If it was a Democrat sponsored bill, the media would be highlighting the bipartisan nature of the vote.  However, because it is a Republican sponsored bill, the media immediately say the stand alone measure to support Israel is dead upon arrival in the Senate.

Joe Biden has said he will veto the House version of the bill, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he will not entertain the bill due to the pay-go funding mechanism (removal of $14.3 billion in IRS funding) and the fact it is not a package bill that includes support for Ukraine.   Biden wants his $106 billion bill with funds for Israel, Ukraine, Hamas (via USAID), Taiwan and support for arriving migrants.  Chuck Schumer is working with Mitch McConnell to put the combined package together.

Twelve Democrats supported the $14.3 billion House bill, and two Republicans voted against it (MTGreene and Massie). The vote was 226-196 for passage.

WASHINGTON – […] While aid to Israel is something both parties strongly agree with, Democratic support for the legislation broke down after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) added a provision in the bill that would cut $14.3 billion in funding from the Internal Revenue Service to offset the cost of the aid to Israel — prompting Democratic leaders to encourage party members to vote against it.

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By now most discerning political followers have identified the ideological source of the attacks against HR McMaster.  A widely diverse community of domestic America-Second interests that have come together, in common ideological purpose, to attack President Trump’s National Security Advisor.
Sadly these interests often use the divisive label of antisemitism to attack people behind policies they disagree with.  It is an unfortunate, albeit historically predictable, approach.  Specifically because of the agenda behind these attacks, last night President Trump delivered support for McMaster noting the NSA head’s support for Israel.

“General McMaster and I are working very well together.  He is a good man and very pro–Israel. I am grateful for the work he continues to do serving our country.”
~ President Donald Trump, August 4th, 2017

Today, the Times of Israel also comes to McMaster’s defense by pointing out that officials within Israel are well aware that HR McMaster supports the pro-Israel viewpoints of the Trump administration:

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman meets with US National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster on May 22, 2017.

(ISRAEL) Israeli officials responded to mounting allegations that US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster is anti-Israel, saying that these were blatantly false and he was a staunch supporter of the Jewish state.
“Anyone who meets McMaster among us and is in contact with him is constantly impressed by how pro-Israeli he is,” an unnamed Israeli security official told the Haaretz daily on Saturday. “The connection with him is excellent.”

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There are numerous reports where the current events surrounding President Obama’s push to paint Israel into a corner are specifically outlined and addressed with specificity.  However, if you really want to understand what’s going on, you must reference the longer game as it has been domestically constructed and ignored by most media.
Those who have followed domestic U.S. pro-Palestinian activism over the past several years will be able to more easily understand current events against the larger backdrop.
First, it is critical to remember, the antagonistic left fully anticipated Secretary Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Therefore all of the current U.S. political maneuvers, as recently evidenced, must be viewed as increasingly desperate now that their long-term objectives have been cut off by the insurgent win of Donald Trump.
In short, the longer-term approach from the politically professional left, in conjunction with the political activism of the social justice warriors, has been to undermine Israel, and yet do so without visibility toward undermining Israel.  (more…)

This is going to come down to one clear and distinct principle:  Do you support Freedom?

(Israel Today) — The government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper once again demonstrated its unwavering support of Israel on Thursday when it unequivocally backed the Jewish state’s military response to incessant terrorist rocket fire.

“We fundamentally believe that Israel has the right to defend itself and its citizens from terrorist threats,” stated Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird. “Far too often, the Jewish people find themselves on the front lines in the struggle against terrorism, the great struggle of our generation.” (more…)

In a moment of serendipitous timing for Zelenskyy, Iran fired approximately 300 drone missiles toward Israel.   Now Congress is promoting further funding for Israel and Ukraine. Serendipitous serendipity strikes again.

Keep in mind, the flight time over the 1,000-mile distance provided plenty of time for Israel to prepare and respond with countermeasures, making a suspicious type of person wonder why Iran would even go through the exercise.

“Given the events of tonight, it is even clearer that the best way to help Israel is for the House to quickly pass the Senate’s bipartisan national security supplemental next week,” Chuck Schumer said. The House has so far declined to take a vote on the Senate-passed legislation with many House conservatives opposed to sending additional Ukraine and wanted stricter border policies included in an aid package.  (LINK)  Huh, funny that.

As if on cue…

“The House Republicans and the Republican Party understand the necessity of standing with Israel. We’re going to try again this week, and the details of that package are being put together right now. We’re looking at the options and all these supplemental issues,” Speaker Mike Johnson said on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures. (LINK)  Wow, what a remarkable coincidence. Amazing.

More than anything else, I always appreciate the way Nic Robertson provides the dramatic approach toward the needs and requests of the U.S. Dept of State and CIA.   He’s really good at this. WATCH:

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While it is good news, excellent news, the Israeli and foreign ‘hostages’ are slowly being released by Hamas, the politics of the dynamic are abundantly clear.

Biden was under extreme political pressure to gain the release of “American” hostages held captive by Hamas and affiliates in Gaza as a result of the October 7th attack and kidnappings.  Prior to Joe Biden taking a victory lap for the release of 4-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, an Israeli-American dual citizen, all of the key players in the region made advanced notification of the impending release.

