Early in November, House Republicans passed a standalone bill to send aid to Israel as it battles Hamas, a bill that the Senate has voted against. Representative Brian Mast (R-FL) suggested the reason why Senate Democrats oppose the bill is out of "soft antisemitism" and an attempt to placate the pro-Palestine portion of their base in a recent appearance on Fox's Bottom Line.
Additionally, Rep. Mast accused Senate Democrats of being "soft" on reducing spending since the House's bill provides Israeli aid by offsetting $14 billion in costs from the expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
"They are soft on making sure that we are appropriate with our spending, cutting spending somewhere when we are going to spend somewhere else. They do not like that as policy," said Rep. Mast, adding that Democrats, led by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) seek to impose "conditions" on Israel's ability to fight its war with Hamas to receive the money.
Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) recently blasted this call for conditions as "unacceptable and un-American," and said no conditions should be imposed on Israel's aid "until Hamas is destroyed."
As a result, Mast called this a "soft antisemitism" embraced by the Democratic Party to hold on to the pro-Palestine voters and deny Republicans a political victory.
"They still need to find a political way for the Democrat Party to say, "Listen, you people that are supporting these terrorists and think that these terrorists are okay; we are not going to be that hard on you. We are going to find a way to say Israel must be doing something wrong." They are trying to find a way to do that. Because again, for them, it is always the partisan political objective over a national security objective for the Democrat Party," Mast concluded.
In mid-November, Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) similarly demanded Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) "do his job" and get Senate Democrats to pass the House's Israel aid bill, going so far as to say he should "get his head out of his... and come back to reality."
