In a hint that he won’t support President Joe Biden’s $106 billion aid proposal for both nations, newly elected U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson stated on Thursday that financing to help Israel and Ukraine should be handled independently.
In a Fox News interview, Johnson expressed his reservations about financing for Ukraine in general and said that any support for Israel would have to come from budget cuts elsewhere.
“We need to bifurcate those issues,” he reportedly said to the White House, citing “consensus among House Republicans”.
“We want to know what the object is there, what is the end game in Ukraine”, Johnson said. “The White House has not provided that,” he added.
In an attempt to persuade House Republicans who had reservations about sending more money to Ukraine, Biden combined aid to Israel and Ukraine into a $106 billion draft that provided additional funding for both countries. The majority of the money was allocated to strengthening Kyiv’s defenses, with the remaining portion going to Israel, the Indo-Pacific region, and border enforcement.
Together with $61 billion for Ukraine, the package contains $14.3 billion for Israel to enhance air and missile defense as well as other projects.
“Israel is a separate matter – we are going to bring forward a standalone Israel funding measure (of) over $14 billion,”, Johnson stated in the interview.
