House Passes $1 Billion For Israel’s “Iron Dome” After Tense Feud Between Democrats

By News Creatives Authors , in Business , at September 23, 2021

Topline

An overwhelming bipartisan majority of the House voted Thursday to pass $1 billion in funding for Israel’s “Iron Dome” missile defense system days after progressives succeeded in getting the funds stripped from a temporary government funding bill.

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 28: Representative Ted Deutch (D-FL) speaks about his experiences during a … [+] trip to Israel and Auschwitz-Birkenau as part of a bipartisan delegation from the House of Representatives on January 28, 2020 in Washington, DC. The liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945 is remembered all around the world this week on its 75th anniversary. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The bill passed 420-9-2, with Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), André Carson (D-Ind.), Marie Newman (D-Ill.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.) voting against it.

Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) voted “present.”

The development came after Republicans and moderate Democrats alike erupted at progressives for getting the funds stripped from a stopgap funding bill that passed the House on Tuesday.

Tlaib, one of the most prominent Israel critics in the House, argued in a floor speech ahead of the vote the funding would “enable war crimes, human rights abuses and violence.”

Tlaib’s comments drew rebukes from colleagues in both parties, with Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) declaring in a floor speech after Tlaib’s, “If you believe in human rights, if you believe in saving lives… then you will support this legislation.”

Deutch and Reps. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) all accused Tlaib of anti-Semitism in their floor speeches.