The Democratic Party, in cutting $1 billion in military funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system from its $3.5 trillion spending bill, is bowing “to its ever-growing anti-Israel power base,” Conference of Jewish Affairs spokesman Rabbi Aryeh Spero said in a statement issued Wednesday.
House Democrats removed the funding after progressives threatened to tank the measure, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
The funding could still go through - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer tweeted later Tuesday that “the House will consider legislation this week to fully fund Iron Dome. We will act to ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, and I expect strong bipartisan support for this effort.”
“This cut will assuredly not make a dent in the behemoth $3.5 trillion proposal; but it is demanded by the Democrat Party’s ever-growing ‘progressive’ wing as an opportunity to demonize Israel – a chance for them to say while every idiocy in the world is worthy of funding by this Congress, Israel is an unworthy cause,” Spero said.
“The we-hate-Israel caucus knows that without Iron Dome, Israeli citizens are victims of the thousands of missiles launched from all sides by Islamist organizations into populated Israeli neighborhoods. Those forever sermonizing about human rights seem indifferent to life when it comes to Jews in Israel.”
Republicans slammed the move, accusing Democrats of undermining Israel’s security. Moderate Democrats, including Rep. Elissa Slotkin, R-Mich., criticized their colleagues for opposing the funds, which President Joe Biden promised to replenish after Israel’s conflict with the Hamas in May.
“Continued financial support of Iron Dome was part of the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding negotiated by President Obama,” she tweeted. “This isn’t new funding, or unusual funding, or a precipitous increase in funding.”
“All of this is publicly-available information,” she added. “So to target Iron Dome now means the issue isn’t a genuine concern over the system, but rather the desire to attack something - anything - related to the State of Israel; it’s devoid of substance and irresponsible.”
"The Iron Dome protects innocent civilians in Israel from terrorist attacks and some of my colleagues have now blocked funding it," tweeted New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer. "We must stand by our historic ally — the only democracy in the Middle East."
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