Pictured is the U.S. House of Representatives
The topic of this issue, the US House of Representatives passed the aid bill to Ukraine and Israel, Zelensky and Netanyahu are both grateful, what aid is included?
At present, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are intensifying, and both Ukraine and Israel are actually waiting for US assistance. Now they have finally waited, on April 20, local time, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress passed the latest bill to aid the two countries with 311 votes, of which Ukraine will share $61 billion and Israel will share $26 billion.
This is tantamount to a relief for Ukraine and Israel, so they have shown great gratitude after the passage of this bill. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was grateful for the decision made by the U.S. House of Representatives and members of the U.S. House of Representatives, saying that "it will put history on the right path, and it will also prevent the expansion of the war and save the lives of many people," and finally added: "I hope the bill will be supported by the Senate."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also expressed his gratitude to the United States, saying that "this bill is a strong bipartisan support for Israel and the defense of Western civilization in the United States." So what are the signals behind this resolution?
The picture shows the ruins of the city during the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
Judging from the current situation of the two conflicts, the internal political pattern of the United States, and the world situation, there are no more than the following three possibilities.
First, with the spillover of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the United States' external focus is actually tilting toward the Palestinian-Israeli side. However, the United States has not given up its strategic goal of weakening Russia with the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the United States is still trying to use the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to disrupt Europe and the Middle East and increase its influence and control in the region.
In March, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on a ceasefire on Ramadan, which means that Israel will be subject to legitimate sanctions by the majority of UN member states if it ignores the Security Council resolution. However, this is still far from Netanyahu's initial goal of completely eliminating Hamas, taking control of Gaza, and establishing a new regime.
So on April 1, the Israeli Air Force sent F35 fighter jets to attack the Iranian embassy in Syria, killing at least seven people, including a commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. One of the reasons cannot be ruled out is that Netanyahu dragged the United States and Iran into the water in order to expand the war, and then evaded the Security Council resolution from the side, while ensuring that his political power at home would not be affected. The context of the subsequent events is relatively clear, Iran used drones and missiles to retaliate, and Britain and the United States also personally intervened to intercept drones for Israel.
The photo shows the US representative of the Security Council vetoing the proposal for Palestine to join the United Nations
On April 19, explosions occurred in many parts of Iran, after which US officials claimed that the attack was carried out by Israel. However, the situation has not continued to expand, but one thing is certain, that is, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will not end anytime soon. This is manifested not only in the limited retaliation between Israel and Iran, but also in the fact that the resolution on Palestine's application to join the United Nations was vetoed by the United States. The US representatives claimed that it was not that they did not approve of Palestine's accession to the United Nations and the "two-state solution," but that they felt that Palestine must hold talks with Israel in order to establish a state.
In fact, this statement is already obvious, that is, unless Palestine accepts Israel's conditions, or even if it wants to establish a state in the future, Palestine must obey the orders of the Israeli side, and everything is not to be discussed. Whether Pakistan accepts this condition or not, it will be beneficial to the United States.
If Palestine accepts the conditions of negotiating with Israel for the establishment of a state, it means that the Palestinian region will still have the final say in the future, and then the "nail" it has planted in the Middle East will still be valid. If the Pakistani side does not agree, then the conflict will continue, and the United States should be happy to see the chaos in the Middle East happen anyway.
The picture shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
As for Ukraine, although it has received $61 billion in aid this time, it seems that it is more than twice as much as Israel, but in fact it has a feeling of "free ride", if it is not for the aid to Israel, it seems that Zelensky will not get so much money. However, the truth is not so simple, the $61 billion given to Ukraine is actually what Biden promised a long time ago, but it has been delayed until now, Zelensky shouted about this aid on April 7, "If the aid continues to run aground, Ukraine will suffer failure!"
From this point of view, Ukraine was able to receive this assistance, most of which is because it is difficult for the Ukrainian army to block the Russian army's offensive without foreign aid. And once the Ukrainian army is defeated, then the bet made by the United States in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict will be in vain, as long as the White House does not want to see such a situation, it is bound to urge the passage of the aid bill to Ukraine.
In fact, this is the second signal behind the aid bill that I am going to say, that is, this aid bill is actually the result of the game of political forces within the United States, especially the game within the Republican Party, which occupies an important position in the passage of this bill.
