#Democrats blocked effort to slash Hezbollah funding days before border attack

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Representative Eliot Engel (D-NY)
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress last week blocked an effort to slash funding to Iranian terror organization Hezbollah — just days before the group launched an attack on Israel’s border.

According to a report by the Washington Free Beacon, the legislation would have cut millions in funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) which have long bankrolled Hezbollah and been under the influence of the extremist group.

Republicans accused Democrats of watering-down the bill which would have pressured the LAF to stop working with Hezbollah by conditioning any US funding to them ridding their ranks of Hezbollah forces.

Outgoing House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) voted to remove the measure and just days after the legislation passed, Israel thwarted a Hezbollah attack from southern Lebanon.

One senior GOP congressional source familiar with the negotiations claimed to the Free Beacon that Engel, one of the only Jewish lawmakers in Congress, was responsible for “emboldening Hezbollah, just as it escalated attacks against Israel and sought to murder Israeli Jews.”

“They chose this exact moment to signal that Democrats will keep money flowing no matter what happens,” the source said.