Republican Senator Rand Paul (KY) on Monday blocked the Senate from fast-tracking $1 billion in emergency funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
After the House overwhelmingly approved the Iron Dome funding bill earlier this month,
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (Dem.) brought the bill to the Senate to be passed by unanimous consent, which would have “hotlined” its passage.
However, Paul opposed Menendez’s effort, saying that he supports his own version of the bill which funds the Iron Dome with $6 billion in proposed US funding to Afghanistan.
“This is clear to all the Republicans, so it needs to be very clear today that Republicans support paying for Iron Dome — and they support paying for Iron Dome with taking away money that would go to the Taliban,” Paul said.
“The justification for my proposal for paying this is simple,” he continued. “Only an economically strong United States can be a militarily strong ally of Israel. I support Israel; I’ve voted for hundreds of millions of dollars to support Iron Dome. I’m glad the United States has a strong bond with Israel, but the United States cannot give money it does not have no matter how strong our relationship is. The United States is approaching $30 trillion in debt. Our out-of-control spending added 3 trillion [dollars] to the debt just in this fiscal year.”
But Menendez opposed Paul’s bill, saying that the aid to Afghanistan is being used to assist Afghani refugees who assisted the US in the war on terror.
“The reality is that US dollars are not going to the Taliban, nor will they,” Menendez said. “Let me be clear, no US foreign aid will go to a Taliban-controlled Afghan government. This does not mean that we remain any less committed to supporting the Afghan people. On the contrary. US humanitarian aid could be routed through highly vetted partners like the world food program that we trust to put the interests of the Afghan people first. So let me be clear. Senator Paul’s amendment would actually raid the funding that delivers life-saving humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, and they need it more than ever.”
The Democratic leadership in the Senate is now responsible to schedule a formal floor vote for the Iron Dome bill.
AIPAC slammed Paul for blocking the funding: “Today, Rand Paul joined Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Thomas Massie in not supporting emergency funding for Iron Dome,” AIPAC stated. “Their objections to funding Iron Dome undermine Israel’s security, cost innocent lives, make war more likely, and embolden Iran-backed terrorists.”
This is not the first time that Paul, who is an outspoken opponent of US foreign aid, has blocked US military aid to Israel. In 2018, he put a hold on an act legalizing $38 billion of military aid over ten years to Israel that was promised by Obama in his last days of office.
In 2011, Paul was one of two Republican senators who refused to sign a letter promising continued financial aid for Israel.
“There is no conceivable reason why anyone in this chamber on either side of the aisle should stand in the way of US support for this life-saving defense to be fully ready for the next attack,” Menendez said after introducing the unanimous consent resolution on Monday.
“The only reason [the bill is] being held up in this body is because of [Paul’s] amendment. It is not a member of the Democratic caucus. This is a defensive life safety system built on years of cooperation with our ally Israel. I’m disappointed we’re in this situation.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
I hear his concern but is he the only one who decides? Aren’t there 100 senators? An someone please enlighten me!
@Yaapchik: dw it’ll pass, of course… it just means that it couldn’t pass instantly via “unanimous consent” being that there WAS no “unanimous consent.”
This isn’t newsworthy….lookup any libertarians views. He’s not anti Israel at all, he just doesn’t believe in funding the world. Even more so by Israel. Israel should be independent from American politics.
Looks like he always likes to make headlines. the same way he does by covid. maybe it has to do with kovid
hes right why should we pay Israel is a very rich country let them pay for them
@eric55, because otherwise the money, which is our tax dollars, will go elsewhere. Let it at least go to our friend vs. our foes, where, likely, it will have ended up.
Yaapchik, what money? The billion dollars that is proposed to be spent on this is NOT tax dollars; it’s dollars BORROWED from China. If it’s not spent on this it will NOT be spent on something else instead; it simply won’t be borrowed in the first place, and our debt will be $1B lower.
Really it’s hard to explain why we should borrow money to protect Israel, but in fact Senator Paul is OK with doing that, so long as in return Biden agrees not to borrow money and send it to the Taliban. Really we shouldn’t be borrowing for either one, but he’s willing to compromise and borrow only for Israel. Just not both. He’s 100% right, and deserves a big yasher koach.