House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will introduce a bill on Thursday to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missiles after reports from earlier this month indicated that Israel was set to request $1 billion from the Biden administration.
McCarthy will make a unanimous consent request that would provide the requested $1 billion in assistance and ensure the Iron Dome is ready when called upon again. Israel used thousands of missiles in May while defending itself against Palestinian terrorist attacks.
The bill is expected to make the $1 billion available for Israel for the next two years should Israel decide that it still needs the funding for “the acquisition, enhancement, maintenance, and sustainment of the Iron Dome defense system to counter short-range rocket threats.” The bill’s co-sponsors are GOP House Whip Steve Scalise (LA), Kay Granger (R-TX), Ranking Member on the Appropriations Committee; Mike Rogers (R-AL), Ranking Member on the Armed Services Committee; and Michael McCaul (R-TX), Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The move to fund Israel’s Iron Dome comes as Democrats have had to again deal with another anti-Semitic outburst from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) this week.
Omar said during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that she did not regret comparing the U.S. and Israel to terrorist organizations, and then she lashed out at Jewish lawmakers.
Fox News reported:
Omar then proceeded to blame Jewish lawmakers who find her history of anti-Israel remarks offensive, telling Tapper, “I’ve welcomed any time my colleagues [have] asked to have a conversation to learn from them, for them to learn from me.”
But, she continued, “I think it’s really important for these [House] members to realize that they haven’t been partners in justice. They haven’t been [equally] engaging in seeking justice around the world, and I think I will continue to do that. It is important for me as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don’t.”
Omar was slammed by Jewish organizations for the anti-Semitic outburst, which is just the latest example in a long history of anti-Semitic remarks. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said a couple of weeks ago that she “did not rebuke” Omar for comparing the U.S. and Israel to terrorist organizations.
Shocking – Ilhan Omar refusing to take ANY accountability for her obscene antisemitism.
Instead she has the audacity to blame Jewish members of Congress.
When will this vile bigot finally be censured and properly reprimanded by her party?
Enough is enough! https://t.co/hsj1v6u4yI
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) June 29, 2021
It is unclear what steps Democrat lawmakers have taken to help replenish Israel’s Iron Dome missiles as they have been obsessed with creating a commission to investigate the January 6 riot while resisting calls to investigate antifa and Black Lives Matter for the billions of dollars in damage inflicted on U.S. cities last summer. Rep. John Katko (R-NY), who initially supported a bipartisan commission to investigate the riot, has since slammed Pelosi’s plan, calling it a “turbo-charged partisan exercise.”
Critics have suggested that the commission is intended to be, in part, a distraction from how the Democrats are struggling. The Washington Post’s Henry Olsen wrote on Wednesday that voters were flashing all sorts of warning signs to Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms. Recent polling has shown that Democrat President Joe Biden is losing significant ground with voters, especially Democrats, and a separate report on Wednesday said that Vice President Kamala Harris’ office was in a state of chaos.