In dysfunctional Washington, even support for Israel falls second to partisanship

Two massive spending bills that would give billions in additional funding to the US ally are again considered dead

US House Speaker Mike Johnson, centre, shakes hands with Amir Ohana, Israel's Speaker of the Knesset while meeting relatives of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. Bloomberg

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Speaker of the Israeli Knesset Amir Ohana is in Washington this week to mark the inaugural “House-Knesset Parliamentary Friendship Group”, yet another show of how the US is, by every metric, Israel's strongest ally.

But with this Congress defined by dysfunction, even bipartisan support for Israel has not resulted in increased funding for the war in Gaza.

The Israeli delegation's visit comes during a dramatic week in Congress, with partisan rifts holding up two Israel funding packages – both doomed to remain “still, just a bill”.

Even with growing concerns from progressive corners of Washington over the war in Gaza, the vast majority of leaders in the US capital have insisted on increasing support for Israel.

After months of negotiations, the Senate at the start of the week seemed close to a breakthrough with the White House in reaching a deal on a massive $118 billion funding package for Israel, Ukraine and immigration reform for the US southern border.

But the Republicans in the House of Representatives, who blame the Biden administration over a mass migration “crisis” at the southern border, assured that the Senate package would be “dead on arrival” when it arrived in the lower chamber for a final vote.

Following that opposition from the House, many Senate Republicans flipped on the bill they had helped to negotiate, declaring the mega package “dead”.

The conservative party has since spiralled into an internal blame game over the stalemate.

But President Joe Biden pointed the finger for the Republican about-face at Donald Trump, his presumed Republican challenger in the 2024 presidential election.

“Because Donald Trump thinks it's bad for him politically. He'd rather weaponise this issue than actually solve it,” Mr Biden said in a press conference this week.

Republican James Lankford said on the Senate floor: "I had a popular commentator four weeks ago that I talked to that told me flat out ... if you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election."

He added that the commentator "has been faithful to their promise".

Meanwhile, the House also failed on Tuesday to pass a Republican $17.6 billion Israel supplemental funding bill in a 250-180 vote.

Republican Congressman David Kustoff, speaking alongside the Israeli delegation, said the vote was “a temporary setback”.

“Israel needs that aid, and we also know that the world is watching,” he added.

Despite it picking up a few notable Democratic votes, including from former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Mr Biden had warned he would veto the stand-alone Israel bill had it passed.

Some progressive Democrats, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, opposed the legislation. But for most of the representatives voting against these bills, their vote has everything to do with the partisan split over the bigger deal in the Senate.

Gregory Meeks, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, voted no on the Israel-only bill, despite arguing Washington “urgently needs to help Israel defend itself”.

He argues that “Israel funding should not be used for political ploys” amid Republican rejections of the broader Senate package.

“We are cynically being asked by the GOP to support an Israel-only supplemental because they are taking orders from Donald Trump, who seeks chaos on our border and success for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” Mr Meeks said in a statement.

House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith also gave a statement justifying his “nay” vote on the stand-alone.

“I voted against the stand-alone supplemental bill for Israel today because I cannot support a national security supplemental that abandons Ukraine and fails to provide humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza,” Mr Smith said after the vote.

“We are facing many national security threats across the globe. These challenges are increasingly interconnected, and we must advance a US national security strategy that supports all these interests in lock step to be in the best position to succeed.”

As of Wednesday morning, Senator Chuck Schumer said he would force a vote on a “clean” foreign aid bill that takes out the border issues at the centre of debate in the $118 billion package, according to reports.

At the press conference with Israeli Speaker Ohana, Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman told reporters that Washington needs “to deal with the crises around the world as a package”.

“I'm confident that that will happen within the next 30 to 40 days,” he said.

But it is still unclear if the Democratic plan B on a “clean” foreign policy package could pick up enough Republican support.

From the steps of Capitol Hill, far-right Republican Matt Gaetz hailed the week of legislative failures as a victory.

“There's a celebratory mood about killing that bad Senate amnesty war bill, and we may have to kill a few more.”

Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Amir Ohana, left, accompanied by families of hostages being held in Gaza, speaks during a news conference in Washington. AP