|
"We're going to move a stand-alone Israel funding bill this week
in the House," Johnson said in an interview on Fox News, adding
that he believes the measure will draw bipartisan support and
that Republicans will back a similar measure in the Senate.
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, which Republicans
control by a narrow majority, are scheduled to return from a
recess on Wednesday.
"There are lots of things going on around the world that we have
to address and we will," Johnson said, without explicitly
mentioning the Ukraine conflict. "But right now what’s happening
in Israel takes the immediate attention, and we’ve got to
separate that and get it through.”
Biden has called for Congress to approve $106 billion in
supplemental appropriations, with the bulk of the money going to
bolster Ukraine's defenses against Russia, and the remainder
split among Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and immigration
enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Johnson has said bolstering support for Israel should top the
U.S. national security agenda in the aftermath of the Oct. 7
surprise attack on the Jewish state by Hamas militants from the
Gaza Strip that killed more than 1,400 people and saw more than
200 others taken hostage.
In retaliation, Israel has sealed off Gaza and launched a
barrage of air strikes on the coastal Palestinian enclave
followed by a ground offensive, killing more than 7,000
Palestinians, including nearly 3,000 children, according Gaza's
Hamas-run health ministry.
(Reporting by Brad Heath in Washingto; Writing and additional
reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Stephen
Coates)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
