WASHINGTON: Outrage over a strike by the Israeli military that killed seven aid workers in the Gaza Strip has supercharged resistance among congressional Democrats to sending arms and fresh military funding to Israel.
The mounting concern has added uncertainty to a pending foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel that has been stalled in the House for months.It has also fuelled calls by Democrats for the administration to stop sending Israel offensive weapons already in the pipeline, some of them for many years.
Until recently, the $14.1 billion that President Joe Biden requested in the fall for Israel’s war against Hamas was regarded as a popular and bipartisan sweetener to a broader spending package that includes $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine, which faces stiff resistance from many House Republicans. But that dynamic appears to have shifted substantially in recent days, particularly after the killing Monday night of aid workers for the anti-hunger organization World Central Kitchen.
Forty House Democrats including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sent a letter on Friday to Biden and secretary of state Antony Blinken expressing displeasure with their approach to Israel. The group called on the administration to deny Israel weapons until the completion of an inquiry into how the strike happened and tie any new aid to conditions “to ensure it is used in compliance with US and international law.”
“In light of this incident, we strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed,” they wrote.
The letter, led by representatives Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, was one of the largest rebukes of Biden’s approach to Israel by his allies on Congress since Israel declared war in response to the Oct 7 attack by Hamas. “We want to see the President be more aggressive in protecting the assistance and trying to stop the hostilities,” Pocan said in an interview Friday.
There is broad bipartisan support in Congress for aiding Israel, and that is unlikely to change even amid widespread discontent among Democrats about the conduct of the war. But the mounting frustration could further bog down the stalled security spending package, which the Senate passed in February but is frozen in the House amid Republican opposition to the Ukraine funding.
Speaker Mike Johnson has said he plans to bring up the security package in the coming weeks, and he would need substantial Democratic support to push it through the House.
A growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers, mostly from the party’s progressive wing, has become impatient with the president and repeatedly pushed him to leverage US weapons sales to pressure Israel to better protect civilians and guarantee that more aid will make its way to displaced Palestinians in the region.
“The US has a responsibility to stop financing the Netanyahu govt’s strategy, which has so disproportionately killed civilians, aid workers and medical personnel,” Senator Peter Welch said Thursday, referring to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
For weeks, the group of progressives calling on Biden to take more concrete actions against America’s closest ally in the Middle East has been small but vocal. Rep Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, has repeatedly pressed her colleagues to join her vocal opposition to the administration’s policy in Israel and Gaza.
The mounting concern has added uncertainty to a pending foreign aid package for Ukraine and Israel that has been stalled in the House for months.It has also fuelled calls by Democrats for the administration to stop sending Israel offensive weapons already in the pipeline, some of them for many years.
Until recently, the $14.1 billion that President Joe Biden requested in the fall for Israel’s war against Hamas was regarded as a popular and bipartisan sweetener to a broader spending package that includes $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine, which faces stiff resistance from many House Republicans. But that dynamic appears to have shifted substantially in recent days, particularly after the killing Monday night of aid workers for the anti-hunger organization World Central Kitchen.
Forty House Democrats including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, sent a letter on Friday to Biden and secretary of state Antony Blinken expressing displeasure with their approach to Israel. The group called on the administration to deny Israel weapons until the completion of an inquiry into how the strike happened and tie any new aid to conditions “to ensure it is used in compliance with US and international law.”
“In light of this incident, we strongly urge you to reconsider your recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel, and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the airstrike is completed,” they wrote.
The letter, led by representatives Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, was one of the largest rebukes of Biden’s approach to Israel by his allies on Congress since Israel declared war in response to the Oct 7 attack by Hamas. “We want to see the President be more aggressive in protecting the assistance and trying to stop the hostilities,” Pocan said in an interview Friday.
There is broad bipartisan support in Congress for aiding Israel, and that is unlikely to change even amid widespread discontent among Democrats about the conduct of the war. But the mounting frustration could further bog down the stalled security spending package, which the Senate passed in February but is frozen in the House amid Republican opposition to the Ukraine funding.
Speaker Mike Johnson has said he plans to bring up the security package in the coming weeks, and he would need substantial Democratic support to push it through the House.
A growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers, mostly from the party’s progressive wing, has become impatient with the president and repeatedly pushed him to leverage US weapons sales to pressure Israel to better protect civilians and guarantee that more aid will make its way to displaced Palestinians in the region.
“The US has a responsibility to stop financing the Netanyahu govt’s strategy, which has so disproportionately killed civilians, aid workers and medical personnel,” Senator Peter Welch said Thursday, referring to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
For weeks, the group of progressives calling on Biden to take more concrete actions against America’s closest ally in the Middle East has been small but vocal. Rep Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the only Palestinian American member of Congress, has repeatedly pressed her colleagues to join her vocal opposition to the administration’s policy in Israel and Gaza.