US President threatens to veto Republican Israel aid package if billions of dollars are not allocated to Ukraine

US President Joe Biden will refuse to sign a Republican-backed military aid package for Israel if it does not include billions of dollars in funding for Ukraine, according to the White House Budget Office.

Specifically, according to RT, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on October 31 (local time) issued a statement dissecting the Republican proposal, saying that this proposal "inserts partisanship into support for Israel" and does not allocate resources to support Kiev in the conflict with Russia.

“Congress has consistently worked in a bipartisan manner to provide security assistance to Israel, and this bill risks unnecessarily undermining that longstanding approach,” the office said, adding that “separating security assistance to Israel from other priorities in the national security supplement would have global consequences.”

Republicans in the US Congress proposed a $14 billion aid package for Israel on October 30, calling for cuts to the budget earmarked for the Internal Revenue Service under Biden’s Deflation Act and forgoing security assistance to Ukraine, among other cuts. Newly appointed House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he wants to “separate” aid to Israel and Ukraine, directly countering the White House’s plan to tie the two issues together.

OMB also said the Republican bill “harms Israel, the Middle East, and our national security,” but added that the White House would continue to work with lawmakers to find compromise.

While most Republicans have voiced support for additional aid to Israel as it conducts its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, support for Kiev has become a contentious issue within the party. In recent negotiations to avert a government shutdown, the White House failed to secure billions of dollars in proposed aid to Ukraine due to Republican opposition. The controversy led to the departure of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, after some Republicans accused him of trying to appease Democrats over stopgap spending rules.

While US lawmakers passed a temporary funding bill to avoid a government shutdown in early October, they decided to completely remove aid to Ukraine from the measure, delaying the issue until a more complete spending package was in place.

Responding to Republican complaints, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin argued that Ukraine would face defeat by Russia without US financial support, stressing that Washington should not “suddenly stop helping them now”.

Despite receiving some $50 billion in direct US military aid since February 2022, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky reportedly feels “betrayed” by Kiev’s Western partners as arms shipments have slowed, several of Zelensky’s aides told Time magazine recently. “They have left him with no means to win the war, only the means to survive,” the magazine, quoting a member of Zelensky’s team, wrote.