America's Talking - Feds Warn of Potential Terror Attacks Overseas as Israel-Hamas War Escalates

Episode Date: October 22, 2023

The federal government is warning Americans to "exercise increased caution" when traveling overseas as tensions mount over Israel's war with the terrorist group Hamas in the Mideast." Due to increased tensions in various locations around the world, the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution," the department said in a "Worldwide Caution" alert posted Thursday. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me today is the one and only Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief, a lot going on this week, as it seems like it is every week, Casey, but how are you? Doing good, Dan. One and only, if I'm glad you finally recognized it, it only took a year of doing a show together, but you came around. I like to pump you up a little bit, Casey. Get a lot of criticism from me, but you do a good job, generally speaking. Sorry, you broke up there for a second.

What, you see? We don't have enough time for me to repeat myself. Oh, okay. Sorry, that's an avoid much. We need to move on. Casey, a lot of focus of the federal government right now on what's going on in the Middle East after the Hamas terrorist group conducted a sneak attack against Israel. about two weeks ago and then Israel's response.

President Joe Biden last night gave a speech to the Americans where he says he wants Congress to allocate $105 billion to the war in Ukraine, between Russia and Ukraine, to Israel for its ongoing retaliation against Hamas and Gaza, and more dollars for things like humanitarian efforts, securing the U.S.-Mexico border, et cetera. But right now, of course, with a speakership fight in the U.S. House, until they pick a speaker at this point, the House can't move any of these funding bills. President Biden says they need to move quickly on this.

Just what are your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, I think you said when it comes to Biden is pushing Congress to, you know, kind of get its act together so that more funding can be spent. Now, from the House Republican perspective, they say, hey, Biden, I really don't care what you think because you probably cause this Israel thing with your poor handling of foreign policy. By the way, you've been giving all this money to Iran and then you really authorized $6 billion to be released to them a few weeks later, Hamas, which is backed by Iran to tax Israel. We don't think that's a coincidence. And there's kind of a populist revolution going on within the Republican Party, and it's unclear if it's going to be successful.

I think it's really, really, it could go either way at this point. So it's a really bad time to be asking the U.S. for money. It's like there's just times when you don't want to bother someone, and this is this is a bad one. But it doesn't, you know, I think that the external pressure and the international pressure has not been this high for years. Really, I would say even since, like the Iraq and Afghanistan's wars, because Israel is considered a top, top ally for the United States. It carries a special place on the heart of many Americans for various reasons. And so they're a top ally. Because Ukraine war has been going on forever and has become very controversial politically.

And so, you know, we can get into, there's different things. I mean, we're not really up on all the war coverage, I would say. There is ongoing strikes in Gaza. What is really interesting and more maybe an area of expertise for us is these, are these funding requests, right? So Biden wants a lot more money. He's been having trouble getting his Ukraine funding, right? And so that was really put on pause with this speaker battle.

But now I think there is a hope that they can package this Israel and Ukraine funding together and create, you know, I think I've said this before, but a bill that no one can vote against because Republicans are never going to vote against Israel funding, most of them. So if you will, actually, maybe. And then Democrats are going to vote for Ukraine funding. So if you wrap it together and kind of an overseas munitions package, people are just not going to want to vote against that. going to be tough to do that. There were several Republicans almost immediately after President Biden's speech last night saying, no, all of this funding should not be contained in a single measure. We should be able to vote on, for example, Ukraine funding separately from Israeli funding. Of course, most of those folks support funding in Israel, but do not support funding Ukraine. So that's

going to be an ongoing battle there, Casey. Also, including, included in Biden's package does include about $14 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border, which also has been a priority of Republicans. So it would be difficult for them to vote against the package as a whole. But again, they're calling for the president to separate these into single individual packages so they can vote on each one individually. Yeah, I mean, that's why who the speaker is really important. I think separating them out is not going to happen.

You know, of course, that's where Republicans always want. they want to vote on things one by one, but it never happens. So, I mean, it could theoretically, I could see a standalone Ukraine package potentially, but just taking every single issue and splitting it up like this is, I think, unlikely. But it's going to come down to who the speaker is, because that's going to be who negotiates with the White House on behalf of House Republicans, right? And the different candidates so far have had different opinions on things like Ukraine funding. I think Scalise is a lot more in favor of it than someone like Jordan is. Now, Now, I think their views are a little bit more complicated than just yes or no.

But I think, you know, the Republicans in the House who are skeptical of this Ukraine funding going on would have more pull over Jordan than they would over Scalise. I think all the Republicans who are talked about to be a speaker are pretty pro border wall funding. So regardless of who gets in, I think that's going to remain a top priority. The Republicans are pretty lockstep on that issue. But it's going to be – the Ukraine funding is going to be significantly impacted by who. become speaker because that is not really a partisan issue in the same sense of like we know what Republicans think about that. There's a real divide and growing divide in the Republican Party over. Should we keep sending all this money to Ukraine? Right. But to further complicate issues,

Casey, not all Democrats are on board with part of President Biden's proposal. There are there are some Democrats who don't think the U.S. should be funding Israel and its response to the Hamas terrorist attack on its home territory. There are plenty of Democrats who will come out on the pro-Palestinian side and said funding Israel sends a message that we're funding what they call Israeli strong-armed tactics against the Palestinian people. Yeah, I mean, they say a lot of things. And some of these members have been quieted and shut down by even their own party for anti-Semitism and things like that.

So it's kind of controversial, smaller wing of the Democratic Party that's saying some of things. But you're right, it is further complicated. And I think it shows, you know, how 20 years, 10, 20 years in the future, the foreign policy landscape politically is really shifting. It's not so clear who is going to be in favor of what issues to come. I think there's a lot more ideological diversity when it comes of foreign policy in both parties right now. So it's something to monitor. I mean, I think there is still overwhelming support for Israel. I think there's a majority of support for Ukraine funding, although less so than Israel.

But whoever becomes speaker is really going to probably be the one who has to get that across the finish line. and we can't even get a speaker across the finish line. So we'll see. Well, thank you for your insight into this another very important story. I'm Casey, but we are out of time. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McKeel. Please subscribe.

Thank you for listening.