On Tuesday, House Democratic leadership stripped $1 billion for Israel’s defensive anti-missile Iron Dome program out of a bill to fund the government.
Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Michigan was one of several pro-Israel Democrats who objected to the move on Twitter: “Iron Dome is a purely *defensive* system — it protects civilians when hundreds of rockets are shot at population centers. Whatever your views on the Israeli-Pal[estinian] conflict, using a system that just saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives as a political chit is problematic.”
All of this is publicly-available information. So to target Iron Dome now means the issue isn’t a genuine concern over the system, but rather the desire to attack something – anything – related to the State of Israel; it’s devoid of substance and irresponsible. (5/5)
— Rep. Elissa Slotkin (@RepSlotkin) September 21, 2021
Democratic leaders stripped the funding for Iron Dome in response to threats from progressives that they would vote against the continuing resolution to fund the government. On Tuesday evening, National Review asked Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the progressive caucus, why she opposed funding Iron Dome in the CR. “There’s no reason for us to fund that right now, and members in our caucus have a problem with it, and so we don’t need it,” Jayapal replied. She did not offer any substantive criticism of the program or U.S. support for it.
The House Democratic majority leader announced Tuesday evening that the House will hold a standalone vote on the $1 billion for Iron Dome funding this week:
HOYER says the House will take up a bill this week on suspension of the rules (i.e. it’ll move speedily and need two-thirds to pass) to fund Israel’s Iron Dome, calling it “absolutely essential.”
It was stripped out of this gov’t funding bill.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 21, 2021