United States President Joe Biden is pushing for a 118 billion dollar deal to send support for Israel and Ukraine. Conservative republicans are pushing against this deal, as they insist the funding would be better suited towards dealing with the US border crisis and illegal immigration from Mexico. Half of the funding would go towards helping the weakening Ukrainian forces, $14.1 billion would go towards Israel, and the remaining funding would be split towards security against the Houthi rebels and partners in the Asian Pacific that feel threatened due to the China-Taiwan conflict. The bill would give the president immense power in dealing with migrants or refugees seeking asylum and is a highly contested topic that will be important in the upcoming presidential election. The Senate Majority leader has sided with Biden in passing the bill, while the Republican House Speaker has claimed that it will be “dead on arrival” if it came through the chamber. Some Democrats are hesitant to support the bill due to the extensive aid it gives Israel, which is under “mounting international pressure over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
The US has once again found itself at the center of all international affairs. Whether it likes it or not, American funding towards Ukraine could be seen as the string that ties their military together and provides enough force to hold off Russian forces. With that, its willingness to fund Israel, a highly contested and unpopular notion, could be seen as an issue that America is unnecessarily meddling with, especially since over the last decade we have been trying to gradually remove ourselves from that region. Going through with the bill will not only displease several people in Congress and our government but also further the trillions of dollars of debt that keep piling up by the millisecond. This issue is extremely important for Joe Biden to tread carefully because it could determine his fate in the 2024 election against (most likely) Donald Trump. Although the Senate is Democratic, the House of Representatives is majority Republican, and this could prove to be more divisive in the upcoming months.
In class, conflict has been our primary focus this quarter. The United States, they are primarily entering into non-armed conflicts as almost intermediaries. They’re in a trade war with China and, in a way, in a boundary dispute with Mexico because their borders aren’t being controlled enough by the Mexican government. The external conflicts are certainly categorized as armed conflicts, though. The Israel-Palestine war, it’s a war of national liberation because a group within Israel, a recognized state, desires its sovereignty. It’s a conflict of interest because Palestine claims that, historically, it’s their territory as Muslims, but also a conflict of interest. After all, the conflict is over control of territory. Although the war is regional, it could be seen as a global issue (not conflict) due to the international recognition and overall financial support that certain sides are receiving. Furthermore, other countries are involving themselves legally when looking at the situation from a war crime perspective: South Africa claims that Israel violated the humanitarian laws within the Geneva Convention.