Qatari [think Muslim Brotherhood] Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Face the Nation the release was imminent. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan also made the same prediction, as did several people associated with Gaza relief efforts and the larger agenda to create the two-state solution for Palestinian and Israeli citizens.  In essence, politically Biden needed an American release, and that message was the driving force from Qatar to their allies in Hamas.  Abigail Mor Edan was released as a result.  Biden immediately took a victory lap.

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden confirmed Sunday that the 4-year old American Abigail Mor Edan who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza is now free.  “She’s free and she’s in Israel now,” Biden told reporters Sunday from Nantucket, where he was spending Thanksgiving weekend with his family. (more)

The background effort is also very clear.  The aligned interests of the Muslim Brotherhood and the U.S. Biden administration is to maintain a gauntlet approach where the two-state solution is the only option for Israel, backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a corner.

[…] “Abigail was among 13 hostages released today from Gaza under the brokered and sustained though intensive U.S. diplomacy. She is now safely in Israel. And we continue to press and expect for additional Americans will be released as well,” Biden said.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, and Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi hold a joint press conference at the conclusion of their discussions. The video and transcript are below.

Overall, the Egyptians and Jordanians want a cessation of hostilities, an end to the bombing and Israeli war response against Hamas. In part, they appear motivated by concerns of regional instability; in part, they seem driven toward resolution because they do not want life-long radical Palestinian jihadists crossing into Egypt and Jordan; and in part it’s because their country was not attacked.

I find it interesting that none of the remarks in the group mention the influence of Iran at all.  The U.S. and Israel talk about the influence of Iran when speaking individually and together, but add an Arab country into the discussion and Iran is never brought up.

JORDAN – DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER SAFADI: Good evening to you all. I’ll start in Arabic and then I’ll switch to English if you don’t mind. So —

(Via interpreter) In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Gracious, I welcome Their Excellencies Sameh, Tony and the other colleagues, the foreign ministers of United Arab Emirates and Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and the secretary general of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, at this hardship – at this extremely difficult time, a time that reflects that – reflect our interest to protect our peoples from the destruction of war and to work together continuously to stop this disaster that erupted on the 7th of October and actually evolved into the war that Israel is waging against Gaza.

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It’s an odd dynamic to watch the professional political left support extremism yet pretend not to support the violent outcomes of the extremists.

We saw this dynamic domestically with Occupy Wall Street violence; we saw this with the Ferguson violence; we saw this with the Baltimore violence; we saw this with Black Lives Matter violence; we see this dynamic with the Antifa violence, and we continue to see this dynamic unfold on the streets and college campuses with the pro-Hamas terror rallies and sympathetic politicians.

There is a lot of pretending needed in order to reconcile how the professional political left embraces violence, then claims to desire peace.  The easier approach is always to just accept things as they are, not as we would pretend them to be.  However, if you understand this confliction, then you can well imagine how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must feel each time he talks to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Today, Secretary Blinken is back in Israel and gave remarks to the press after his meeting with Netanyahu.  There were actually some good questions raised during the press Q&A segment.  One question about the “ultimate goal and vision in the aftermath” was particularly interesting. WATCH:

[TRANSCRIPT] – SECRETARY BLINKEN: Good afternoon, everyone.

“Days after Hamas’s attack on October 7th, I came to Israel, followed soon thereafter by President Biden, to make clear that as long as the United States stands, Israel will never stand alone. Today, in my fourth visit to Israel since October 7th, I reiterated that in all my discussions – with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Herzog, the security cabinet. I reiterated and made clear our support for Israel’s right to defend itself, indeed its obligation to defend itself. That includes through the additional assistance that we’ve worked with Congress and we’re working with Congress now to provide for Israel’s defense, as well as for urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza.

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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell requested for CBS to travel to his office in DC so that he could visibly show support for the Biden administration spending effort on behalf of Ukraine, Israel and Gaza.  McConnell noted in the interview on the policy agenda for these priorities, he and Joe Biden are in direct agreement.

At the 08:32 moment, Mitch McConnell is questioned about his health and says he is healthy, “in good shape and completely recovered.”  WATCH:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has not done many interviews this year, but he invited us to Capitol Hill Friday to talk about President Biden’s request to Congress for $100 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel and US border security. And that’s where our conversation began.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: We have big power competition from China, and Russia and we still have terrorism problems, as the Israelis have certainly experienced in a brutal way in the last week. So I think that requires a worldwide approach rather than trying to take parts of it out. It’s all connected. The Chinese and the Russians said they’re now friends forever. Iranian drones are being used in Ukraine and against the Israelis.

MARGARET BRENNAN: There’s resistance among some Republicans, including here in the Senate, about bundling things together. Is it possible to pass Ukraine aid if it’s not tied to Israel?

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Anthony Blinken appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss the U.S. response to the Israeli war against Hamas terrorists. Margaret Brennan clutches her pearls and gives her best defense of Hamas/Palestinian terrorists. But the babies and the children, or something; all of that is propaganda. WATCH:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is at the State Department. Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: Morning, Margaret, good to be with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Tension is very high in the region. Are you changing your security posture? Are you pulling any US personnel out of the area?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Margaret, we are concerned at the possibility of Iranian proxies, escalating their attacks against our own personnel, our own people. We’re taking every measure to make sure that we can defend them and if necessary, respond decisively. Not at all what we’re looking for, not all we want, but we’ll be prepared, if that’s what they choose to do.

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