Rep. Gwen Moore stated that President Biden has voiced concerns shared by some Democrats that Israel may be taking the US alliance for granted.
She said Democrats are worried about unconditioned funding for Israel as well as cuts to UNRWA, which provides aid to Palestinians.
“I don’t want to characterize aid to Israel as a Democrat versus Republican issue,” Moore said.
Moore argued the issue of foreign aid cuts crosses party lines, with some Republicans reluctant to fund Ukraine and Democrats concerned about cuts to Palestinian aid.
While she said there is no opportunity to amend the funding bill, many Democrats want more flexibility to provide varying levels of support to different entities.
“There very many Democrats that are concerned about funding our ally, Israel, as well as providing the aid to the Palestinians, which is part of this package as well. And so, I think that we’ll find that there may be some Democrats that won’t vote for the bill because of aid to Israel that is not conditioned, but there will be many Republicans as well that don’t want to fund Ukraine,” Moore said.
“They really don’t really see the threat to our democracy that many of us see. And so, I think that there will be whip operations on both sides. … [W]e don’t have the opportunity, which many of us would like, to provide more or less aid to one or more of the entities involved in it,” she said. “Many of us are concerned about un-funding the U.N. aid to a human rights organization that serves the Palestinians. And so, — but we won’t have the opportunity to amend it.”
When asked directly about attaching strings to Israel aid, Moore acknowledged Biden has expressed worries that Israel under Netanyahu is not listening to the US, but noted most do not want to openly condition aid at this time.
Biden “has really said the quiet part out loud. A lot of us are very concerned about Israel taking our friendship and our relationship for granted and that Netanyahu continues to brag about the fact that he’s not listening to us,” she later said.
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