Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) has pledged to hold a vote to provide $17.6 billion in new funding for Israel as it continues to wage war on Hamas. The vote would be for a stand-alone bill absent any other provisions or spending cut offsets.
Until now, legislative focus had centered on an at least nominally bipartisan Senate accord that would have provided new funding for Israel, Ukraine, and various border initiatives. Johnson has rejected that newly released Senate bill as providing inadequate border security provisions.
Regardless of the Senate bill, Johnson’s stand-alone legislation is a mistake and deserves rejection.
While Johnson rightly observes that Democrats previously rejected new spending that comes with offset spending cuts, it shows just how unserious the present-day Republican Party is about fiscal credibility that the speaker would put forward this bill. Johnson is playing partisan politics at taxpayers’ expense.
To be clear, Israel is an ally of the United States and obviously would benefit from an injection of new American support. Yet, were Congress to support an Israel-only aid effort, it would undermine America’s bipartisan interest in continuing to take a stand for both Ukraine and Israel. Each of those nations is a democracy waging a justified and necessary defensive war. Each of those nations deserves continued American support.
Assessed by battlefield realities, however, Israel has a lesser need for immediate aid than does Ukraine.
Where Ukraine faces an outsize Russian economy and military now focused on its destruction, Israel holds the clear balance of power against Hamas. The annihilation that Hamas has suffered under Israeli force of arms over the past four months is profound. The terrorist group has lost dozens of its most senior commanders and thousands of other personnel across all its ranks and specialties. Only Hamas’s political operatives and financiers living abroad are enjoying a short-lived respite from Mossad assassins. In Gaza, however, Hamas’s command-and-control apparatus, weapons stockpiles, and cadre of experienced fighters all have been greatly diminished.
In contrast, while it retains defensive depth, Ukraine clearly has lost the operational initiative to Russia. Largely unconcerned with losing vast numbers of personnel in frontal or poorly organized attacks, Russian forces retain an aggressive focus on degrading the Ukrainian front lines. And while Russian supply chains for the most advanced weapons systems and munitions are under significant pressure, as are the structural weaknesses in the Russian economy worsening, Moscow possesses greater artillery, drone, and force dispositions than Ukraine. As of today, Ukraine faces an actual threat of defeat, whereas Israel faces only the risk of delayed victory or a delusional ceasefire. Israel has the economic and battlefield strength to sustain offensive action even without near-term financial aid from the U.S.
This is not to say that Ukraine deserves unquestioning U.S. aid. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been only half-hearted in his efforts to stamp down rampant corruption. Nor has he shown sufficient public gratitude for the weapons and financial provisions yet made to his country. Israel’s robust rule of law and bureaucratic structures means U.S. aid can be sent more confidently to that nation than to Ukraine.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Republicans also rightly argue that the European Union should be bearing a heavier burden in Ukraine’s support. More proximate and vulnerable to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s strategic ambitions, the EU can and should be providing the significant majority of aid to Ukraine. If the U.S. is to take the lead in defending the benefits that democratic nations, the EU preeminently among them, accrue from stable governments and trade flows in the Pacific region, the EU should take the lead in defending those same interests in Europe.
Put simply, both Israel and Ukraine should receive new American aid as part of any congressional compromise. But Ukraine presently has a greater need for immediate American aid than does Israel. Johnson should go back to the drawing board to secure a bipartisan compromise.