Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
Speaker of the Israeli Knesset Amir Ohana is in Washington this week to mark the inaugural “House-Knesset Parliamentary Friendship Group”, yet another show of how the US is, by every metric, Israel's strongest ally.
But with this Congress defined by dysfunction, even bipartisan support for Israel has not resulted in increased funding for the war in Gaza.
The Israeli delegation's visit comes during a dramatic week in Congress, with partisan rifts holding up two Israel funding packages – both doomed to remain “still, just a bill”.
Even with growing concerns from progressive corners of Washington over the war in Gaza, the vast majority of leaders in the US capital have insisted on increasing support for Israel.
After months of negotiations, the Senate at the start of the week seemed close to a breakthrough with the White House in reaching a deal on a massive $118 billion funding package for Israel, Ukraine and immigration reform for the US southern border.
But the Republicans in the House of Representatives, who blame the Biden administration over a mass migration “crisis” at the southern border, assured that the Senate package would be “dead on arrival” when it arrived in the lower chamber for a final vote.
Following that opposition from the House, many Senate Republicans flipped on the bill they had helped to negotiate, declaring the mega package “dead”.
The conservative party has since spiralled into an internal blame game over the stalemate.
But President Joe Biden pointed the finger for the Republican about-face at Donald Trump, his presumed Republican challenger in the 2024 presidential election.
“Because Donald Trump thinks it's bad for him politically. He'd rather weaponise this issue than actually solve it,” Mr Biden said in a press conference this week.
Republican James Lankford said on the Senate floor: "I had a popular commentator four weeks ago that I talked to that told me flat out ... if you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this during the presidential election."
He added that the commentator "has been faithful to their promise".
Meanwhile, the House also failed on Tuesday to pass a Republican $17.6 billion Israel supplemental funding bill in a 250-180 vote.
Republican Congressman David Kustoff, speaking alongside the Israeli delegation, said the vote was “a temporary setback”.
“Israel needs that aid, and we also know that the world is watching,” he added.
Despite it picking up a few notable Democratic votes, including from former speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Mr Biden had warned he would veto the stand-alone Israel bill had it passed.
Some progressive Democrats, like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, opposed the legislation. But for most of the representatives voting against these bills, their vote has everything to do with the partisan split over the bigger deal in the Senate.
Gregory Meeks, the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, voted no on the Israel-only bill, despite arguing Washington “urgently needs to help Israel defend itself”.
He argues that “Israel funding should not be used for political ploys” amid Republican rejections of the broader Senate package.
“We are cynically being asked by the GOP to support an Israel-only supplemental because they are taking orders from Donald Trump, who seeks chaos on our border and success for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin,” Mr Meeks said in a statement.
House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith also gave a statement justifying his “nay” vote on the stand-alone.
“I voted against the stand-alone supplemental bill for Israel today because I cannot support a national security supplemental that abandons Ukraine and fails to provide humanitarian assistance for Palestinians in Gaza,” Mr Smith said after the vote.
“We are facing many national security threats across the globe. These challenges are increasingly interconnected, and we must advance a US national security strategy that supports all these interests in lock step to be in the best position to succeed.”
As of Wednesday morning, Senator Chuck Schumer said he would force a vote on a “clean” foreign aid bill that takes out the border issues at the centre of debate in the $118 billion package, according to reports.
At the press conference with Israeli Speaker Ohana, Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman told reporters that Washington needs “to deal with the crises around the world as a package”.
“I'm confident that that will happen within the next 30 to 40 days,” he said.
But it is still unclear if the Democratic plan B on a “clean” foreign policy package could pick up enough Republican support.
From the steps of Capitol Hill, far-right Republican Matt Gaetz hailed the week of legislative failures as a victory.
“There's a celebratory mood about killing that bad Senate amnesty war bill, and we may have to kill a few more.”
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Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
