A showdown is brewing\u00a0<\/strong>between the Republican-led House of Representatives and the Biden administration over how to pay for a military aid package to Israel.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, the House passed a $14.3 billion package that would redirect funding from the IRS\u2014which, recall, got an $80 billion boost<\/a> as part of the poorly-named Inflation Reduction Act in 2022\u2014to assist Israel. The White House issued a statement<\/a> earlier in the week promising that President Joe Biden would veto such a bill, and Democrats in the Senate have called the idea “dead on arrival<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Biden has called for a $105 billion package that would send money to Ukraine and Taiwan in addition to Israel. A bipartisan cohort of senators would prefer a package that doesn’t include the IRS cuts, according to<\/a> The New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

That, of course, amounts to a promise to borrow more money to fund those military efforts at a time when the United States is running annual budget deficits of nearly $2 trillion. However, even the House plan might add to the deficit. As\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em> points out<\/a>, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says raiding the IRS to pay for aid to Israel will ultimately add to the deficit in the long run by reducing future revenue collections by about $26 billion. (An additional wrinkle: Those projections showing how effectively<\/a> the IRS will use its infusion of new cash to pursue tax cheats are historically quite fraught<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to get back to the principle of fiscal responsibility here,” new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R\u2013La.) told reporters, Politico <\/em>reports<\/a>. “And that was the easiest and largest pile of money that’s sitting there for us to be able to pay for this immediate obligation.”<\/p>\n

Twelve Democrats voted in favor of the bill, while a pair of Republicans\u2014Reps. Thomas Massie (R\u2013Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R\u2013Ga.), both outspoken critics of providing foreign military aid\u2014voted against it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in Gaza: <\/strong>The Israeli military has surrounded Gaza City, according to an Israeli military spokesperson who told<\/a>\u00a0Al Jazeera <\/em>on Thursday that “a ceasefire is not on the table at all.” In a statement<\/a> on Thursday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “the height of the battle” against Hamas had arrived.<\/p>\n

As the military incursion into Gaza escalates, Israel is facing stronger criticism from some foreign leaders even outside the Middle East. Ireland’s Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, said Friday that Israel has the right to defend itself and to go after Hamas, but added that “what I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defense. It looks, resembles something more approaching revenge,” Reuters reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken headed to Israel on Thursday, where he plans to meet with Netanyahu as well as critics of Israel’s invasion, like Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who has accused Israeli forces of committing war crimes<\/a> by targeting civilians in Gaza. Before boarding a plane on Thursday, Blinken told reporters he would push for “humanitarian pauses”<\/a> in the bombing campaign to allow civilians remaining in Gaza City to escape.<\/p>\n

Hamas’ leaders, meanwhile, are promising more attacks targeting Israeli civilians<\/a>. And so the cycle of madness continues.<\/p>\n

\n

Great article from @reason<\/a>'s, @bonniekristian<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“To say that [revenge is justified] is to take a step toward moral madness, toward a cycle of escalation and chaos, not justice, mercy, or any other good. But it is to say that violence, by its nature, tends to spread. Once loose,…<\/p>\n

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 2, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n