Shortly after the U.S. House of Representatives left for a long, well-deserved Thanksgiving Day break, The Floridian spoke with Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), where she responded to Senate Democrats blocking of a funding bill for Israel.
Rep. Paulina Luna mentioned that elected officials like to say that they stand with Israel and the Jewish people, but when they are given opportunities to do so, they’re “not taking it seriously.”
“It’s really interesting because Chip Roy actually just mentioned that the bill for the CR (Continuing Resolution) that just went through, we’re essentially funding Hamas through the U.N. (United Nations). And so I think that this is multifaceted,” said Rep. Paulina Luna.
She continued, “I think that a lot of people in politics realize that the Israel topic is good for their reelections. But when it comes down to actually backing that up, they’re not taking it seriously. And if they were, we would start with getting these standalone bills to defund the United Nations Human Rights Council and these other organizations to ensure that the funding is going to legitimate causes and not people who are going to be funding both sides of the war," she added.
Moreover, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) recently stated that Senate Democrats have “Chosen to hold Israel hostage” after they blocked a vote on Israeli funding.
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart added to Rep. Luna's remark, sounding more optimistic about both chambers’ ability to push through funding for Israel, but when asked about Sen. Cruz’s recent remark that Democrats were holding “Israel hostage," he was not surprised by Cruz’s statement.
“That doesn’t surprise me. Look, we all want to support – I shouldn’t say ‘all’ because there’s obviously folks that vote against resolutions even supporting Israel – but other than those, let me say, there’s strong bipartisan support to help Israel,” said Rep. Diaz-Balart. “We’re going to get that done. And we’ll continue to work until we get that done.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) as well as most Democrats in both chambers want to combine funding for Israel, Ukraine, and Indo-Pacific allies into one package.
In late October, President Joe Biden (D) introduced this plan, a $106 billion proposal in total.
