Pay for Israel aid by defunding the UN, US lawmaker says

Republican congressman Matt Gaetz has called for requiring budget cuts to offset assistance to any overseas ally

US Representative Matt Gaetz has called for withdrawing from the UN and cutting off funding to the global body to free up money to support Israel’s war effort against Hamas.

Speaking at a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event on Friday in suburban Washington, the Florida Republican demanded that Washington account for all new spending on foreign aid by making equivalent cuts to the federal budget. Gaetz made his comments as US President Joe Biden’s administration continued to scold Republican lawmakers for failing to approve an emergency spending bill that includes about $60 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.

“We shouldn’t have any foreign aid to any other country without corresponding cuts to our own bloated federal budget,” the congressman told a cheering CPAC crowd. “If you want to send aid to Israel, fine, pay for it by defunding the United Nations.”

I want the UN to be zeroed out in our budget. The US should be out of the UN, and the UN should be out of the US.”

Gaetz and other conservative lawmakers have balked at approving additional support for Kiev, saying Biden is merely prolonging Ukraine’s conflict with Russia while providing no plan for ending the bloodshed. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a $14.3 billion aid bill for Israel in November, but Biden has insisted that assistance to West Jerusalem be bundled with military funding for Ukraine and Taiwan.

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The White House admitted last month that it had run out of money for Kiev after burning through $113 billion in previously approved funding. Biden has claimed that Republicans are blocking aid to Ukraine at the behest of Donald Trump, his likely opponent in this year’s presidential election. He told supporters this week that GOP politicians are worse than the racist segregationists he worked with decades ago in the Senate. “These guys do not believe in basic democratic principles.”

Gaetz said Washington’s previously approved Ukraine aid packages are now “slushing around the money-laundering capitals of the world.” He noted that amid Western outrage over the death earlier this month of Russian activist Alexey Navalny in a Siberian penal colony, the media should be reminded that American journalist Gonzalo Lira died in a Ukrainian prison.

The congressman added that wealthy European allies have relied on Washington to fund their defense. “What’s really left unsaid in this Ukraine aid debate is that Europe’s fecklessness is a direct result of them becoming national security welfare queens, largely at your expense.”

READ MORE: Optimism on Ukraine conflict was ‘premature’ or ‘delusional’ – NYT

Quitting the UN would be a logical way to free up funds for Israel, Gaetz argued. “How about take the money away from the entity that had some of their own people attacking and killing Israelis?” he asked. “It seems like a good offset.”

 

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