Washington [USA], May 17: The bill received 224 votes in favor and 187 votes against, with 16 Democratic lawmakers in the US House of Representatives supporting it. However, ABC News said the bill, called the Israel Security Support Act, is only symbolic, with the majority leader in the Senate, Democratic congressman Chuck Schumer , saying it will not be put to a vote. while the White House announced that President Joe Biden would veto it if Congress passed it.
This law requires the rapid transfer of weapons and defense equipment to Israel, reaffirming Tel Aviv 's right to self-defense . The bill also proposes to stop funding and salaries for a number of officials from the US Department of State and Department of Defense, including two secretaries of these agencies.
The White House announced that the Republican bill is "unnecessary" and raises serious concerns about the possibility of violating the president's powers in foreign affairs. The bill was introduced last week, after news that Mr. Biden stopped sending bombs to Israel.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson said that President Biden's promotion of a $1 billion aid package as reported by the media on May 14 would not prevent the House of Representatives from holding a vote. "It is clear that Mr. Biden and Mr. Schumer have turned their backs on Israel," Mr. Johnson said at a press conference on May 16, emphasizing that the Biden administration's decision to stop bomb transfers "went against the will of the US Congress".
Axios page quoted Mr. Biden's statement as saying that the decision to stop bomb transfers was to prevent Israel from launching a large-scale attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, which democratic lawmakers worry could cause disaster. humanitarian.
Observers say that the Democrats are in a "dilemma", on the one hand they have to ensure that Tel Aviv does not launch an attack that could threaten the lives of more than 1 million Palestinians in Rafah, and on the other hand they have to maintain aid sources and firm commitments to not seriously erode the long-standing alliance with Israel.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
