US House speaker plans vote this week on Israel aid bill

Newly installed US House Speaker Mike Johnson said yesterday he expects floor action this week to advance a funding bill to support Israel exclusively, even though President Joe Biden is pushing for a $106 billion aid package for Israel and Ukraine combined, according to Reuters.

“We’re going to move a stand-alone Israel funding bill this week in the House,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News, adding that he believes the measure will draw bipartisan support and that Republicans will back a similar measure in the Senate.

Members of the US House of Representatives, which Republicans control by a narrow majority, are scheduled to return from a recess on Wednesday.

“There are lots of things going on around the world that we have to address and we will,” Johnson said, without explicitly mentioning the Ukraine conflict. “But right now what’s happening in Israel takes the immediate attention, and we’ve got to separate that and get it through.”

Biden has called for Congress to approve $106 billion in supplemental appropriations, with the bulk of the money going to bolster Ukraine’s defenses against Russia, and the remainder split among Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and immigration enforcement along the US-Mexico border.

Johnson has said bolstering support for Israel should top the US national security agenda in the aftermath of the 7 October surprise infiltration by palestinian resistance forces into towns surrounding the Gaza Strip.

In retaliation, Israel has completely sealed off Gaza, not allowing water, food, electricity or fuel into the Strip, and launched a barrage of air strikes on the coastal Palestinian enclave followed by a ground offensive, killing more than 8,300 Palestinians, including nearly 3,000 children, according to the Ministry of Health.

Read: Britain working for humanitarian pause in Gaza, says foreign secretary