment from the Houthis, who have repeatedly fired drones and missiles towards Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the attacks that Israel will continue its mission until it is complete: “We are determined to sever this terror arm of Iran’s axis.”
The prime minister has been strengthened at home by the Israeli military’s campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah forces in southern Lebanon and by its destruction of most of the Syrian army’s strategic weapons.
The Israeli attacks on the airport, Hodeidah and on one power station, were also reported by Al Masirah TV.
Tedros said he had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff detainees and to assess the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
“As we were about to board our flight from Sanaa … the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured,” he said in a statement.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues were safe.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the incident.
More than a year of Houthi attacks have disrupted international shipping routes, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys that have in turn stoked fears over global inflation.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Monday over Houthi attacks against Israel, Israel‘s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel‘s military failed to intercept a missile from Yemen that fell in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, injuring 14 people.
The post Israel Strikes Houthi Targets in Yemen first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza
US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. Photo: Alchetron.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for casting doubt on a new report claiming that famine has gripped northern Gaza.
The controversial Muslim advocacy group on Wednesday slammed Lew for his “callous dismissal” of the recent Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) report accusing Israel of inflicting famine on the Gaza Strip. The organization subsequently asserted that Israel had perpetrated an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza.
“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan,’” CAIR said in a statement.
“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling, and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza,” the Washington, DC-based group continued.
On Monday, FEWS Net, a US-created provider of warning and analysis on food insecurity, released a report detailing that a famine had allegedly taken hold of northern Gaza. The report argued that 65,000-75,000 individuals remain stranded in the area without sufficient access to food.
“Israel’s near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate” has resulted in mass starvation among scores of innocent civilians in the beleaguered enclave, the report stated.
Lew subsequently issued a statement denying the veracity of the FEWS Net report, slamming the organization for peddling “inaccurate” information and “causing confusion.”
“The report issued today on Gaza by FEWS NET relies on data that is outdated and inaccurate. We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” Lew wrote.
“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this. We work day and night with the UN and our Israeli partners to meet humanitarian needs — which are great — and relying on inaccurate data is irresponsible,” Lew continued.
Following Lew’s repudiation, FEWS NET quietly removed the report on Wednesday, sparking outrage among supporters of the pro-Palestinian cause.
“We ask FEWS NET not to submit to the bullying of genocide supporters and to again make its report available to the public,” CAIR said in its statement.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, Israel has been repeatedly accused of inflicting famine in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Despite the allegations, there is scant evidence of mass starvation across the war-torn enclave.
This is not the first time that FEWS Net has attempted to accuse Israel of inflicting famine in Gaza. In June, the United Nations Famine Review Committee (FRC), a panel of experts in international food security and nutrition, rejected claims by FEWS Net that a famine had taken hold of northern Gaza. In rejecting the allegations, the FRC cited an “uncertainty and lack of convergence of the supporting evidence employed in the analysis.”
Meanwhile, CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the onset of the Gaza war last October.
CAIR has been embroiled in controversy since the Oct. 7 atrocities. The head of CAIR, for example, said he was “happy” to witness Hamas’s rampage across southern Israel.
“The people of Gaza only decided to break the siege — the walls of the concentration camp — on Oct. 7,” CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad said in a speech during the American Muslims for Palestine convention in Chicago in November. “And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk in.”
CAIR has long been a controversial organization. In the 2000s, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case. Politico noted in 2010 that “US District Court Judge Jorge Solis found that the government presented ‘ample evidence to establish the association’” of CAIR with Hamas.
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), “some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas.” CAIR has disputed the accuracy of the ADL’s claim and asserted that it “unequivocally condemn[s] all acts of terrorism, whether carried out by al-Qa’ida, the Real IRA, FARC, Hamas, ETA, or any other group designated by the US Department of State as a ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization.’”
The post Controversial Islamic Group CAIR Chides US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew for Denying Report of ‘Famine’ in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’
Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters are guarded by police after violence targeting Israeli football fans broke out in Amsterdam overnight, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 8, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ami Shooman/Israel Hayom
The international Jewish civil rights organization legally representing more than 50 victims of the attack on Israeli soccer fans that took place in Amsterdam last month has joined many voices in lambasting a Dutch court for what they described as a mild punishment for the attackers.
“These sentences are an insult to the victims and a stain on the Dutch legal system,” The Lawfare Project’s founder and executive director Brooke Goldstein said in a statement on Wednesday. “Allowing individuals who coordinated and celebrated acts of violence to walk away with minimal consequences diminishes the rule of law and undermines trust in the judicial process. If this is the response to such blatant antisemitism, what hope is there for deterring future offenders or safeguarding the Jewish community.”
On Tuesday, a district court in Amsterdam sentenced five men for their participation in the violent attacks in the Dutch city against fans of the Israeli soccer team Maccabi Tel Aviv. The premeditated and coordinated violence took place on the night of Nov. 7 and into the early hours of Nov 8, before and after Maccabi Tel Aviv competed against the Dutch soccer team Ajax in a UEFA Europa League match. The five suspects were sentenced to up to 100 hours of community service and up to six months in prison.
The attackers were found guilty of public violence, which included kicking an individual lying on the ground, and inciting the violence by calling on members of a WhatsApp group chat to gather and attack Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. One man sentenced on Tuesday who had a “leading role” in the violence, according to prosecutors, was given the longest sentence — six months in prison.
“As someone who witnessed these trials firsthand, I am deeply disheartened by the leniency of these sentences,” added Ziporah Reich, director of litigation at The Lawfare Project. “The violent, coordinated attacks against Jews in Amsterdam are among the worst antisemitic incidents in Europe. These light sentences fail to reflect the gravity of these crimes and do little to deliver justice to the victims who are left traumatized and unheard. Even more troubling, they set a dangerous precedent, signaling to future offenders that such horrific acts of violence will not be met with serious consequences.”
The Lawfare Project said on Wednesday that it is representing over 50 victims of the Amsterdam attacks. It has also secured for their clients a local counsel — Peter Plasman, who is a partner at the Amsterdam-based law firm Kötter L’Homme Plasman — to represent them in the Netherlands. The Lawfare Project aims to protect the civil and human rights of Jewish people around the world through legal action.
Others who have criticized the Dutch court for its sentencing of the five men on Tuesday included Arsen Ostrovsky, a leading human rights attorney and CEO of The International Legal Forum; Tal-Or Cohen, the founder and CEO of CyberWell; and The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel.
The post Jewish Civil Rights Group Representing Amsterdam Pogrom Victims Slams Dutch Court for ‘Light Sentences’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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