White House Staffers and Senate Democrats Mount Last-Ditch Effort To Block Arms Shipments to Israel

A group of White House staffers and Senate Democrats are mounting a last-ditch effort to block the sale of arms shipments to Israel before power at Washington, D.C., changes hands. Senator Sanders is pushing to force a vote on Wednesday on a resolution to block $20 billion in military aid to Israel. In a column published by the Washington Post, Mr. Sanders argues that Americans, by continuing to send arms to Israel, are “complicit” in “illegal atrocities.” The Vermont senator said he believes Israel has a right to defend itself. However, he criticized Israel’s execution of its war against Hamas after the October 7 attack. Senator Warren also expressed her support for the resolution, telling the Guardian, “On October 13, the Biden administration told Prime Minister Netanyahu that his government had 30 days to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza or face the consequences under U.S. law, which would include cutting off military assistance.”“Thirty days later, the Biden administration acknowledged that Israel’s actions had not significantly expanded food, water and basic necessities for desperate Palestinian civilians. Despite Netanyahu’s failure to meet the United States’ demands, the Biden administration has taken no action to restrict the flow of offensive weapons,” she added. Senator Van Hollen penned a letter to his colleagues urging them to support the resolution. “I do not support an arms embargo on Israel, but I do believe that the United States should pause the delivery of offensive weapons until the Netanyahu government meets the requirements of U.S. law and policy with respect to humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza, and the use of American weapons there,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “This will be our one opportunity to send that message and I urge you to back these efforts as well.”The resolution would put a pause on offensive military weapons but not defensive munitions such as those used to stock the Iron Dome air defense system. However, it is expected to be easily defeated.In October, Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin sent a letter to Israeli officials warning that unless there was an increase in humanitarian assistance reaching Gaza within 30 days, America would cut off its arms shipments.A State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, told reporters Mr. Austin and Mr. Blinken “thought it was appropriate to make clear to the government of Israel that there are changes that they need to make again, to see that the level of assistance making it into Gaza comes back up from the very, very low levels that it is at today.”However, the deadline for Israel to increase the aid or see a pause in arms shipments has passed, and American officials say they will not cut off arms sales.Israeli officials did say they would work to increase the amount of aid allowed into Gaza by opening another border crossing. They also said they would not meet American officials’ demand that 350 aid trucks enter Gaza per day. After a reportedly intense internal debate, top American officials determined that Israel’s response was sufficient. A deputy spokesman for the State Department, Vedant Patel, told reporters last week, “At this time, we haven’t made an assessment that Israel is in violation of U.S. law. We are going to continue to watch and assess their compliance with U.S. law.”“If we don’t continue to see steps in the appropriate direction, we will enforce U.S. law,” he added.The decision is still roiling debate in the administration, as Politico reports more than 20 staffers penned a letter criticizing top officials for not making good on their threat to cut off arms shipments. “You are running out of time to do the right thing, but decisive action could save precious lives in the next two months,” the letter states.The staffers who joined the letter granted anonymity, but Politico reports their work is not “directly involved” in crafting Middle East policy. It described the letter as a “last-ditch” effort to convince President Biden to cut off arms shipments.

White House Staffers and Senate Democrats Mount Last-Ditch Effort To Block Arms Shipments to Israel

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