SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 15 January 2025, Wednesday |

US Congress approves $1bn for Israel missile defence

The US House of Representatives’ Legislators passed $1 billion bill in a 420-9 vote,  in new funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, just days after the funding was removed from a broader spending bill.

Democrat lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who abstained on the vote at the last minute, instead of standing by her opposition to it, apparently burst into tears as the result was read.

Among the ‘no’ votes were US House Representative Rashida Tlaib and her fellow Squad members Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

According to a news release on the legislation, the funding “is consistent with the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Israel, which commits the United States to providing additional assistance to replenish the Iron Dome after periods of fighting to allow Israel to continue to defend itself from attack.”

Some liberal Democrats have voiced concerns this year about US-Israel policy, citing among other things the many Palestinian casualties to Israeli airstrikes in May.

Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, yesterday called the Israeli government an “apartheid regime” and said the $1 billion represents “an absurd and unjustifiable” increase in US funding for the Iron Dome.

“I will not support an effort to enable and support war crimes, human rights abuses and violence,” she said in a speech on the House floor. “We cannot be talking only about Israelis need for safety at a time when Palestinians are living under a violent apartheid system.”

In a tweet yesterday, Omar expressed her disapproval of the funding. “Given the human rights violations in Gaza, Sheikh Jarrah, and ever-growing settlement expansion, we should not be ramming through a last-minute $1 billion increase in military funding for Israel without any accountability.”