The federal Senate of the United States approved the 95 billion dollar package for military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan overnight, and sent the measure to the White House for signature by President Joe Biden. The Senate vote marks the definitive overcoming of a stalemate that had lasted since last October: for months, in fact, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives had opposed the allocation of 61 billion dollars for military support for Ukraine, accusing the Senate and the White House to put the security of foreign countries before national security priorities, starting with combating the migration crisis on the border with Mexico. After months of pressure from President Biden, his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and other congressional leaders, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson relented last week, scheduling a vote on a version of the bill that will allow the U.S. to convert future aid to Ukraine into loans secured by the proceeds of sovereign wealth funds frozen to Russia.
“I thank the United States Senate for passing the relief package to Israel with an overwhelming bipartisan majority tonight,” Israel Katz wrote on the social media site sends a strong message to all our enemies.” Meanwhile, the decision inflamed the protesters, who met near the Brooklyn home of Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the US Senate. Over 100 pro-Palestinian people protesting against American support for Israel were arrested. The New York Times and the New York Post reported it. Already yesterday the climate was very tense. Columbia has been the site of numerous protests denouncing Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, and organizers have distanced themselves from non-student protesters who gathered outside the campus, calling them “arsonists who do not represent us.” However, near the campus, among the protesters’ slogans, anti-Semitic ones were heard including “go back to Poland” and a video showed a protester holding a sign near Jewish students and the writing: “Al-Qassam’s next targets” (in reference to the Hamas brigades from which the type of rockets launched from Palestinian territory against Israel takes its name).
