The House of Representatives is expected Thursday to approve the 2008 foreign aid bill, allocating the $2.4 billion needed to fully fund the last year of an expiring 10-year plan for Israel military assistance but for the first time restricting some Egyptian military funds.
The vote comes on the heels of a White House endorsement of a new 10-year package which will increase funds to Israel starting in 2009. The 2008 House legislation requires the US Secretary of State to certify that Egypt is addressing arms smuggling into Gaza, as well as some human rights abuses, before $200 million of a total of $1.3 billion in military aid is given to Egypt. The rest of the aid package to the Arab power has no such restrictions, but the move is seen as a sign of growing American dissatisfaction with Egypt and loosening in the relationship between the two countries. |