As everyone knows, the political game in the United States has always appeared between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, and during the US presidential election, the two parties became inextricably linked. In fact, after one of the party's candidates was elected president, the competition was equally fierce, most notably between the White House and the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. This is a major feature of American politics, that is, the restraint of political power. Most of the time, this kind of restraint often becomes a tool for political confrontation between the two sides, such as the US debt crisis, the Ukraine aid bill, and the US-Mexico border wall.
Pictured is Speaker of the US House of Representatives Johnson
However, in addition to the game between the White House and the House of Representatives, the most important thing in the passage of the bill is actually the game within the House of Representatives, to be precise, the struggle between Speaker Johnson and other Republican members. After the bill passed, Republican Congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on social media criticizing Johnson as a "traitor." It can be seen from here that even within the Republican Party there are actually contradictions, and the contradictions in this regard make Johnson unable to win the support of all Republican lawmakers, and even threaten his position as speaker. Therefore, he chose to lean towards the Democratic Party and move closer to Biden in some policies to gain the support of external forces. For this reason, it is not surprising that he led the House of Representatives to pass this $95 billion foreign aid bill.
This foreign aid bill is not 610 plus 260 equals 870, but 95 billion US dollars, excluding the 87 billion US dollars in aid to Ukraine and Israel, where will the remaining 8 billion US dollars go?
This is the third signal that we pay attention to, because the remaining $8 billion was invested by the United States in the Indo-Pacific region to maintain its so-called "Indo-Pacific security", which shows that the United States has not forgotten the Indo-Pacific region when it is deploying in Europe and the Middle East, and is stepping up its efforts to form a large network aimed at China with greater intensity.
Some time ago, the leaders of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines made frequent moves and almost walked on the same line, and the leaders of Japan and the Philippines not only visited the United States at the same time, held a summit of the three countries, but also held a number of joint military exercises in the South China Sea. On April 7, the United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines conducted a joint maritime exercise in the South China Sea. In addition, there will be "shoulder-to-shoulder" exercises between the United States and the Philippines, and 16,700 troops will participate in the "shoulder-to-shoulder" exercises between the United States and the Philippines in 2024, and Japan will also participate in them.
The U.S. layout in the Indo-Pacific is getting closer and closer, and the investment of $8 billion will allow Japan, the Philippines, Australia and other Indo-Pacific neighboring countries to strengthen cooperation with the United States. Specifically, the $8 billion investment should echo the cooperation between the United States, Japan and the Philippines, and can be regarded as a "start-up fund" allocated for the United States to settle in the Indo-Pacific region.
The picture shows the American-made Hawk air defense system
Of course, there is another point worth paying attention to, and that is what exactly is included in this US aid. The United States did not say this explicitly, but we can still infer it from some clues.
The package also includes a provision for the liquidation of seized Russian assets and their transfer to Ukraine. It can be seen that in the aid to Ukraine, it has become a norm to deprive Russia of its assets and transfer them to the Ukrainian side. Perhaps, of the $26 billion in aid to Israel, there is also Palestinian property.
In addition, on April 11, the United States approved an arms sale worth $138 million to maintain and upgrade the equipment and services of the Hawk air defense missile system. Although this arms sale was proposed before the $61 billion aid to Ukraine, it is very likely that it will be incorporated into the books.
In fact, whether it is aid to Ukraine or aid to Israel, this money is most likely also in the pockets of US arms dealers, and then they export various weapons and equipment, including artillery shells, tanks, armored combat vehicles, air defense systems, various types of drones, fighter jets, various intelligent equipment, etc.
On the whole, this aid bill worth 95 billion yuan is the result of the domestic political game in the United States, and it is also a signal that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will continue to prolong. However, such assistance does not mean anything to restore peace between the two places, and only exacerbates tensions and displaces more people in the war, even losing their lives. And all this is just to meet the needs of the interests of the United States, and its disregard for life can be seen.
There is such a sentence in "The Art of War", which is called "The dead country cannot be resurrected, and the dead cannot be resurrected, so the Ming monarch is cautious, and the good general is the police, and this is the way of the whole army of the country." We can let those US and Western politicians who advocate war think about how to treat war and life.