Israel and Ukraine urgently require American assistance
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has announced that he will push to get emergency aid for Israel and possibly Ukraine passed this week.
That’s beyond good news; as recent events are showing, there’s no time to waste.
Kudos to the speaker for standing up to the fringe elements in the GOP who are doing their best to dethrone him and stop the aid flows.
After Iran’s massive weekend attack, it’s impossible to deny that Israel needs US help urgently.
True, with help from allies, its sophisticated missile-defense systems managed to fend off the massive Iranian attack with no deaths and only one injury.
But it’s already fighting a war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and looks close to opening a second front with another Iranian proxy, Hezbollah, in Lebanon.
Passing an aid bill will not only be a direct investment in regional security against Iran’s ambitions, it will salve at least some of the wounds inflicted on the US-Israel relationship by the Biden administration.
The time has come for the GOP to set aside its internal divisions over the issue and simply get the job done; thanks to a razor-thin House majority, there’s no other way.
That goes for Ukraine as well.
Vladimir Putin’s brutal war has taken an unfathomable toll: more than 100,000 Ukrainians dead and more than 10 million displaced, and widespread destruction wreaked across cities and towns.
The Ukrainian forces have fought this battle far harder and longer than most outside observers — likely including Putin — thought possible, but now they are beginning to face crucial shortages of materiel like the anti-aircraft weapons used against Russian drones.
Again, backing Ukraine is backing the postwar liberal order, the order under which America largely enjoyed peace and rose to unfathomable economic and military pre-eminence.
These are unfashionable causes among some loud Republicans (and aid for Israel faces controversy on the left over spurious accusations of genocide).
But bowing to short-term political pressure on long-term strategic necessities would only deepen the global disaster wrought by the foreign policy emanating from the current White House.
Stand firm, Mr. Speaker, and get the job done. Future generations will thank you.
