White House Gets Brief Reprieve After Israel Delays Judicial Reforms

“There was violence in the last few years that was steadily increasing, but this government has absolutely taken steps to further inflame tensions, when it could have been working to reduce them,” said Jonathan Lord, a senior fellow and director of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). “The introduction of individuals like Smotrich and Ben Gvir into positions of power have altered Israeli policies, and public speech in a way that is setting Israel’s security back decades.”

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Lord, of CNAS, said that the violent picture emerging from Israel and inflamed by politicians like Smotrich and Ben Gvir is testing U.S. solidarity with Israel, which has increasingly grown partisan — with Democrats more critical of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians and bleeding into U.S. support for military assistance.

Lord pointed to the drawn-out process for Congress to pass supplemental funding for Israel in March 2022 to provide $1 billion in assistance to fund the Iron Dome missile defense system that was largely depleted after an intensive, 11-day round of fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip during May 2021.

The air defense system — which has a 97 percent interception rate — is revered as an unprecedented security and diplomatic tool for allowing Israel to withstand incessant rocket attacks without triggering a larger Israeli military response.

Despite the benefits of the Iron Dome, progressive Democrats homed in on the $1 billion supplemental package for stricter scrutiny, achieving a stand-alone vote on the funding that had earlier been part of a bigger spending package. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky) exercised a hold on the bill over fiscal criticisms.

“It wasn’t a cakewalk to get that billion dollars appropriated in 2022,” Lord said, warning that if the next round of violence is viewed as being instigated by Netanyahu and his far-right allies Smotrich and Ben Gvir, it’s going to animate even greater congressional pushback.

“Now, under the context of this narrative, it’s hard to see how Congress races to fund Israel’s security, when it’s doing very little for itself in trying to preserve the peace,” he said.

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