It's time for Israel to remove the golden handcuffs

Why Israel should reject U.S. military aid

Iron Dome.
(Image credit: Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)

In a 420-9 vote, the House on Thursday approved $1 in billion in funding for Israel's missile defense system. The "Iron Dome" appropriation represents about a quarter of the $3.8 billion in military aid the United States provides to Israel annually — in recent years, exceeded only by aid to Afghanistan, and far more than any other nation receives.

This was a victory for pro-Israel lawmakers, but a superficial one. The vote was briefly delayed by resistence from progressive Democrats, reflecting a shift in the balance of power within the Democratic Party. Their influence boosted by slim congressional majorities, the left wing has challenged their party's traditional support for the Jewish state.

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.