In a media interview on the 14th, the day after Iran’s attack on Israel, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that he would push for a budget bill for military support against Israel. In an interview with Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ on this day, Chairman Johnson said, “House Republicans and the Republican Party understand that it is essential for (the United States) to stand with Israel,” and said, “We will attempt to advance the Israeli aid plan this week.”
Chairman Johnson went on to say, “The specifics of that package are being put together right now,” adding, “We’re looking at options and all these supplementary budget issues.” It gave rise to the observation that there was a possibility of doing so.
Even before Iran’s attack on Israel, the opposition party (Republican Party)’s separate support plan for Israel and the government and ruling party (Democratic Party) package support plan (USD 95 billion) for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan were pending in the Federal Congress. However, it seemed difficult for both bills to pass both the Senate and the House of Representatives amid differences of opinion between the Democratic and Republican parties.
The Democratic Party has so far supported the package support plan prepared by the White House but has opposed the passage of the budget plan to support Israel alone.
On the other hand, in the case of the Republican Party, which has internal differences of opinion on support for Ukraine, internal consensus is formed only on the support plan for Israel, with many members of the House of Representatives resisting the support package. In this situation, attention is being paid to whether the new variable of Iran’s attack on Israel will lead to a ‘breakthrough in negotiations’.
Attention is being drawn to whether Chairman Johnson, the number one Republican in the House of Representatives, will pursue a bipartisan agreement and push for a budget package that supports both Israel and Ukraine, or whether he will stick to supporting Israel alone.
Chairman Johnson has recently shown that he may consider aid to Ukraine on the condition of receiving concessions from the Democratic Party on other issues, but ultra-hardliners within the Republican Party who strongly oppose aid to Ukraine are opposing it.