Life, as the kids say, comes at you fast. The border deal is dead, and now the question is whether a package of aid to Ukraine and Israel can pass without what was supposed to be the sweetener to entice Republicans skeptical of more Ukraine funding.
The politics here may be hard, but the underlying question is easy. Israel is pressing ahead with its Gaza campaign and staring down the threat of Hezbollah’s possible entry into the war, while Ukraine — continuing to fight an unprovoked Russian invasion tooth and nail — is beginning to suffer from a shortage of shells in a grinding war of artillery exchanges.
These frontline allies deserve our continued support. They are battling hideously immoral enemies of the United States who hate the West and everything it stands for. Neither Israel nor Ukraine wants us to take on its fight directly, but both do need weapons and other matériel to help them to keep prosecuting their wars of self-defense.
The bill does that, as well as taking steps to revitalize our scandalously degraded military-industrial base.
Among many other things, the new $95 billion package includes critical new funding to shore up the stockpiles of weapons that we’ve drawn down to support Ukraine, in addition to just under $14 billion for Ukraine to purchase more American weapons. America Firsters should note that about 80 percent of the total $60 billion for Ukraine will go to American companies.
The bill also funds Israel’s military operations and air-defense systems, in addition to about $2.5 billion for U.S. Central Command as it deals with ongoing Houthi attacks. In addition, the measure includes funding to bolster Taiwan’s efforts to arm itself and for other U.S. military priorities in the Indo-Pacific.
The most contentious component, of course, is that Ukraine assistance. This bill goes a long way toward addressing the stated concerns of Ukraine skeptics. It cuts $4 billion for direct budgetary support to the Ukrainian government from the initial White House budget request, shifting those funds to arms instead; none of the money is allowed to go to Ukrainian pensions, which the critics often cite in objecting to Ukraine aid. The legislation would move further toward a division of labor wherein America is assisting Kyiv’s military efforts while Europe focuses on supporting Ukraine’s economy.
There’s also a requirement for the White House to submit a detailed strategy for Ukrainian victory, and the bill includes new funding for oversight efforts, addressing two other commonly heard criticisms of U.S. backing for the war.
Importantly, the bill allocates significant resources to the production of arms in the United States, including for submarines, artillery, air defense, and cruise-missile components.
Of concern is that the bill includes more funding for humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank. There is obviously a long history of such resources being diverted to Hamas. The bill has new guardrails to try to prevent this from happening, as well as a blanket ban on U.S. funding to UNRWA, the U.N. agency whose staffers participated in October 7. This prohibition will prevent the Biden administration from rolling back its temporary funding pause for that U.N. body.
In short, this bill goes out of its way to meet good-faith critics halfway, and is good for our embattled allies, good for U.S. national security, and good for our military-industrial base. It should pass expeditiously.