Last week, Congress expedited a bill that gave $225 million to Israel for their missile defense system known as the Iron Dome. The bill passed through the House with a vote of 395-8 and was quickly passed through the Senate.
According to CBS News:
The money will go to restocking Israel’s Iron Dome, which has been credited with shooting down dozens of incoming rockets fired by Palestinian militants over three and a half weeks of war. The vote came two days after the Pentagon announced ammunition deliveries to the Jewish state and as a planned 72-hour cease-fire between Israel and Hamas unraveled almost as quickly as it began.Efforts in the Senate to approve the money stalled Thursday night after Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma sought cuts elsewhere in the budget to pay for the aid. Earlier, senators attempted to lump the Israel money into a broader spending bill that included border security and wildfire assistance money. That bill failed to get the necessary 60 votes on Thursday, and the House had little interest in it, anyway. Friday’s separate Israel bill passed by voice vote.
Yet not everyone voted for the bill to provide funding to Israel’s missile defense system. Eight members of Congress voted against the bill, four Republicans and four Democrats.
Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas)
Not only did he vote against the bill, he later deleted retweets that referred to Israel’s right of defense as an “atrocity.” “I could not in good conscience vote for borrowing $225 million more to send to Israel, without debate and without discussion, in the midst of a war that has cost more than a thousand civilian lives already, too many of them children,” O’Rourke told the El Paso Times.
Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota)
Rep. Ellison voted against the bill saying, “a ceasefire is what we should prioritize now.” He explained his position on Meet the Press and also co-signed a letter encouraging President Obama and Secretary Kerry to find a cease-fire agreement. Rep. Moran (D-Virginia) who co-signed the letter also voted no to fund the Iron Dome:
Justin Amash (R-Michigan)
Rep. Amash released no official statement but had this to say on Twitter:
Zoe Lofgren (D-California), Walter Jones (R-North Carolina), Thomas Massie, (R-Kentucky), and Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina)
Also voted no on the bill, but did not provide a statement or explanation.
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