Comment: Less than 12 hours later, the bill was passed unanimously. That AIPAC is fast! See previous article below.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) received unanimous consent from his colleagues Friday morning when he asked them to consider approving the measure, The Hill reported. An attempt one day earlier by the Senate to approve funding the system had failed.
Next, the House of Representatives will be tasked with weighing the request, which if passed will put nearly a quarter of a billion dollars towards Israel's missile defense system as that country continues its campaign against Hamas in Gaza City.
"They're running out of Iron Dome missiles to protect themselves," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said at the hearing, according to The Hill. "We are with you. Here are the missiles."
"We are with the Israelis, because if they don't have the Iron Dome, they can't defend themselves," added Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona).
Earlier in the day, a previously agreed upon ceasefire agreement between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas fell apart barely two hours after it began. The IDF has been waging a campaign on Gaza for nearly one month now, and says the ongoing strikes are needed to retaliate against missiles being launched by Hamas into Israeli territory.
Earlier this week, an IDF-attributed strike on Gaza resulted in the shelling of a United Nations-run school inside of a Palestinian refugee camp. The White House condemned the attack, but that same day the Pentagon reportedly approved an Israeli-made request for additional rounds of ammunition from the US.
On Friday, US Secretary of State condemned what he called the "outrageous" violation of the ceasefire agreement.
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US Senate votes down Israeli Iron Dome aid... for now
An emergency spending bill that is intended to provide over $200 million for replenishing Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system was rejected on the Senate floor, with domestic expenditures in the bill weighing it down.
Conservative right-wing hawks, fierce proponents of Israel, blamed the defeat on the Democrats for including pressing domestic initiatives among aid to Israel.
Partisan infighting over the emergency bill, which included $615 million to combat wildfires in the western US and $2.7 billion to provide assistance to the thousands of illegal aliens crossing into the United States via the Mexican border, threatens to delay desperately needed assistance for domestic crises.
The total cost of the proposals contained in the bill exceeds $3.5 billion.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to reduce the sticker shock of the legislation by placing Israel and firefighting funds into a separate bill. Such a proposal would have moved the heated issue of illegal immigrants - which the Democrats view as a source of future voters and the Republicans as a source of cheap labor - to the back burner.
"We've all watched as the tiny state of Israel, who is with us on everything, they have had in the last three weeks 3,000 rockets filed into their country," Politico quoted Reid as saying. "Our number one ally - at least in my mind - is under attack. If this isn't an emergency I don't know anything that is."
Comment: What we all watched was that every american's taxes became weapons used by a trigger-happy IDF to demolish entire communities in Gaza and blow to pieces hundreds of Palestinian children.
There was also pleading from the Republicans to approve the bill to assist Israel, which is presently involved in a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, a campaign that has attracted a mixed reactions from Americans.
Despite promises to endorse the Israel aid bill, Republicans seem to have rejected Reid's request to achieve political advantage in the run-up to November's Senate elections.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) offered an alternative to the Reid plan, which would give relief funds to Israel and western parts of the US, while demanding spending cuts to international organizations like the United Nations. But Reid rejected that.
"I want to fund Israel," Politico quoted Coburn as saying in reply. "I also want to make sure our children have a future."
In the end, instead of voting on Israeli aid in a separate bill, much-needed domestic funds to fight raging western fires and control the southern border will go missing in action. American public opinion is fast losing patience with both Republicans and Democrats, as satisfaction with Congress's work reaches record lows.
With months to go before midterm elections, just 22 percent of registered voters say most members of Congress deserve re-election, and 72 percent say they do not, according to a recent Gallup poll.
The "deserve re-election" number is on course to be the lowest Gallup has measured in an election year.
Emergency Iron Dome Replenishment Act - View bill text here.
Comment: No wonder, since the Zionists in congress show no moral qualm when spelling it out that they'd faster aid Israel in its unlawful murders rather than offer the aid to those they represent who desperately need it AND have already paid for it.