We Need A Grand Bargain On Ukraine and Israel

Congress

On Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked an attempt at funding aid to Ukraine. Although the party is split over whether to continue helping the beleaguered nation defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invading armies, even pro-Ukraine Republicans voted against the aid package citing concerns about the border… the US border, that is.

Unlike Ukraine’s border, which was violated by an invading army, the American border is violated by migrants seeking jobs and asylum seekers. This concerns Republicans far more than a Russian horde seeking to subjugate an ally.

That’s not a totally unreasonable position. After all, the US should have control over its borders, and to a great extent, it does. The fact that Border Patrol agents are interdicting record-high numbers of illegal border crossers is de facto proof that the border is not undefended. One problem is that most border critics don’t understand the process the law dictates must take place after that. A second is that the large numbers of migrants are overwhelming facilities that house detainees.

The fact is that the federal government has to follow the law and illegal immigrants and asylum seekers are entitled to due process. Simply dropping the illegals across the border would be illegal in itself, and a number of court decisions have limited the federal government’s discretion in handling immigrants.

The Republican position is not unreasonable, but it does reflect incorrect priorities. The immigration issue has been with us for half a century. It’s not going to go away anytime soon and, for that matter, Republicans have killed numerous deals that would have secured the border. If Republicans were truly concerned about the border rather than just using it as a wedge issue, we could have had a reform bill that included border security 20 years ago.

To the contrary, the situation in Ukraine is a crisis. People are fighting and dying and if Ukraine’s stocks of ammunition and other supplies run low, it will give the Russians an advantage. The Ukrainian war is an artillery-intensive war and already shells are in short supply due to both the high rate of use and the constraints of resupply, especially since the beginning of the Gaza war. A shortage of artillery shells translates directly into more lives lost, and in fact, thousands of artillery shells originally slated for Ukraine have gone to Israel.

The obvious solution to the problem is to make a deal to get things done. If Democrats need to throw some money at the border to get Ukraine the help it needs to stay free, then do it. Ironically, a border security package would probably help Democrats to some extent because border security is a Democratic weakness.

However, a big problem is that there are too many moving parts to the immigration crisis to solve in an ad hoc bill. We really need to overhaul the whole system with a bill that enhances border security, tracks visa overstays, streamlines the legal immigration process, addresses the problem of illegals who are here and have no home to return to, and a myriad of other issues. The kicker is that neither side is strong enough to pass its own preferences over the objections of the other and extremists keep shooting down compromises.

Nevertheless, the two sides should be able to agree on some funding to ease the humanitarian crisis while agreeing to hold talks on immigration reform. Putting together such a bill would take too long for Ukraine and Israel and border security doesn’t fit into a foreign aid bill anyway, but make a freaking deal!

I said the same thing when Democrats blocked aid to Israel a few weeks ago. I argued that they should tie aid to Israel and Ukraine together to make sure that Republicans wouldn’t try to cut off the Zelensky government. Make a deal and get it done.

But wait! The new bill includes aid to both Ukraine and Israel as well as Taiwan. So when Republicans block the Ukraine aid bill they are actually blocking aid to Israel and Taiwan as well, although I haven’t heard Democrats use this line of attack.

There should be makings of a deal here. I’m sure that a majority of Congress wants aid to either Israel and/or Ukraine. As long as there aren’t enough people willing to sabotage the entire bill to keep the other side from getting what it wants, there should be a solution. It has long been axiomatic that the only thing that both parties can agree on is to spend more.

In the meantime, however, Vladimir Putin and his cronies are celebrating. Literally. The Daily Beast reported that Putin supporters took the airwaves on Russian television to cheer the Republican vote.

Echoing what Republicans said after the fall of Afghanistan and Vietnam, Roman Golovanov noted, “This will be a great revelation to other countries. It is even more dangerous to be a friend of the United States than its enemy. In the end, they will abandon you, leaving nothing but the scorched earth on your territory.”

That’s a sad observation but somewhat true, and it’s a bipartisan phenomenon. If you doubt that fact just look back to Donald Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds and The Former Guy’s own plan to cut and run in Afghanistan, including an order for an immediate withdrawal from both Afghanistan and Syria after his 2020 election loss.

There is a large isolationist contingent in the Republican Party which is exemplified by the online conversation I recently had in which a MAGA supporter called Nikki Haley a “warmonger” because she wanted to support Ukraine. He had no similar criticism of Putin. In another example, Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted in support of Israel and was beset with MAGA supporters in the comments who were opposed to aiding both Ukraine and Israel. That’s isolationism in action and as I’ve said before, it’s an example of the ongoing political realignment.

As another MAGA supporter said, “The downfall of Ukraine means the downfall of Biden! Two birds with one stone!”

No, wait. That was America analyst Dmitry Drobnitsky on Russian television, but it’s a sentiment that many MAGA voters could get behind. Quite a few would be willing to sacrifice Ukraine to take down Joe Biden, especially given the country’s role in Trump Impeachment I.

But I don’t think they will get the chance. There are still enough foreign policy realists in the Republican Party that a bipartisan coalition should be able to get the aid bill across the finish line. They just want to extract concessions first.

Is that cynical? Sure, but it’s how the game is played in Washington, and if Republicans don’t play ball, they’ll likely be the target of Putin’s praise during next year’s campaign as Russian forces grind their way through Ukraine. That might help with Tucker Carlson but probably not with voters who matter.